Charing Cross Bridge
Claude MONET
(French, 1840-1926)
Charing Cross Bridge
Date1899
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensionsoverall: 25 1/8 x 31 3/8 in. (63.8 x 79.7 cm)
frame: 34 x 40 in. (86.4 x 101.6 cm)
ClassificationPAINTINGS
Credit LineSBMA, Bequest of Katharine Dexter McCormick in memory of her husband, Stanley McCormick
Object number1968.20.4
Subject(s)
- river
- boat
- landscape, city scenes
- transportation
Collection
- 19th century French
Sub-Collection(s)
- Impressionism
On View
On viewCollections
Label Text
This is one of a series of canvases executed by Monet during three trips to London made in 1899, 1900, and 1901. He was probably inspired by the example of his friend, the artist James McNeill Whistler, who had long been fascinated with the Thames and its moody, atmospheric effects.
Monet painted this view of Charing Cross Bridge from his sixth-floor hotel room in the Savoy Hotel on the Victoria Embankment, where he stayed for six weeks in 1899. The square Victoria Tower of the Houses of Parliament and the pointed spire of Big Ben are ghostly silhouettes in the shimmering early morning fog. The near dissolution of form in a vaporous mist is typical of Monet’s late, poetic work.