Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968)

Orovida, the only child of Lucien and Esther Pissarro, was the first woman in the Pissarro family to become a professional artist and the first Pissarro of her generation to take up painting. Born in Epping, England, in 1893, she lived and worked predominantly in London, where she was a prominent member of several British arts clubs and societies.
She first learned to paint in the Impressionist style from her father and, after a brief period of formal study with Walter Sickert in 1913, she renounced formal art schooling.
Throughout her career, Orovida always remained outside mainstream British art movements. Much to Lucien's disappointment, she soon turned away from naturalistic painting and developed an unusual style that combined elements of Japanese, Chinese, Persian and Indian art. Her rejection of Impressionism, which, for the Pissarro family, was a way of life, and her simultaneous decision to drop her famous last name and use simply Orovida as a nom de peintre, reflected a desire for independence from the family legacy, of which she nevertheless remained proud.
Orovida's most distinctive works are her paintings of the 1920s and 30s in gouache (she called her mixture bodycolour) and tempera, applied in thin, delicate washes to silk, linen, paper or gold leaf and embellished with brocade borders. These elegant and richly decorative works generally depict non-Western subjects, for example: Mongolian horse-riders, African dancers and Persian princes, often engaged in activities such as dancing or hunting rituals.
The second half of Orovida's painting career is marked by a dramatic change in both style and subject matter. In the mid-1940s, she began to embrace contemporary subjects from everyday life and returned to a more naturalistic style. Her new style was more suited to oils, and thus, she returned to that media.
Throughout her life, Orovida was aware of the mixed blessing of having famous artists in the family; not only a grandfather and father but also four uncles, and towards the end of her life, she was instrumental in developing the Pissarro family archive that her mother had established at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
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She first learned to paint in the Impressionist style from her father and, after a brief period of formal study with Walter Sickert in 1913, she renounced formal art schooling.
Throughout her career, Orovida always remained outside mainstream British art movements. Much to Lucien's disappointment, she soon turned away from naturalistic painting and developed an unusual style that combined elements of Japanese, Chinese, Persian and Indian art. Her rejection of Impressionism, which, for the Pissarro family, was a way of life, and her simultaneous decision to drop her famous last name and use simply Orovida as a nom de peintre, reflected a desire for independence from the family legacy, of which she nevertheless remained proud.
Orovida's most distinctive works are her paintings of the 1920s and 30s in gouache (she called her mixture bodycolour) and tempera, applied in thin, delicate washes to silk, linen, paper or gold leaf and embellished with brocade borders. These elegant and richly decorative works generally depict non-Western subjects, for example: Mongolian horse-riders, African dancers and Persian princes, often engaged in activities such as dancing or hunting rituals.
The second half of Orovida's painting career is marked by a dramatic change in both style and subject matter. In the mid-1940s, she began to embrace contemporary subjects from everyday life and returned to a more naturalistic style. Her new style was more suited to oils, and thus, she returned to that media.
Throughout her life, Orovida was aware of the mixed blessing of having famous artists in the family; not only a grandfather and father but also four uncles, and towards the end of her life, she was instrumental in developing the Pissarro family archive that her mother had established at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
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Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) Winter - The Skaters Egg tempera on linen
91.5 x 114.3 cm (36 x 45 inches)
Signed and dated lower left, OROVIDA 1936-38 -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) Ice Cream Picnic Oil on board
101 x 76 cm (39 ¾ x 29 ⅞ inches)
Signed and dated, Orovida 1953 -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) Family Supper Egg tempera on canvas
66 x 93 cm (26 x 36 ⅝ inches)
