À propos de l’œuvre
Pont de Charing, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · 1899 -1901 · London · Wildenstein 1550
Charing Cross Bridge, W1550hand painted reproduction
Charing Cross Bridge dissolves in a pink, yellow and sea green light. The bridge floats above the Thames like a purple band, while the dark boats and their smoke give the foreground an activity that the mist immediately absorbs.
Look at the work
A warm light transforms the bridge and the river into a field of color
The bridge is placed high in the canvas, leaving the Thames almost two-thirds of the size. Its purple piles descend in vertical reflections, but their regularity is broken by touches of pink, yellow and turquoise. On the right, Parliament is nothing more than a barely perceptible blue silhouette.
Several boats occupy the bottom of the painting. Their purple-brown hulls, small chimneys and steam trails introduce diagonals into the range of reflections. These dark signs prevent the bright atmosphere from becoming uniform and give the scale of the scene.
This version can be recognized by the intensity of its warm reflections: the bridge remains distant, but the color comes almost to the lower edge of the canvas.
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 tighter format than most London series
At approximately 65 × 80 cm, the canvas brings the piers together and concentrates the boats in the foreground. The relationships between bridge, water and sky must maintain this particular compression.
Warm reflections cut by cold greens
Roses and oranges dominate without forming a flat surface. They are crossed by sea green, turquoise and mauve, essential for the luminous vibration.
Boats readable by their densities alone
Hulls, chimneys and smoke are never surrounded. A few purple-brown masses are enough to make them appear; detailing them further would artificially detach them from the mist.
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 exact view measures 2000 × 1613 px. Details of 1600 × 600 px and 1600 × 650 px are direct cropping of the same documented file. No files have been enlarged; all three images are real WebPs.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
These benchmarks concern the Wildenstein 1550 version and come from the sales notice which documents its identity, dimensions and origin.
The Wildenstein 1550 version
This oil on canvas, painted between 1899 and 1901, measures approximately 65 × 80 cm. It belongs to a private collection and was presented at Sotheby's in New York on November 12, 2018, lot 37.
From the Monet family to private collections
The work passed around 1921 to the artist's grandson, James Butler, then through Alex Maguy's Galerie de l'Élysée. Its documented provenance then included several collections and sales in New York.
The Thames seen from the Savoy Hotel
Monet observes Charing Cross Bridge from his bedroom and terrace. He then takes up the paintings in Giverny, where the memory of the atmosphere guides both the work and the studies carried out on site.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- The version specifies Wildenstein 1550
- The particular ratio of the 65 × 80 cm format
- Warm roses balanced by sea green
- Boats preserved diffuse into the atmosphere
Work sheet
| Title | Charing Cross Bridge, W1550 |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | 1899 - 1901 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 65 × 80 cm |
| Orientation | Horizontal |
| Conservation | Private collection, Non-public location |
| Inventory | Wildenstein 1550 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
This reproduction combines powder pink, peach, mauve and sea green in a luminous balance. It warms a cream, pearl gray, celadon green or mist blue wall and works particularly well in a room with natural materials.
