Though strongly identified with the French Impressionists, Pissarro was a man apart in several ways. Born on the Caribbean island of Saint Thomas, which was then a Danish colony, Pissarro came from a Sephardic Jewish family with relatives in North and South America, England, and France. He was secular in his daily life, yet his Jewish background formed an important part of his identity and affected his relationships with his extended family. He had numerous French relatives (including his father), married a French woman, and spent nearly his entire adulthood in France, yet he retained his Danish nationality until his death. Pissarro’s atypical background, together with his intellectual sophistication, made him particularly open-minded and a natural leader among his artistic peers.