Claude Monet

Monet's views of London are among the most popular of the series paintings to which he devoted his attentions after 1900. Monet first visited London in 1870-71 when he fled Paris to avoid the Franco-Prussian War. There were further brief visits but it was not until the end of 1899 that he embarked on an extended series of paintings that necessitated long visits to the capital. The first such stay took place in the autumn of 1899, followed by another in February 1900 and finally from February to April 1901. The artist set up his easels on the balcony of his room at the Savoy Hotel. This vantage point afforded him a view of Waterloo Bridge to his left, as shown in the present work.

During his last visit in 1901, Monet worked almost entirely on views of Waterloo Bridge. He was particularly absorbed by the atmosphere created by the famously dense London fog. As the painter himself pointed out: 'I love London, much more than the English countryside; yes, I adore London, it's a mass, an ensemble, and it's so simple. Then in London, above all what I love is the fog' (R. Gimpel, Diary of an Artist, New York, 1966, pp. 129 & 173).

FIG.1 Claude Monet, Waterloo Bridge, matin brumeux, circa 1900, oil on canvas, Philadelphia Museum of Art