MONET, Claude
(b. 1840, Paris, d. 1926, Giverny)

The Houses of Parliament in London

1904
Oil on canvas, 81 x 92 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

This canvas belongs to a series of eleven paintings executed after Monet's stays in London. The Parliament building is viewed from a window of St. Thomas's Hospital located on the opposite shore of the Thames.

During his four visits to London between 1900 and 1905, Monet did a series of paintings of the Houses of Parliament. In these works his art attained new heights. Everything visible is resolved in the reflection of light. The subtitle of the painting, "With the Sun Shining through Fog", is significant. Not only the sky, but also the river and even the buildings are fused together in dazzling colour tones. The Houses of Parliament rise up out of the fog like a vision. It is not the building which seems to be present but rather its optical effect.




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