The female artist of the prominent Pissarro family drew inspiration from Chinese culture

Orovida Camille Pissarro, Lucien, and Esther Pissarro’s only child was the first woman in the Pissarro family and the first of her generation to become an artist. Born in Epping, England, in 1893, she lived and worked predominantly in London, where she became a prominent member of several British arts clubs and societies.

She first learned to paint in the Impressionist style of her father, but after a brief period of formal study with Walter Sickert in 1913, she renounced formal art schooling. Orovida remained outside of any mainstream British art movements throughout her career. She soon turned away from naturalistic painting and developed her unusual style combining Chinese, also Japanese, Persian, and Indian art elements. 

Orovida’s most distinctive and notable works were produced from 1919 to 1939 using her homemade egg tempera applied in thin, delicate washes to silk, linen, or paper and sometimes embellished with brocade borders. These elegant and richly decorative works generally depict Asian, and Oriental subjects, such as Mongolian horse-riders, Chinese figures and animals inspired by Chinese ink paintings, tribal dancers, and Persian princes, often engaged in dancing or hunting rituals.