À propos de l’œuvre
Le Parlement, les mouettes, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · 1903 · Princeton · W1612
Parliament, the seagulls W1612hand painted reproduction
A flock of seagulls passes through a pink and purple fog where the Parliament of London appears almost immaterial. Signed and dated "Claude Monet 1903" lower right, this oil on canvas measuring 81 × 92 cm is kept at the Princeton University Art Museum under number y1979-54.
Look at the work
Parliament becomes an apparition crossed by seagulls
Monet places the Victoria Tower slightly to the right of the center, but refuses to harden its contours. The building descends into the Thames in the form of a large blue-purple mass; in front of him, the birds describe diagonals which animate the sky, the river and the very surface of the canvas.
The palette unites powder pink, pearl gray, lilac and cold blue. The nearest seagulls are indicated by a few dark or white touches, while the more distant ones blend into the vapor. This difference in scale gives depth to a scene with almost no horizon line.
W1612 not only describes London fog: birds measure its thickness and make visible the space that separates the viewer from Parliament.
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 Wildenstein 1612 version
The Princeton catalog raisonné and notice identify this composition as W1612. The numerous seagulls, the tower placed on the right and the very pale accord of pink and blue distinguish it from Monet's other Parliaments.
A painting signed in 1903
Monet began his views of the Thames during his stays in London from 1899 to 1901, then resumed them at Giverny. The signature and date visible at the bottom right here mark the completion of the painting in 1903.
One of the nineteen views of Parliament
Princeton places the work among the nineteen paintings dedicated to Parliament. Monet presented thirty-seven London views at Durand-Ruel in 1904, before selling this painting to the merchant in 1905.
Reference image
Read this specific version
Only one image is used: the official Princeton scan, prepared as a true high definition WebP of 3,000 × 2,653 px from the IIIF source of 4,543 × 4,017 px.
A sharp tower only by contrast
The tower should not be redesigned as an architectural silhouette. Its presence comes from the colder blue placed against the pink mist, with edges that remain permeable to the atmosphere.
Seagulls spread over the entire height
Birds do not form a regular frieze: some cut the sky, others level the water. Their size and value must vary to maintain the depth of the scene.
An opalescent material
The light layers overlap without becoming uniform. A faithful reproduction keeps the canvas passages, the purple covers and the white touches which make the fog vibrate.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
The Princeton notice documents an oil on canvas from 1903, 81 × 92 cm, signed and dated lower right, inventory y1979-54 and catalog Wildenstein 1612.
Princeton University Art Museum, y1979-54
The work entered the museum in 1979 through the bequest of Aileen Osborn Vanderbilt Webb, after having belonged in particular to the Havemeyers and William Church Osborn.
Nineteen views of Parliament
Monet paints the motif from Saint Thomas' Hospital, on the opposite bank, to observe how fog, time and light transform the same facade.
"Claude Monet 1903" bottom right
The date corresponds to the long workshop work which followed the London sessions and preceded the presentation of the series at Durand-Ruel in 1904.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- The exact version Princeton y1979-54 and Wildenstein 1612
- The original format of 81 × 92 cm
- The blue-purple tower without rigid architectural outline
- The irregular distribution of seagulls in the fog
Work sheet
| Title | Parliament, the seagulls W1612 |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | 1903 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 81 × 92 cm |
| Orientation | Horizontal, almost square |
| Conservation | Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, United States |
| Inventory | y1979-54 · Wildenstein 1612 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
Its ash roses, lilacs and bluish grays bring calm light to a living room, bedroom or reading space. Light oak, ecru linen and some slate blue accents extend its softness without erasing birds.
