Camille Pissarro is one of the world's leading Impressionists.   He was born to French parents in 1830 in the West Indies.   In 1855 he went to Paris, where he studied with Corot.

Pissarro met Monet in 1859, and again in 1870-71 in London, where they were introduced to the dealer Durand Ruel. In London he studied Turner and Constable and painted atmospheric views of the areas in which he lived.

An anarchist, he enthusiastically helped to establish the revolutionary Impressionist exhibitions and exhibited art at all eight exhibitions. His Red Roofs is characteristic in its rural subject matter, solidity of form and high horizon line. At the last Impressionist exhibition in 1886 he presented Pointillist Works Clearly Influenced By Seurat, but by about 1890 he felt that this methodical approach was not suited to his temperament and he returned to a freer style, though it was more subdued in colour than his earlier Impressionist paintings.

He was a kindly father figure who greatly helped younger artists such as Gauguin and Cezanne and introduced them to his Impressionist friends, among whom he had an important role as a peacemaker.