The Entrance to the Village of Voisins, 1872 by Camille Pissarro

Although Pissarro painted some important pictures related to his stay in London, he and Julie were never very happy there. He wrote to his friend, the art critic Theodore Duret: 'I want to go back to France as soon as possible. Yes, my dear Duret, I will not stay here. It is only abroad that one feels how beautiful and how grand and how welcoming France is.'

Pissarro arrived in Louveciennes in June 1871 and stayed until April 1872, when he returned to Pontoise where he was to remain for the next ten years. Despite finding his house in disrepair he was overjoyed to be back on French soil, and at the beginning of 1872 his confidence flourished. He produced an enormous quantity of paintings and a variety of different and new motifs, and most important of all he was able to release himself from the sometimes very obvious links he had held with the older generation of artists.

In this painting Pissarro has depicted a calm, sunny, early spring day. The leaves are not yet out and the sun is still low, causing the tall slim tree trunks to cast long shadows across the path. Pissarro has achieved this view by lowering the horizon and exaggerating the height of the trees in the foreground.