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Pissarro in London

Fleeing war-torn France, Camille Pissarro, his partner Julie and their two young children arrived in London shortly before Christmas 1870. It was a hard time for them all. They had lost their third child only weeks before.

But Pissarro threw himself into his painting and today we can see some of what he did gathered together in one room at the National Gallery.

With lodgings in Westow Hill, Upper Norwood, as his base, Pissarro settled in to paint a sparkling winter scene called Fox Hill, Lower Norwood. He soon met up with fellow Impressionist-to-be Claude Monet. Together they looked at British painters in the National Gallery and the Royal Academy.

Monet's influence on the older Pissarro can be seen in the lighter palette and greater freedom of handling a few months later in his view of Lordship Lane Station, Upper Norwood. Unlike Monet, however, Pissarro relished the new suburbs rising up around London with their the railway lines and terraced housing. He also painted Crystal Palace and Dulwich College.

The freshness and delicacy of his colour tuning which makes you feel the light, the grass and the wind blowing through the clouds makes these paintings unforgettable. Pissarro has a way of making an ordinary day and a workaday place look special as our eyes light on the little train chugging towards us.

Bank Holiday, Kew 1892

The artist returned to France in June and only came back to Britain in 1892 and again in 1897. He stayed near Kew Gardens and in Bedford Park, Chiswick. By now his style had changed dramatically. He liked making views from a high vantage point and experimented with different ways of putting down paint.

Some of the works are from the National Gallery's permanent collection. Others are from Oxford's Ashmolean Museum, the Musee des Beaux Arts, Lyon and private collections. Room 1 offers a brief but strong insight into these moments in the artist's life. It includes the artist's self-portrait painted only a couple of month's before his death.

A booklet by Kathleen Adler, Pissarro in London, draws on the artist's correspondence and photographs to round off the picture.

Pissarro in London at the National Gallery until 3 August