Battersea Bridge, Chelsea, London

In 1890 Camille Pissarro crossed the Channel for his second stay in London. He was 60, his eyesight had begun to trouble him, and his eldest son Lucien had just settled in England, which started the long stream of letters between them. In a few weeks he worked up about ten views of the city, most of them along the Thames and its bridges. This one looks across the river toward Chelsea, with Battersea Bridge lying low over the water. Pissarro had spent his life painting French fields and villages, so the smoky, crowded English river was a real change of subject for him. Boats and barges fill the surface, the working Thames of 1890, busy with paddle steamers and freight.