Charing Cross Bridge

Painted in 1890, this view of Charing Cross Bridge shows London's River Thames bathed in a soft, misty light. Camille Pissarro, one of the founding figures of Impressionism, captured the railway bridge stretching across the water with boats drifting in the foreground and the city's spires fading into the hazy distance. The whole scene feels gentle and quiet, with cool blues and greens dissolving into a pale sky.

Pissarro was already in his sixties when he made this work, and he painted it during one of his trips to London. Like the other Impressionists, he was fascinated by light and atmosphere rather than sharp detail, so he built the image from countless small dabs of color that blur together when you step back. If you look closely at the water, you can see how he let the surface shimmer rather than spelling out every ripple. It's a calm, honest snapshot of a working river on an ordinary day, more interested in mood than spectacle.