Near Sydenham Hill

In 1871 Pissarro was a refugee. The Franco-Prussian war and the siege of Paris had driven him to London, where he and Monet spent their days in the museums studying Turner and Constable. This view looks across the suburb of Norwood in early spring; you can read the season from the bare trees, not a leaf of green on them yet. On the back of the canvas Pissarro wrote a dedication to his wife, Julie, and the couple married in London that June, just before heading home to France, so the painting seems to have been a wedding gift. When he got back he found the German advance had destroyed most of the work he had left behind.