b. St. Thomas, Caribbean Islands, 1830 - d. Paris, 1903
Pissarro, a French master of Jewish origin, was sent as a young man to study business in Paris, but he was more interested in art and therefore enrolled in the École des Beaux-Arts in 1855. Later, he studied at the Académie Suisse in Paris, where he met Paul Cézanne. Pissarro also took lessons from Camille Corot, who exerted a strong influence on his painting. In 1870, he was in London, where he met Paul Durand-Ruel, who later supported the Impressionists and became Pissarro's patron and dealer. In 1874, Pissarro took part in the first exhibition of the group that was later called the Impressionists. He was the most steadfast of all its members, the only one to take part in all of the eight exhibitions of the group.
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