acob-Abraham-Camille Pissarro was born on July 10, 1830, on St. Thomas, in the Danish West Indies. Pissarro’s father Abraham, who was called Frederic, was a French citizen of Portuguese Jewish descent. When Frederic traveled to St. Thomas to help settle the estate of his late uncle, he wound up marrying his uncle’s widow, Rachel Pomié Petit, who was of Creole heritage. The marriage was controversial and not immediately recognized by the small Jewish community where they lived. As a result, the Pissarro children grew up as outsiders and attended an all-black school rather than the local Jewish school.
At the age of 12, Pissarro left St. Thomas to attend boarding school in France. There, he developed an early appreciation of the French art masters. Although he initially pursued a career in business, Pissarro never stopped drawing and painting in his spare time.