The Crystal Palace

1871

Camille Pissarro and his family left France in 1870–71 for Lower Norwood, outside London. In nearby Sydenham, he painted the glass-and-iron Crystal Palace, originally designed for London’s Hyde Park by Joseph Paxton in 1851. Here, Pissarro relegated what was considered the world’s largest building to the left side of the canvas, as if to give equal space to the scene of people parading by the town's more recently constructed middle-class homes.

Public domain · CC0
Free to download and reuse. Image courtesy of Art Institute of Chicago.

Artist

Camille Pissarro (French, 1830–1903)

Date

1871

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

47.2 × 73.5 cm (19 × 29 in.); Framed: 72.3 × 98.4 cm (28 1/2 × 38 3/4 in.)

Origin

France

Collection

Art Institute of Chicago

Credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. B. E. Bensinger