Orovida Pissarro (8 October 1893 – 8 August 1968), known for most of her life as Orovida, was a British painter and
etcher
Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...
. For most of her career she distanced herself from the
Impressionist
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...
and
Post-Impressionist
Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction ag ...
styles of her father,
Lucien Pissarro
Lucien Pissarro (20 February 1863 – 10 July 1944) was a landscape painter, printmaker, wood engraver and designer and printer of fine books. His landscape paintings employ techniques of Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism, but he also exhib ...
and grandfather,
Camille Pissarro
Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but t ...
, in favour of a technique influenced by Chinese and other Asiatic art; but in the last quarter of her career developed a manner which drew on both traditions.
Early life and studies
Orovida Camille Pissarro was born in Britain on 8 October 1893 in
Epping Epping may refer to:
Places
Australia
* Epping, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney
** Epping railway station, Sydney
* Electoral district of Epping, the corresponding seat in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
* Epping Forest, Kearns, a he ...
, Essex.
She would live primarily in London throughout her life. She was the only child of the French artist
Lucien Pissarro
Lucien Pissarro (20 February 1863 – 10 July 1944) was a landscape painter, printmaker, wood engraver and designer and printer of fine books. His landscape paintings employ techniques of Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism, but he also exhib ...
, who had settled in Britain in 1890, and his wife,
Esther
Esther is the eponymous heroine of the Book of Esther. In the Achaemenid Empire, the Persian king Ahasuerus seeks a new wife after his queen, Vashti, is deposed for disobeying him. Hadassah, a Jewess who goes by the name of Esther, is chosen ...
(née Bensusan). Orovida was named after Esther's aunt.
The list of artists in Orovida's family is headed by her grandfather,
Camille Pissarro
Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but t ...
, the
Impressionist
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...
. Her father Lucien, Camille's eldest son, was a painter, printmaker and wood engraver. Her uncles, including
Georges Henri Manzana Pissarro
Georges Henri Manzana Pissarro (1871–1961) was a French artist who worked in Impressionist and Post-Impressionist styles. He was also a designer of textiles, decorative objects, furniture and glassware.
Biography
Georges Henri Manzana Pissarro ...
,
Félix Pissarro, and
Ludovic Rodo Pissarro, as well as other relatives, were also artists.
Orovida displayed her talent at a young age. Lucien said that it was "in her blood".
Drawings by the five-year-old Orovida earned praise from her renowned grandfather.
Orovida studied
oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...
with her father during her teens,
becoming proficient in the Impressionist style.
As seen in her ''Self-portrait'', Lucien had limited her palette to using only five colours.
Her mother, who had
artistic training herself, believed that art was a financially insecure profession, and insisted that Orovida study music. But the daughter's interest in
etching
Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...
, with its prospects for commercial
illustration
An illustration is a decoration, interpretation or visual explanation of a text, concept or process, designed for integration in print and digital published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vid ...
, helped to assuage her mother's fears.
In 1913 Orovida briefly studied with
Walter Sickert
Walter Richard Sickert (31 May 1860 – 22 January 1942) was a German-born British painter and printmaker who was a member of the Camden Town Group of Post-Impressionist artists in early 20th-century London. He was an important influence on d ...
, before renouncing formal art training.
Early works
Orovida never was a part of Britain's mainstream art movements.
She became the first female professional artist in the Pissarro family, and the family's first artist of her generation.
In 1921 she and French artist
Marie Laurencin
Marie Laurencin (31 October 1883 – 8 June 1956) was a French painter and printmaker. She became an important figure in the Parisian Avant-garde#:~:text=The avant-garde (/ˌ,art, culture, or society., avant-garde as a member of the Cubism, Cubist ...
exhibited in a joint exhibition.
A 1924
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
exhibition of
Chinese painting
Chinese painting () is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. Painting in the traditional style is known today in Chinese as ''guó huà'' (), meaning "national painting" or "native painting", as opposed to Western style ...
had a great influence on her artistic sensibilities.
Despite her father's disappointment, Orovida, in her 20s, abandoned Impressionism and developed an unusual decorative style inspired by
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
as well as
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
,
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
and
Indian art
Indian art consists of a variety of art forms, including painting, sculpture, pottery, and textile arts such as woven silk. Geographically, it spans the entire Indian subcontinent, including what is now India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, N ...
