Monet and London, now open at The Courtauld Gallery, reunites a special group of Claude Monet’s Impressionist paintings of London for the first time in 120 years.
Begun during three visits to the capital between 1899 and 1901, the paintings depict Charing Cross Bridge, Waterloo Bridge and the Houses of Parliament. The series was unveiled in Paris in 1904 to great critical acclaim but the project to show the paintings in London the following year fell through. Now, for the first time, these distinct paintings will be shown together in the UK, just 300 metres from the Savoy Hotel where many of them were painted.
Claude Monet (1840-1926) is world renowned as the leading figure of French Impressionism, a movement that changed the course of modern art. Less known is the fact that some of his most remarkable paintings were made not in France but in London. They depict views of the Thames, capturing the river and its surrounding architecture as they had never been seen before, full of evocative atmosphere, mysterious light and radiant colour.
Monet came to London in the wintertime, fascinated by the effects of the London fog, a phenomenon produced by the city’s heavy industrialisation in the 19th century. In London, the fog took on a particular density and a variety of hues that occurred nowhere else. Monet’s paintings are undoubtedly amongst the most significant representations of the Thames ever made and embody the complexity of his practice, 40 years after his debut, as he pushed the Impressionist approach to the extreme.
Monet started the paintings during his three long stays in London in 1899, 1900 and 1901 and finished them in his studio in Giverny, north of Paris. While he eventually painted almost 100 views of the Thames, his most ambitious project to date, the exhibition focuses on the smaller group of 37 paintings that were presented at the unveiling of the series in 1904. Monet completed these works as a unit specifically for their public display and he considered them the finest representatives of his artistic project. They constituted, in his eyes, the true ‘Thames series’.
After the show, the paintings were dispersed, purchased by collectors in France and abroad. This exhibition features 21 paintings, 18 of which were in the 1904 unveiling, in an unprecedented effort to recreate the display that Monet himself put together and the experience he wanted his audience to have seeing these extraordinary works.
The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Monet and London. Views of the Thames is now open at The Courtauld Gallery (until 19 January 2025). To book tickets: courtauld.ac.uk
Image: Installation view, Monet and London. Views of the Thames, The Courtauld Gallery. © Fergus Carmichael
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