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A Creek in St. Thomas (Virgin Islands) by Pissarro, Camille

Pissarro, Camille · 1856

Camille Pissarro painted A Creek in St. Thomas (Virgin Islands) in 1856, when he was 26. It is one of the only surviving painted records of the island from that period, and it was made by an artist who grew up there.

Look at how the pink clouds in the upper right repeat softly in the water below. Pissarro was already working out how light reads differently on a reflective surface, a problem he would chase for the rest of his life. Few people are in the scene: one or two tiny figures near the far bank, easy to miss, and a lone dead tree that cuts a sharp silhouette against all that lush green.

Pissarro was born on St. Thomas to a Sephardic Jewish family of French and Portuguese descent. He worked in his father's shop before leaving for France to study painting. This small oil on academy board predates his first Paris Salon submission by three years and the first Impressionist exhibition by eighteen. It shows an artist already attentive to transient light and quiet atmosphere, before he had any movement to belong to.

A young man stood on an island shore and tried to paint the light exactly as it looked. That same curiosity eventually reshaped painting.

Details

Painted on St. Thomas, where Camille Pissarro grew up.
Painted on St. Thomas, where Camille Pissarro grew up.
The water already catches the sky like a mirror.
The water already catches the sky like a mirror.
And the whole scene breathes warm, humid air.
And the whole scene breathes warm, humid air.
He was 26. A shopkeeper's son painting the island before he left.
He was 26. A shopkeeper's son painting the island before he left.
One of the only painted records of this Caribbean landscape from the 1850s.
One of the only painted records of this Caribbean landscape from the 1850s.
Transcript

Before Paris, before Impressionism, there was this. Painted on St. Thomas, where Camille Pissarro grew up. 1874 is held up as the year Impressionism was born. This is eighteen years earlier. The water already catches the sky like a mirror. And the whole scene breathes warm, humid air. He was 26. A shopkeeper's son painting the island before he left. One of the only painted records of this Caribbean landscape from the 1850s.