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Claude Monet (artist) French, 1840 - 1926 The Houses of Parliament, Sunset, 1903 oil on canvas Overall: 81.3 x 92.5 cm (32 x 36 7/16 in.) framed: 107 x 117.5 x 8.8 cm (42 1/8 x 46 1/4 x 3 7/16 in.) Chester Dale Collection 1963.10.48 |
Monet and his family lived in England briefly, seeking refuge there during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), and in the late 1890s the artist returned several times to visit his older son. Between 1899 and 1901, Monet made three trips to London, specifically to paint. He went in winter, when the city was clouded with fog and the smoke of coal fires. “Without fog,” Monet said, “London would not be a beautiful city. It is the fog that gives it its magnificent breadth.” From his rooms on the sixth floor of the Savoy Hotel, Monet’s view up and down the Thames provided him subject matter for several series pictures. He could look east to the Waterloo Bridge and west to Charing Cross Bridge. To the right he could also see the Houses of Parliament, but Monet painted them from Saint Thomas’ Hospital across the river, where he had a more direct view. In all he did more than one hundred Thames paintings, by far the largest number of any of his series. Most, like this one, render the city’s famous landmarks as darkened silhouettes cloaked in the misty sky. He worked at prescribed times of day to capture this backlit effect, often complaining about he rapidity with which conditions changed.
In 1904, Monet exhibited thirty-seven London pictures, including this one and Waterloo Bridge, Gray Day.