And did those feet in ancient times
Walk upon London’s suburbs green?
And was a canvas full of sun
On England’s pleasant pastures seen?
And did Pissarro’s light divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was IMPRESSIONISM builded here
Among these dark Satanic mills?
Well, up to a point, yes, if Camille and his son Lucien may be merged and those Satanic north of England mills, later to be turned a smoggy white by L.S. Lowry, kept in the distance.
Although retaining Danish nationality, having been born in the Danish West Indies, Camille Pissarro’s feet, or rather one of them, in a genetic manner of speaking, may have hailed from the same vicinity as William Blake’s ‘Holy Lamb of God’. Pissarro’s mother was Creole but his father was Jewish. Camille himself fathered seven children, for whom it was second nature to paint, including Lucien who settled at 62 Bath Road in 1897 on the edge of Bedford Park, Chiswick, the then trendy Garden Suburb.
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