Charing Cross Bridge, London

Camille Pissarro

Oil on canvas

National Gallery of Art

In this luminous oil on canvas, Camille Pissarro depicts the Thames at Charing Cross Bridge, with the flat iron railway bridge spanning the composition along the horizon and the London skyline of spires and towers receding into the hazy distance. Passenger ferries crowd the foreground river, their decks animated with tiny daubs of crimson, golden yellow, and cobalt blue that suggest the bustle of urban life, while a muted palette of cream, pale blue, and shell pink evokes the characteristic atmospheric light of London. Pissarro — a Danish-French painter born in the West Indies and a founding figure of French Impressionism — made his 1890 visit to London specifically to paint scenes of the city, producing approximately ten views of central London during that trip. Painted in loose, Impressionist brushwork that retains traces of his earlier Neo-Impressionist experimentation, the work captures the transient effects of light and atmosphere on the urban river with characteristic immediacy and directness.