. This was partly due to a desire to distinguish herself from her family's strong Impressionist legacy. She further accomplished this by dropping her last name, wishing to be known simply as ''Orovida'' for the rest of her life.
(Her uncle
Georges Henri Manzana Pissarro
Georges Henri Manzana Pissarro (1871–1961) was a French artist who worked in Impressionist and Post-Impressionist styles. He was also a designer of textiles, decorative objects, furniture and glassware.
Biography
Georges Henri Manzana Pissarro ...
, similarly, had obfuscated his name, signing his work simply with his grandmother's maiden name, Manzana.)
Despite distancing of herself from the family's fame, she remained proud of the Pissarro legacy.
Her spurning of Impressionism was more than just distancing herself from the Pissarros. She considered
Western art
The art of Europe, or Western art, encompasses the history of visual art in Europe. European prehistoric art started as mobile Upper Paleolithic rock and cave painting and petroglyph art and was characteristic of the period between the Paleol ...
to be in competition with photography, while
Eastern art
The history of Asian art includes a vast range of arts from various cultures, regions, and religions across the continent of Asia. The major regions of Asia include Central, East, South, Southeast, and West Asia.
Central Asian art primarily co ...
was more suited to her independent nature.
She never visited the Far East; her inspiration came solely from the works she had seen in museums and elsewhere.
Orovida painted with thin washes of
gouache
Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouache h ...
or
tempera
Tempera (), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. Tempera also refers to the paintings done ...
on silk, linen, paper, and gold leaf. Her paintings as well as her etchings depict primarily Asian subject matter.
Her most frequent subjects were animals, especially tigers and horses, which she depicted in a decorative, Asiatic, stylised, linear manner.
Another favourite subject was Mongolian horsemen hunting wild animals; others included Persian princes and African dancers.
Later years
For the last quarter century of her life, after her father's death in 1944, Orovida resumed oil painting, with a marked shift in style and choice of subject. Her work became more naturalistic and somewhat more akin to the Pissarro tradition. She melded her Asiatic leanings with a more substantial European look. The result has been compared to dry
fresco
Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...
. Her subject matter during this period includes portraits of family and friends, royalty, and especially a variety of cats from domestic to wild.
Orovida was a prolific printmaker, producing about 8,000 impressions from 107 etched plates.
In a 2001 book, her etchings and family connections are assessed: "Her original, craftsmanlike, modern decorative prints would have earned her a fine reputation regardless of such connections but would not likely have drawn as much attention."
Her mother had established the Pissarro family archive at the
Ashmolean Museum
The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of ...
in
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, and Orovida played a significant role in developing it.
Orovida never married.
She died on 8 August 1968.
In 1969 the Ashmolean Museum put on a memorial show of her paintings, etchings, and drawings.
Another posthumous exhibition, ''Three Generations of the Pissarro Family'', was held at the
Leicester Galleries
Leicester Galleries was an art gallery located in London from 1902 to 1977 that held exhibitions of modern British, French and international artists' works. Its name was acquired in 1984 by Peter Nahum, who operates "Peter Nahum at the Leiceste ...
. She had participated in a show of that same name in 1943.
Her work may be seen in many prominent collections in Britain, including the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
and
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
in London,
and the
Ashmolean Museum
The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of ...
in Oxford, and in the United States of America, including the
Cleveland Museum of Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...
,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...
, and
San Diego Museum of Art
The San Diego Museum of Art is a fine arts museum located at 1450 El Prado in Balboa Park in San Diego, California that houses a broad collection with particular strength in Spanish art. The San Diego Museum of Art opened as The Fine Arts Galler ...
.
References
Sources
*
External links
Sites displaying images of the artist's work:
Ashmolean Museum2 artworks by Orovida Camille Pissarroat th
Ben Urisite
British Council Art CollectionCleveland Museum of ArtMuseum of Fine Arts, BostonPissarro.netSan Diego Museum of Art* . Works by Orovida Pissarro in public British collections.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pissarro, Orovida Camille
Orovida
English women painters
English printmakers
English etchers
English Jews
Jewish painters
People from Epping
1893 births
1968 deaths
20th-century French painters
20th-century British women artists
Women etchers
20th-century English women
20th-century English people