The Fence

1870

A move to England because of the Franco-Prussian War

When the Franco-Prussian War began, Pissarro, who held only Danish nationality and could not join the French army, moved his family to Norwood, then a small town on the edge of London; his style of painting was not understood in England.

1870–1871

Meeting Paul Durand-Ruel in London

In London Pissarro met the Paris art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, who helped him sell his paintings for most of his life.

1871–1872

Forty of fifteen hundred paintings survive

Returning home after the war, Pissarro found that of the nearly fifteen hundred paintings he had made over twenty years and left in his studio only forty survived: the rest had been damaged or destroyed by the German soldiers billeted in the house, who used them as boot mats.

1872

Painting with Cézanne in Pontoise

According to his son Lucien, from 1872 Pissarro painted regularly with Cézanne, who walked a few miles to join him; Cézanne, nine years younger, wanted to study the countryside through Pissarro's eyes and spoke of him as a father, a man to consult.

1873

Founding the Société Anonyme of artists

Pissarro told the group he wanted an alternative to the Salon and helped found the Société Anonyme des Artistes, Peintres, Sculpteurs et Graveurs, of fifteen artists; he wrote its first charter and became the pivotal figure holding it together, and the forty-three-year-old with his prematurely grey beard was regarded as a wise elder and father figure.

1874

The first Impressionist exhibition

The group's first exhibition shocked and horrified the critics; Pissarro showed five landscapes and Émile Zola again praised his art. He became the only artist to show at all eight Impressionist exhibitions, from 1874 to 1886.