Signed and dated, OROVIDA 1938 -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) Picking Flowers Oil on board
101.5 x 76.4 cm (40 x 30 inches)
Signed and dated lower centre, OROVIDA 1956 -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) Father, Daughter and Horse Oil on canvas
60 x 73 cm (23 ⅝ x 28 ¾ inches)
Signed and dated lower centre, OROVIDA 1947 -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) Exercising Ponies Oil on board
101.5 x 76 cm (40 x 30 inches)
Signed and dated lower right, OROVIDA 1954 -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) Cat and Mouse Oil on canvas
61 x 51 cm (24 x 20 ⅛ inches)
Signed and dated lower centre, OROVIDA 1948 -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) Siamese Cat with Kittens Gouache on linen
39 x 48 cm (15 ⅜ x 18 ⅞ inches)
Signed lower right, OROVIDA
Dated lower left, 1934 -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) Cats Oil on canvas
61 x 51 cm (24 x 20 ⅛ inches)
Signed and dated upper right, OROVIDA 1964 -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) The Monkey Killer Oil on canvas
76 x 101 cm (29 ⅞ x 39 ¾ inches)
Signed and dated lower right, OROVIDA 1963 -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) Tiger Surprises Black Buck Oil on canvas
127 x 101.5 cm (50 x 40 inches)
Signed and dated lower left, OROVIDA 1960 -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) Mowgli and Bagheera Oil on canvas
71 x 91 cm (28 x 35 ⅞ inches)
Signed and dated lower left, OROVIDA 1954 -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) Dinka with a Bongo Tempera on linen, laid on board
85 x 62.3 cm (33 ½ x 24 ½ inches)
Signed and dated lower right, OROVIDA 1937 -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) Samoan Boy Egg tempera
25 x 24 cm (9 ⅞ x 9 ½ inches)
Signed upper right, Orovida -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) Gazelles Watercolour and Etching
27.5 x 17.5 cm (10 ⅞ x 6 ⅞ inches)
Signed -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) The Calf Watercolour, hand-coloured over an etching
17.5 x 23.2 cm (6 ⅞ x 9 ⅛ inches)
Signed, inscribed with title and dated 1949 -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) Pilgrims Watercolour and charcoal on paper
39 x 50.5 cm (15 ⅜ x 19 ⅞ inches)
Stamped with initials, lower left -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) Lutte d'Étalons Etching
17 x 27 cm (6 ¾ x 10 ⅝ inches)
Signed & inscribed with title
Epreuve d'artiste -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) Fear Etching
26 x 19.5 cm (10 ¼ x 7 ⅝ inches)
Signed and dated lower right, Orovida 1917
State 2, trial proof no.2 -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) The Nomads Etching
18 x 25 cm (7 ⅛ x 9 ⅞ inches)
Signed and dated 1925
Numbered 32/42 -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) Mare and Foal Etching
15.7 x 20.7 cm (6 ⅛ x 8 ⅛ inches)
Signed, inscribed with title and dated 1923
Trial proof no. 75 -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) Peccary's and Tiger Pranks Etching and aquatint
31.5 x 23 cm (12 ⅜ x 9 inches)
Signed, inscribed with title and dated 1925
Final State 8/30 -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) The Horse Herds Etching
18.5 x 23.5 cm (7 ¼ x 9 ¼ inches)
Signed, inscribed with title & dated 1928
Final state no. 4/40 -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) Tiger and Python Etching
22.5 x 27 cm (8 ⅞ x 10 ⅝ inches)
Signed, inscribed with title and dated 1917
State 1, no. 9/10 -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) La Poursuite Etching and aquatint
17.2 x 12.5 cm (6 ¾ x 4 ⅞ inches)
Signed and dated 1917
Trial proof no.1 -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) The Hunting Prince Etching
15 x 20 cm (5 ⅞ x 7 ⅞ inches)
Signed, inscribed with title and dated 1926
Trial proof no.14 -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) Stampede Etching
17.8 x 27.8 cm (7 x 11 inches)
Signed, inscribed with title and dated 1930
Numbered 21/50 -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) Zebra and Foal Etching
20 x 17.7 (7 ⅞ x 7 inches)
Signed, inscribed with title and dated 1938
Numbered 4/50 -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) The Ambush Etching
17.5 x 28 cm (6 ⅞ x 11 inches)
Signed and inscribed
Working print no. 2 -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) La Toilette Etching, 1st slate
18.8 x 15.8 cm (7 ⅜ x 6 ¼ inches)
Signed and dated 1916, numbered 1/3 -
Orovida Camille Pissarro (1893 - 1968) Study of Tiger Pencil on paper
20 x 26 cm (7 ⅞ x 10 ¼ inches)
For more available works please contact us on stern@pissarro.com or +44 (0)20 7629 6662.