Editing Camille Pissarro (section)

==Neo-Impressionist period==
[[File:Hay Harvest at Éragny, 1901, Camille Pissarro.jpg|thumb|''[[Hay Harvest at Éragny]]'', 1901. [[National Gallery of Canada]], Ottawa]]
[[File:Enfant tétant sa mère by Camille Pissarro 1882.jpg|thumb|left|upright|''Enfant tétant sa mère'', drypoint and aquatint, 1882, 123 mm x 112 mm. [[British Museum]]]]
By the 1880s, Pissarro began to explore new themes and methods of painting to break out of what he felt was an artistic "mire". As a result, Pissarro went back to his earlier themes by painting the life of country people, which he had done in Venezuela in his youth. Degas described Pissarro's subjects as "peasants working to make a living".<ref name=Masters/>

However, this period also marked the end of the Impressionist period due to Pissarro's leaving the movement. As Joachim Pissarro points out:

"Once such a die-hard Impressionist as Pissarro had turned his back on Impressionism, it was apparent that Impressionism had no chance of surviving&nbsp;..."<ref name="Gallery2"/>{{rp|52}}

It was Pissarro's intention during this period to help "educate the public" by painting people at work or at home in realistic settings, without idealising their lives.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=DeLue |first=Rachael Ziady |date=1998 |title=Pissarro, Landscape, Vision, and Tradition |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3051320 |journal=The Art Bulletin |volume=80 |issue=4 |pages=718–736 |doi=10.2307/3051320 |jstor=3051320 |issn=0004-3079}}</ref> [[Pierre-Auguste Renoir]], in 1882, referred to Pissarro's work during this period as "revolutionary," in his attempt to portray the "common man". Pissarro himself did not use his art to overtly preach any kind of political message, however, although his preference for painting humble subjects was intended to be seen and purchased by his upper class clientele. He also began painting with a more unified brushwork along with pure strokes of color.

===Studying with Seurat and Signac===
[[File:Camille Pissarro - La Récolte des Foins, Éragny - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|''La Récolte des Foins, Eragny'', 1887]]
In 1885 he met [[Georges Seurat]] and [[Paul Signac]],<ref>Cogniat, Raymond, ''Pissarro'', Crown (1975), p. 92. {{ISBN|0-517-52477-5}}</ref> both of whom relied on a more "scientific" theory of painting by using very small patches of pure colours to create the illusion of blended colours and shading when viewed from a distance. Pissarro then spent the years from 1885 to 1888 practising this more time-consuming and laborious technique, referred to as [[pointillism]]. The paintings that resulted were distinctly different from his Impressionist works, and were on display in the 1886 Impressionist Exhibition, but under a separate section, along with works by Seurat, Signac, and his son [[Lucien Pissarro|Lucien]].

All four works were considered an "exception" to the eighth exhibition. [[Joachim Pissarro]] notes that virtually every reviewer who commented on Pissarro's work noted "his extraordinary capacity to change his art, revise his position and take on new challenges."<ref name="Gallery2"/>{{rp|52}} One critic writes:

:"It is difficult to speak of Camille Pissarro&nbsp;... What we have here is a fighter from way back, a master who continually grows and courageously adapts to new theories."<ref name="Gallery2"/>{{rp|51}}

Pissarro explained the new art form as a "phase in the logical march of Impressionism",<ref name="Gallery2"/>{{rp|49}} but he was alone among the other Impressionists with this attitude, however. Joachim Pissarro states that Pissarro thereby became the "only artist who went from Impressionism to [[Neo-Impressionism]]".

In 1884, art dealer [[Theo van Gogh (art dealer)|Theo van Gogh]] asked Pissarro if he would take in his older brother, [[Vincent van Gogh|Vincent]], as a boarder in his home. Lucien Pissarro wrote that his father was impressed by Van Gogh's work and had "foreseen the power of this artist", who was 23 years younger. Although Van Gogh never boarded with him, Pissarro did explain to him the various ways of finding and expressing light and color, ideas which he later used in his paintings, notes Lucien.<ref name=Rewald/>{{rp|43}}

===Abandoning Neo-Impressionism===
[[File:Pissarro - Pont Boieldieu in Rouen, Rainy Weather.jpg|thumb|''[[Pont Boieldieu in Rouen, Rainy Weather]]'', 1896. [[Art Gallery of Ontario]]]]
Pissarro eventually turned away from [[Neo-Impressionism]], claiming its system was too artificial. He explains in a letter to a friend:

:"Having tried this theory for four years and having then abandoned it&nbsp;... I can no longer consider myself one of the neo-impressionists&nbsp;... It was impossible to be true to my sensations and consequently to render life and movement, impossible to be faithful to the effects, so random and so admirable, of nature, impossible to give an individual character to my drawing, [that] I had to give up."<ref name=Rewald/>{{rp|41}}

However, after reverting to his earlier style, his work became, according to Rewald, "more subtle, his color scheme more refined, his drawing firmer&nbsp;... So it was that Pissarro approached old age with an increased mastery."<ref name=Rewald/>{{rp|41}}

But the change also added to Pissarro's continual financial hardship which he felt until his 60s. His "headstrong courage and a tenacity to undertake and sustain the career of an artist", writes Joachim Pissarro, was due to his "lack of fear of the immediate repercussions" of his stylistic decisions. In addition, his work was strong enough to "bolster his morale and keep him going", he writes.<ref name=Joachim/> His Impressionist contemporaries, however, continued to view his independence as a "mark of integrity", and they turned to him for advice, referring to him as "Père Pissarro" (father Pissarro).<ref name=Joachim/>