Impressions of freedom: Camille Pissarro and the post-emancipation Caribbean

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study explores slavery and emancipation through the work of the painter Camille Pissarro (1830-1903). Sometimes called the “Father of Impressionism,” Pissarro, a Caribbean native of Sephardic Jewish descent, came of age during a cycle of slave rebellions and abolitions during the 1830s and 1840s. His earliest work focused on formerly enslaved people in the first phase of liberation. Pissarro’s West Indian studies anticipated his emergence as an influential avant-garde artist and left a rich visual archive of freed people. This study uses Pissarro’s art as a window onto the possibilities of, and restrictions on, post-emancipation life. It also argues that Pissarro’s aesthetic vision and stylistic innovations, influenced by his exposure to West Indian culture, connect the Black Atlantic and the Impressionist movement.