Camille Pissarro - A French Impressionist Paints the London Suburbs

This was Pissarro's first visit to England and the family settled at Canham's Dairy, Westow Hill, Upper Norwood. Soon after his arrival, the artist painted Upper Norwood in Snow.

This beautiful painting shows a wintery sky, a snowy road receding up past typical London suburban homes, a stark tree cutting through the sky and smoke coming from one of the chimneys. The scale of the scene is emphasised by the figures, two women talking and a gentleman approaching them. You can almost feel the chill of the bright winter's day. The snow has been churned up on the road from passing people and maybe vehicles, but now, apart from these  three figures the long road is empty.

Perhaps it is too cold to be outside, or perhaps the men are all at work in the City and their wives are busy inside arranging domestic life. 

Joseph Paxton's famous Crystal Palace created for the Great Exhibition of 1851 was moved to South London in 1854. Pissarro's painting, Upper Norwood, Crystal Palace, London was unusual in that the Palace is seen from a suburban vantage point.

The wide road sweeps towards a row of of semi-detached homes and it is only the protruding tower in the distance on the right that leads our eye to the glass roof of the Crystal Palace. It is very much a part of the suburban landscape.

Pissarro gives us a unique suburban view of an architectural tour-de-force.

Pissarro's second visit to London was in 1890. He was sixty and his eyes were troubling him.

He described the London parks and suburbs as 'superb' and painted Hyde Park and various views of the Thames .

However, it was on his third and final long-term visit in 1892 that Pissarro moved to 1 Gloucester Terrace Kew. He was absolutely enchanted by Kew Gardens describing it in letters to his friends as 'a dream'.

At this period of his life Pissarro preferred working indoors, sitting by the window. Bank Holiday, Kew shows the view from a window, surveying the holiday crowd. Kew Green (below right)  was also painted from his lodgings, showing a game of cricket, Pissarro's favourite sport.

Pissarro, like J M W Turner, loved trains.  Railway enthusiasts will revel in his The Train, Bedford Park. It shows a 'Puffing Jinney' steam train approaching the Bath Road signals.

But whereas Turner's Rain, Steam and Speed is a dynamic interpretation of the new public transport, Pissarro's train is a leisurely chug through nineteenth century suburban London.

He nursed Lucien, and his visit enabled Pissarro to visit his other two sons,  George and Felix.   During this last visit he painted View Across Stamford Brook Common (above) showing a typical patch of London suburban life.

Sadly, on returning to France that same year, Pissarro received  the news that his son, Felix, had died from tuberculosis.

So  Pissarro's  later London years were tinged with grief.  Yet he regretted being unable to return to England.  Pissarro and his wife had bought a house in Eragny, France  and the financial straits of upkeep kept him away from England.

But fortunately for us, on his frequent long-term visits to London Pissarro painted a social record of a unique period of London's growth, giving life and vibrancy to a subject often described as mundane and uninspiring.

One of his most admired paintings, Upper Norwood in the Snow, can be seen at The National Gallery, London.

Source:

• Pissarro in London by Kathleen Adler (National Gallery Company, 2003)