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Oil on canvas, 25 3/4 x 32 1⁄8 in.
Purchased by Margaret Davies, 1913
National Museum of Wales; Miss Margaret S. Davies Bequest, 1963 (NMWA 2483)
Courtesy American Federation of Arts


The three Monet paintings in this exhibition all date from the last phase of the artist’s life when he was concerned primarily with light and atmospheric nuance. This work is one of a series showing Charing Cross Railway Bridge and the view upstream toward the Houses of Parliament. It was painted from the Savoy Hotel, where Monet’s sixth floor room afforded him a panoramic view of the river. The detail is reduced to the compositional devices of the bridge itself, the distant Houses of Parliament, boats, and a section of the Embankment. These elements act as visual anchors around which the interchangeable haze of water and sky fluctuates. While some artists might consider the thick London fog a hindrance, for Monet it was vital. He said, “without the fog London wouldn’t be a beautiful city. It’s the fog that gives it its magnificent breadth.”