À propos de l’œuvre
Le Parlement de Londres, effet de brouillard, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · 1903 · the version given to the City of Le Havre
The Parliament of London, fog effecthand painted reproduction
Victoria Tower rises like a cobalt blue mass above an almost invisible Parliament; a dark boat slides on the Thames, the only moving form in this purple and matte atmosphere.
Look at the work
The monument appears gradually in a purple-blue fog
Parliament occupies the right half of the canvas, but its architecture is never drawn stone by stone. The towers emerge by superposition of blues, purples and muffled greens. The large Victoria Tower dominates the whole; its verticality responds to the small mast of the boat placed very low on the river.
The sky and water share the same colors, with different key directions. At the top, the passages are flexible and enveloping; on the Thames, they become more horizontal and shorter. A gray pink stripe near the horizon and a few red notes around the boat prevent the composition from closing in the blue.
Parliament remains recognizable without ever becoming rigid: Monet makes the solidity of the stone depend on the density of the air which surrounds it.
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 an axis
Its high silhouette stabilizes a composition dominated by the horizontals of the river. Its irregular edges, however, make it participate in the movement of the fog.
A boat that gives scale
The dark triangle of the sail and the small hull introduce a human presence. Their size immediately makes the scale of the monument and the river noticeable.
A deliberately matte surface
The MuMa restored the work by removing an added and darkened varnish. Current photography restores the canvas to its fine transitions and the non-shiny vibration sought by Monet.
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 restored photographic master of the MuMa reaches 4551 × 4004 px. Details of 2200 × 2300 px and 2300 × 1500 px are cropped directly into this file, without enlargement. All three images 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.
Three Monets for Le Havre in 1910
Monet chose The Parliament of London with The Cliffs of Varengeville and The Water Lilies to represent three moments of his career. The works entered the municipal collections in 1911.
Presented at Durand-Ruel in 1904
The painting belongs to the thirty-seven Views of the Thames shown in Paris in May and June 1904, a group which brings together the bridges of Charing Cross, Waterloo and Parliament.
Monet's return to blues and purples
The removal of an oxidized posterior varnish brightened the dark passages and restored the chromatic balance of this 81 × 92 cm canvas, inventory A.487.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- The transitions between cobalt blue, mauve and green
- The matte presence of the sky after restoration
- The little boat sinks without making it too clear
- The Victoria Tower readable but melted into the atmosphere
Work sheet
| Title | The Parliament of London, fog effect |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | 1903 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 81 × 92 cm |
| Orientation | Almost square |
| Conservation | MuMa - André Malraux Museum of Modern Art, Le Havre, France |
| Inventory | A.487 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
The almost square format and purple-blue range create a calm depth point. This reproduction works particularly well with dark wood, brass, warm gray, midnight blue or a cream wall.
