Bridge in London

By 1888 Toorop was travelling back and forth to London, now with an English wife and a foothold in three cities at once. This view of a bridge over the Thames belongs to that second London chapter, and something has changed since his first, Whistler-struck years. The surface has begun to break into separate touches of colour, the loose divided brushwork he was picking up from painters in France. The London he shows is still grey and damp, full of smoke and river haze, yet the paint underneath is brighter and more restless than before. The museum dates it to 1888 and 1889, right at the point his hand was learning to work in dabs.