Without Camille Pissarro, there is no Impressionist movement. He is rightfully known as “the father of Impressionism.”
Born in the West Indies, Pissarro found his passion in paint as a young man in Paris and, by the age of 43, had corralled a group of enthusiastic artists into a new collective. Their first show was scorned by the critics but the group had acquired a new name: the Impressionists. For the next 40 years Pissarro was the driving force behind what has today become the world’s favourite artistic movement.

Pissarro was a dedicated family man, generous with his advice, passionate about experimentation, well-read, socially aware, and an anarchist. It was a dramatic path that Pissarro followed and, throughout it all, he wrote extensively to his family. It is through these intimate and revealing letters that this gripping film reveals Pissarro’s life and work.

After the screening, there will be a Q&A led by the Museum’s Assistant Curator Robin Klaus.