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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Jonathan Jones

Pissarro: Father of Impressionism review – the ‘old man’ who was always pushing art forward

Spring: Plum Trees in Bloom.
Subtle meditations … Spring: Plum Trees in Bloom (1877). Photograph: Hervé Lewandowski/Musée d’Orsay, Paris/RMN-GP

Camille Pissarro isn’t worried if he looks past it with his big white beard. He doesn’t care if he appears weak. He looks straight back at you from his self-portrait at the start of this exhibition, over the top of his spectacles, aged and maybe myopic. He is staring in the mirror, seeing himself honestly, with a grey Paris street on view through the window behind him.

Staring straight back at you … Pissarro’s self-portrait.
Staring straight back at you … Pissarro’s self-portrait (1903). Photograph: Tate Images
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