The Crystal Palace London is one of twelve paintings inspired byPissarro’s visit to England in 1870-71, many of which are now in public collections. Compositionally and technically, the paintings executed byPissarroin England are analogous to those done in Louveciennes in 1869-70, and the close stylistic connection with Monet can still be seen.

The subjects chosen for these paintings amply bear outPissarro’s claim to Wynford Dewhurst that ‘Monet worked in the parks, whilst I, living at Lower Norwood, at that time a charming suburb, studied the effects of mist, snow and springtime’.
Rewald states that The Crystal Palace London was the first picture byPissarroacquired by Durand-Ruel while in London in 1870-71, but this cannot be substantiated.

The Crystal Palace was built in Hyde Park in 1850-51 to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. It was then moved and reassembled to Sydenham in the south of London in 1852-54, but was destroyed by fire in 1936. In contrast with the depictions by Manet and Renoir of the Universal Exhibition of 1867 in Paris,Pissarroseems almost concerned to camouflage the Crystal Palace amongst its suburban surroundings.