1899 -1904 · London series, Thames, fog and industrial light

From the Savoy Hotel, Monet transforms Charing Cross Bridge into a measure of the London atmosphere: steam, fog, sun and reflections dissolve the structure without ever making it disappear.

Claude Monet has known London since his exile during the war of 1870, but he returned there at the end of the century with a much more ambitious serial project. In 1899, 1900 and 1901, he stayed at the Savoy Hotel, whose high windows dominated the Thames. From this landline, he looks towards Charing Cross Bridge, Hungerford Bridge according to its railway name, and towards Waterloo Bridge. The same panorama brings together water, piers, apron, trains, boats, chimneys and sky. Monet is not looking not to inventory these elements. He observes how the atmosphere makes them visible, erases them or transforms them from one moment to the next. London fog, mixed with natural mist, steam and industrial smoke, acts as one colored material. Depending on the time, the bridge becomes purple, blue, pink, green or almost gray; the Thames reflects these tones in horizontal and vertical touches. A fireplace or Cleopatra's Needle can appear as a distant landmark before dissolving. Monet works simultaneously on several canvases and switches from one to the other when the light changes. He then took up the paintings at length in his workshop in Giverny, sometimes until 1904, in order to agree each work has its sensation while maintaining the coherence of the series. This method does not consist of mechanically recording a moment. Memory, comparison and workshop work are as much involved as observation from the hotel. London paintings extend the Meules and Cathedrals of Rouen, but the industrial city adds train movement, smoke and unstable reflections. Charing Cross remains identifiable by its long horizontal and its piles; her repetition allows you to precisely measure everything that changes around it. A faithful reproduction must preserve the small deviations in value, the colors of the fog, the touches of reflection and the sufficiently clear presence of the bridge underneath the atmosphere. The "Charing Cross by Claude Monet" selection notably compares Charing Cross Bridge (overcast day), 1900 - Claude Monet and The Charing Cross Bridge: fog on the Thames - Claude Monet. His reading favors details.

The bridge remains the same; it is the air that becomes the real subject, filtering the city until it transforms steel, water, smoke and light into a single vibration.