London: V. J. Day in Piccadilly Circus

Piero Sansalvadore's small oil painting depicts throngs of people on the streets of London celebrating the end of the Second World War. The view is taken from a flat on the southeast corner of Piccadilly and looks down on the Circus towards Shaftsbury Avenue. At the outbreak of the war, the statue of Eros was removed from Piccadilly Circus and its site, boxed in the shape of a polygon, is shown here. The streets are a mass of colours and figures, signalling the enormity of the occasion depicted.

Nicknamed 'The Master of the Little Landscape' by Studio in 1953, Sansalvadore (1892-1955) painted small works in palette knife on wood. The war had particular resonance for Sansalvadore who joined the B.B.C Foreign Department to broadcast anti-Mussolini propaganda to Italy. The Italian-born artist first came to England in 1931; several years later, he left his job as an insurance salesman and worked as a full-time London-based artist. During the 1950s, he had a studio at 91A Peel Street in Kensington but he later returned to Italy.