À propos de l’œuvre
Le Parlement de Londres, soleil couchant, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · 1903 · National Gallery of Art · Wildenstein 1598
The Parliament of London, setting sunhand painted reproduction
The towers of Parliament form a large azure blue silhouette in front of a pink, yellow and lavender sky; on the Thames, an olive boat passes through short reflections where the sunset fragments into touches of coral and orange.
Look at the work
The warm sky turns Westminster into a blue silhouette
Victoria Tower dominates the left of the architectural group. Further to the right, the pinnacles and towers of the abbey create an irregular vertical rhythm. Monet draws neither windows nor stones: the buildings remain a mass of superimposed blues whose edges dissolve in the sky.
The sky mixes pale yellow, peach pink, mauve and small touches of lemon. The water takes on these colors in shorter, more horizontal lines. The small boat placed slightly to the right of the center breaks the symmetry of the reflections and introduces a human presence at the foot of the monument.
The sunset does not darken the scene: it contrasts cold architecture with a warm atmosphere, then brings the two together in their reflections on the Thames.
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.
The Victoria Tower as a vertical anchor
Its high and wide mass stabilizes the composition. However, its edges remain permeable to the pink and yellow of the sky, which avoids any monumental hardness.
A warm sky made of superimposed passages
Pink is never isolated: it slides towards peach, purple, yellow and blue. These transitions make the air vibrate around the towers.
A tiny boat in the center of the river
The olive sail and horizontal hull give an immediate scale to Westminster. Their dark reflection punctuates the large blue expanse of the water.
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 official open access view reaches 4096 × 3618 px. Details of 2350 × 2200 px and 2700 × 1450 px are direct cropping, without oversampling. All three files are true high definition 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.
Inventory 1963.10.48, Wildenstein 1598
This oil on canvas measures 81.3 × 92.5 cm. It is signed and dated lower right "Claude Monet 1903" and belongs to the Chester Dale Collection of the National Gallery of Art.
Number 29 at Durand-Ruel in 1904
Monet presents this version in the exhibition Views of the Thames in London organized in Paris by Durand-Ruel in 1904. It appears there under number 29 among the bridges and Parliaments of the series.
From Edmond Décap to the Chester Dale legacy
Durand-Ruel sold the painting to Edmond Décap in 1904. It then passed to Maurice Barret-Décap, was sold at the Hôtel Drouot in 1929, then purchased by Chester Dale, who bequeathed it to the museum in 1963.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- The Victoria Tower solid but without closed outline
- Transitions from peach pink to yellow and lavender
- Short, horizontal reflections in water
- The small olive boat placed in front of the blue silhouette
Work sheet
| Title | The Parliament of London, setting sun |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | 1903 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 81.3 × 92.5 cm |
| Orientation | Almost square |
| Conservation | National Gallery of Art, Washington, United States |
| Inventory | 1963.10.48 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
The almost square format and the azure blue, pink and peach accord produce a soft but very present light. The canvas matches warm white, greige, midnight blue or powder pink walls and golden or dark wood frames.
