Lebeide with Sulin, 1943

Orovida Pissarro (1893 - 1968)

RA Collection: Art

Orovida Pissarro – known simply as Orovida in her capacity as a professional artist – was a member of the illustrious Pissarro family of Impressionist painters. Her father Lucien Pissarro had taught her to paint, encouraging an impressionistic style from an early age. He had been taught to paint in this style by his own father, Camille Pissarro.

Despite pressure to continue the family tradition, in the 1920s Orovida distanced herself from Impressionism establishing her own approach derived from her interests in Chinese, Japanese, Persian and Indian art.

Although named, the sitter in this portrait has not been identified.

The central role of the lithe cat, fixating its intense red eyes on the viewer, reflects Orovida’s affection for feline subjects. She often painted cats of all varieties and towards the end of her life cats were the primary focus of her paintings.

Orovida preferred to work in egg tempera, watercolour or gouache which gave her works a flatter appearance, building blocks of uninterrupted colour. This painting is in oils, however, due to the food rationing during the Second World War. Painting in 1943, Orovida could not get hold of the necessary component parts for egg tempera so used oil paints instead.