A series of 21 paintings by Claude Monet depicting views of London’s Thames River will be exhibited for the first time in the UK at the Courtauld Institute of Art from September 27. The gallery describes the works as “amongst the most significant representations of the Thames ever made.”
The French artist, widely regarded as the father of impressionism, started the works during three visits to the English capital totaling six months between 1899 and 1901. He then finished them in his studio in Giverny, north of Paris. The gallery said in a statement that they display “extraordinary views of the Thames as it had never been seen before, full of evocative atmosphere, mysterious light and radiant color.”
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Charing Cross Bridge, Waterloo Bridge, and the House of Parliament all feature, each rendered in Monet’s short impasto brushstrokes.
The series was first exhibited in Paris in 1904 and Monet was apparently desperate to show the paintings in London the following year, but his plans fell through. In a letter to his wife Alice in 1901, he wrote of England, “there is no country more extraordinary for a painter.”
“London is more interesting that it is harder to paint… the fog assumes all sorts of colors; there are black, brown, yellow, green, purple fogs and the interest in painting is to get the objects seen through all these fogs,” Monet said.
Several of the works were painted from the balconies of the Savoy Hotel, just 1,000 feet from the Courtauld. “Monet and London. Views of the Thames” will provide visitors with the unique experience of seeing the show Monet curated and the works he felt best represented his ambitious artistic enterprise – brought together for the first time 120 years after their inaugural exhibition,” according to the gallery.
“Monet’s paintings of London’s river Thames constituted by far the largest and most ambitious series Monet had produced up until this point in his career and are undoubtedly among the most significant representations of city ever made,” Karen Serres, Senior Curator of Paintings at The Courtauld, told ARTnews in an email.
“They embody the complexity of his practice, pushing his Impressionist approach to the extreme in his attempts to capture the atmospheric conditions and light effects of the fog over the water. The series was largely created over three repeat visits to London between 1899-1901. Monet had a love of England and a desire to be recognised across the Channel. This is the first time that an exhibition will explicitly recreate the display of one of his series with the aim of getting to the heart of his artistic enterprise.”
The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Monet and London. Views of the Thames runs from September 27 to January 19, 2025.