À propos de l’œuvre
Le pont de Waterloo, effet de soleil avec fumées, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · 1903 · Baltimore · Wildenstein 1566
Waterloo Bridge, sun with smokehand painted reproduction
A pale yellow sun pierces the fumes of London and transforms the Thames into a sheet of gold, blue and purple. Waterloo Bridge, longer than in many versions, crosses the picture under a heavy sky where industry and light become inseparable.
Look at the work
Industrial smoke filters the sun and enlarges the bridge
The panoramic format stretches the apron almost the entire width. The blue-purple arches gain density around the center then fade into the side fumes. On the opposite bank, the chimneys stand in gray, pink and yellow material which never completely separates from the sky.
The sun is placed high, slightly to the right, behind a veil of pollution. Its reflection forms a golden zone on the water, cut with horizontal blue and mauve touches. The small silhouettes of boats give scale to the river without interrupting the unity of the atmosphere.
Monet does not paint despite the smoke: he paints light as smoke transforms it, more colorful, more diffuse and more material.
Composition, touch and light
What Monet builds behind the impression of snapshot
Three precise elements allow us to understand this composition and the essential difficulties of faithful reproduction.
A veiled yellow sun rather than a sharp disk
The bright focus should remain mixed with pinkish gray and off-white. A pure yellow or a specific edge would remove the atmospheric filtration effect.
An architecture stretched by the large format
At 101 cm wide, the arches form a full rhythm. Their intervals and differences in density are greater than the detail of the stones.
Smoke treated like colored masses
Industrial clouds mix gray, purple, pink and ocher. They do not constitute a neutral background: they organize the passage between the dark bridge and the light.
Details and visual documents
Observe the material and the exact version
The additional images show the difficult-to-read passages in the full view and, where it exists, the actual appearance of the work at the museum.
The reference view measures 1320 × 842 px and the detail 1100 × 420 px. The exhibition photograph, taken by Regan Vercruysse and distributed under CC BY 2.0 license, measures 6000 × 3376 px. No file has been enlarged; all three images are real WebPs.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
These facts concern this precise version and are verified from the notice of the institution which keeps it.
The BMA 1976.38 inventory, Wildenstein 1566 catalog
This 66 × 101 cm oil on canvas is dated 1903. Preserved at the Baltimore Museum of Art, it is known in English under the title Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight Effect with Smoke.
Smog as an optical filter
The Baltimore Museum of Art places this painting in the history of London pollution. Industrial fumes change the color of the sky and make solar effects particularly visible.
An on-site observation completed in Giverny
The patterns of the Thames are started in front of the river then reworked at length in the workshop. This method explains the constructed coherence of colors behind the appearance of a fleeting moment.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- The work BMA 1976.38, Wildenstein 1566
- The original panoramic format of 66 × 101 cm
- The yellow sun kept behind the smoke
- The rhythm of the arches without uniform contours
Work sheet
| Title | Waterloo Bridge, sun with smoke |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | 1903 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 66 × 101 cm |
| Orientation | Panoramic horizontal |
| Conservation | Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, United States |
| Inventory | BMA 1976.38 · Wildenstein 1566 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
Misty golds, blue purples and pink grays give this reproduction a spectacular light without aggression. It is suitable for a large ivory, light taupe, midnight blue or mineral gray wall, above a base unit.
