26/12/2021
Looking forward to a Boxing Day walk? 🍂 Pissarro's painting of 'Fox Hill, Upper Norwood' is one of 12 surviving pictures that he painted while in self-imposed exile in London from late 1870 to mid-1871 during the Franco-Prussian war. He and his family arrived in early December 1870 and settled briefly in the south London village.
The winter of his arrival was particularly cold, enabling Pissarro to continue painting the type of winter landscapes he had produced in France in the winter of 1868–9. 'Fox Hill, Upper Norwood' is perhaps the first picture he painted in London. One of the more rural scenes of the group, it is particularly close to landscapes he had been painting at Louveciennes, especially his views of the Versailles Road. Echoing this style, we see a simple road flanked by houses, chimney smoke merging with the clouds. Three people, (two women and a man in a top hat with a walking stick) pass each other, their wintry attire matching the shrubbery and bare trees. Who are you taking on your wintery walk? https://bit.ly/353NAwu
