Camille Pissarro was born in Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas, where his parents had a general store.
Camille Pissarro was born in Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas, where his parents had a general store. At 12 years old, he was sent to a school in Passy. When he came back to St. Thomas, his father wanted him to work in the family business, but Pissarro wished to make art instead. In 1852, he sailed to Venezuela with the painter Fritz Melbye to escape what he called the bondage of bourgeois life. A few years later, Pissarro went to Paris and attended private classes at the École des Beaux-Arts. At the Académie Suisse, he met Claude Monet who introduced him to Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley. At the Café Guérbois, he would frequently have debates about art with Renoir and Monet.