The Crystal Palace
Camille Pissarro (French, 1830–1903)1871
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Materials & printing
Archival matte paper, 189 g/m² (10.3 mil), sourced from Japan, printed with multicolor water-based inkjet so every brushstroke stays crisp. Framed prints arrive ready to hang in a .75″ ayous-wood frame with an acrylite front. Sized to standard frames by cropping, never stretching — at most about 3% comes off one edge, which isn’t noticeable on most pieces, and we only offer a size when it stays that small.
Shipping & returns
Made to order and delivered in 5–8 business days (2–4 to print, 3–4 in transit). US shipping only for now. Because each print is made for your order, all sales are final — but if it arrives damaged or defective, send us a photo within 14 days and we’ll replace it free. Full policy.
Why is it this affordable?
A thin, flat margin on every piece — just enough to keep the store running. Most of what you pay is the print itself. We only sell sizes that reproduce at full quality, and we don’t mark up the large sizes the way most shops do.
About this work
Camille Pissarro and his family left France in 1870–71 to escape the Prussian invasion and subsequent civil uprising (known as the Commune). They spent these years in Lower Norwood, outside London. In the neighboring town of Sydenham, Pissarro painted the glass-and-iron Crystal Palace, which was originally designed by Joseph Paxton in 1851 for London’s Hyde Park. Although it was immediately acclaimed for its modern architecture, only two years later the building was dismantled and reassembled in Sydenham. (It was destroyed by fire in 1936.) In this small oil painting, 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 “modern-life” scene of families and carriages parading by Sydenham’s more recently constructed middle-class homes.
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 47.2 × 73.5 cm (19 × 29 in.)
Museum record · 1 owner · 30 exhibitions
Provenance
- Charles J. Galloway, Thorneyholme, Kunstford, Cheshire, by 1892; sold Sold at the Charles J. Galloway estate sale, Christie’s, London, June 26, 1905, lot 279, to Bernheim–Jeune, Paris, for £68.5; sold to Durand-Ruel, Paris, July 4, 1905; transferred to Durand-Ruel, New York, by January 1931; sold to Henry Johnson Fisher (d. 1965), Greenwich, Conn., June 19, 1941; by descent to his family; sold to Hirschl & Adler, New York, Apr. 6, 1970; sold to Mr. B. E. Bensinger, Chicago, June 14, 1971; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, beginning in 1972.
Exhibitions
- Possibly Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Exposition Camille Pissarro: Tableaux, aquarelles, pastels, gouaches, Mar. 3–21, 1894, as Upper Norwood, Crystal Palace, or as, as Upper Norwood, Crystal Palace, temps de neige.
- Glasgow, International Exhibition, May 2–Nov. 1901, as Crystal Palace, lent by C. J. Galloway, Esq.
- London, New Gallery, Sixth Exhibition of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters, and Gravers, Jan.–Feb. 1906.
- Manchester City Art Gallery, Exhibition of Modern French Paintings, Winter 1907–08.
- Kunsthalle Mannheim, Werke der Malerei des 19.
- Jahrhunderts, Dec. 1909.
- City Art Museum of St. Louis, Loan Exhibition of French Painting, 1800–1880, Jan. 1931.
- New York, Durand-Ruel Galleries, Paintings by Degas, Renoir, Monet, Pissarro, and Sisley prior to 1880, Oct. 12–Nov. 2, 1931.
- New York, Union League Club, Paintings by the Master Impressionists, Nov. 8–20, 1932.
- New York, Durand-Ruel Galleries, Paintings by Camille Pissarro in Retrospect, Jan. 3–24, 1933.
- City Art Museum of St. Louis, Paintings by French Impressionists (1860–1880), Apr. 17–May 16, 1934, no cat. New York, Durand-Ruel Galleries, Paintings by the Master Impressionists, Oct. 15–Nov. 10, 1934.
- Toronto, Mallows Fine Arts,, Dec. 1934–Feb. 1935.
- Kansas City, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, One Hundred Years: French Painting, 1820–1920, Mar. 31–Apr. 28, 1935.
- Springfield (Mass.) Museum of Fine Arts, Master Impressionists, October 12–31, 1937.
- New York, Durand-Ruel Galleries, French Paintings from 1870 to 1880, Jan. 3–22, 1938.
- New York, Durand-Ruel Galleries, Monet, Pissarro, Sisley before 1890, Nov. 14–Dec. 3, 1938.
- Los Angeles Museum, The Development of Impressionism, Jan. 12–Feb. 28, 1940.
- Detroit Institute of Arts, The Age of Impressionism and Objective Realism, May 3–June 2, 1940.
- New York, Durand-Ruel and Knoedler Galleries, Loan Exhibitions—Paintings of London and Paris for the Benefit of the British War Relief Society, Oct. 29–Nov. 16, 1940 (Knoedler only).
- Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts, Paintings by Camille Pissarro, Feb. 1941, no cat. New York, Durand-Ruel Galleries, The Art of Camille Pissarro in Retrospect, Mar. 24–Apr. 15, 1941.
- New York, Durand-Ruel Galleries, Exhibition Celebrating the One Hundred Fortieth Anniversary, Nov. 15–Dec. 4, 1943.
- New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery, Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture Collected by Yale Alumni, May 19–June 26, 1960.
- Andover, Mass., Phillips Academy, Addison Gallery, Alumni Treasures, May 19–June 18, 1967.
- New York, Acquavella Galleries, Four Masters of Impressionism, Oct. 24–Nov. 30, 1968.
- London, Hayward Gallery, The Impressionists in London, Jan. 3–Mar. 11, 1973.
- New York, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Retrospective of a Gallery—Twenty Years, Nov. 8–Dec. 1, 1973.
- Art Institute of Chicago, Art at the Time of the Centennial, June 19–Aug. 8, 1976, no cat. Detroit Institute of Arts, Arts and Crafts in Detroit, 1906–1976: The Movement, the Society, the School, Nov. 26, 1976–Jan. 19, 1977.
- London, Hayward Gallery, Pissarro: Camille Pissarro 1830–1903, Oct. 30, 1980–Jan. 11, 1981; Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Jan. 30–Apr. 27, 1981; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, May 19–Aug. 9, 1981.
- Tokyo, Seibu Museum of Art, Shikago bijutsukan insho-ha ten, Oct. 18–Dec. 17, 1985; Fukuoka Art Museum, Jan. 5–Feb. 2, 1986; Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Mar. 4–Apr. 13, 1986.
- Brooklyn Museum of Art, William Merritt Chase: Modern American Landscapes, 1886–1809, May 26–Aug. 13, 2000, not in cat.; Art Institute of Chicago, Sept. 9–Nov. 26, 2000; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Dec. 13, 2000–Mar. 11, 2001 (Chicago only).
