À propos de l’œuvre
Waterloo Bridge: le soleil dans le brouillard, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · 1903 · Waterloo Bridge seen from the Savoy Hotel
Waterloo Bridge: the sun in the foghand painted reproduction
An orange disk passes through the fog above the Thames; the bridge almost disappears under the cold light, while a column of warm reflections leads the eye of the sun to the foreground.
Look at the work
The sun is the only clear outline in a dissolved city
Monet places Waterloo Bridge very low in the composition. Its apron and piles form only a long purplish-blue presence, interrupted by a few tiny boats. The south bank remains even more uncertain: the buildings and the smoke melt into a pale sky where gray, green and lilac are continually mixed.
The orange sun, off-center to the right, is the warmest and most compact note on the canvas. Its light does not draw a rectilinear path: it fragments on the water into touches of salmon, yellow and white. Between this luminous vertical and the horizontal of the bridge, Monet constructs the entire depth of the landscape.
In this version, the monument is not the real subject: the bridge gives a measure to the air, while the sun reveals the colorful thickness of the fog.
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 deliberately lowered horizon
The sky occupies more than half of the canvas. This expanse gives the fog room to become a colored material, and not a simple veil placed in front of the city.
A small but decisive sun
The orange disc is isolated in cool tones. Its high position and discontinuous reflection are enough to organize the reading of the entire composition.
The bridge is reduced at a pace
The piers and arches can be seen by differences of blue and purple. Monet retains the length of Waterloo Bridge without hardening its architecture.
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 full view measures 1190 × 880 px after removing the margin from the reference public scan. Details of 660 × 520 px and 850 × 420 px are native cropping, without enlargement. All three files are true 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 Canadian Museum Inventory 817
This oil on canvas measuring 73.7 × 100.3 cm is kept at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa under number 817. It corresponds to Wildenstein number 1573.
A variation among the Waterloo Bridges
From the Savoy Hotel, Monet takes the same bridge under different lights and fog densities. This version is distinguished by the clearly visible orange sun.
A painting completed in 1903
The museum dates the work to 1903. Like the other London views, it belongs to the serial work begun in front of the motif then pursued with rigor in Giverny's workshop.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- The reduced size and exact position of the sun
- Fog transparency without standardizing it gray
- The bridge line almost erased but still legible
- The fragmented orange reflections in the middle of the cold blues
Work sheet
| Title | Waterloo Bridge: the sun in the fog |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | 1903 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 73.7 × 100.3 cm |
| Orientation | Horizontal |
| Conservation | National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada |
| Inventory | 817 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
This horizontal canvas provides calm light without becoming neutral. Its lavender blue, misty green and orange note match the off-white, pearl gray, smoky blue or light sage walls.
