''Charing Cross Bridge'' is a

series Series may refer to: People with the name * Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series * George Series (1920–1995), English physicist Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Series, the ordered sets used i ...

of oil paintings by French artist

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...

. The paintings depict a misty, impressionist Charing Cross Bridge in London, England. Monet worked on the series from 1899 to 1905, creating a total of 37 paintings depicting the bridge. While all of the paintings in the series depict the same bridge, each has unique qualities. For instance, Monet uses different color combinations to portray different atmospheric conditions. In some paintings, Monet includes details such as trains, clock towers, and boats, but omits such features in others. Today, the ''Charing Cross Bridge'' paintings are scattered in museums around the world. These include the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

, the

Baltimore Museum of Art The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) in Baltimore, Maryland, is an art museum that was founded in 1914. The BMA's collection of 95,000 objects encompasses more than 1,000 works by Henri Matisse anchored by the Cone Collection of modern art, ...

, the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...

, the

Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; ) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located on Dundas Street, Dundas Street West in the Grange Park (neighbourhood), Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, the museum complex takes up of phys ...

and the

Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum (, ; named after its founder, Baron Heinrich Thyssen, Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza), or simply the Thyssen, is an art museum in Madrid, Spain, located near the Museo del Prado, Prado Museum on one of the city ...

in Madrid.

Context

Under exile during the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

, Monet travelled to London for the first time in 1870. He became enthralled with the city, and vowed to return to it someday. Monet's fascination with London lay primarily in its fogs, a byproduct of the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

. Writers hypothesize that Monet was also inspired by contemporaries J. M. W. Turner and

James Abbott McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter in oils and watercolor, and printmaker, active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral a ...

, who were similarly fascinated by London's atmosphere. Thus, in 1899, Monet returned to London and rented a room in the Savoy Hotel, which offered an extensive viewpoint from which to begin his series of the city. Between 1899 and 1905, Monet periodically travelled to London to work on the series. He completed 37 paintings of the Charing Cross Bridge in total. In addition to painting the bridge, Monet painted other landmarks, such as the

Houses of Parliament The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is located in London, England. It is commonly called the Houses of Parliament after the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two legislative ch ...

and

Waterloo Bridge Waterloo Bridge () is a road and foot traffic bridge crossing the River Thames in London, between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge and Golden Jubilee Bridges. Its name commemorates the victory of the British, Dutch and Prussians at the ...

. While Monet began all of the paintings in London, he completed many of them in his studio in

Giverny Giverny () is a Communes of France, commune in the northern French Departments of France, department of Eure.

Description

The 37 paintings share some common features. Across the horizon, Monet portrays the Charing Cross Bridge using thin lines. Although the bridge is consistent across his paintings, it is not entirely representative of the actual bridge. John Sweetnam explains, "Comparisons with the actual bridge show that Monet compressed the solid and open parts of the deck into a mass that is both more consolidated and more extreme in its horizontally." Although the paintings share much in common, they also have notable differences. In certain versions, Monet includes an obscured train that blows smoke as it travels across the bridge. Some paintings depict a small boat in the bottom left corner; others depict

Big Ben Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster, and, by extension, for the clock tower itself, which stands at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, England. Originally named the Clock Tower, it ...

and the Victoria Tower in the top right corner. The towers are shadowy outlines at best, leading Rebecca Stern to suggest that Monet "obscures all record of standardized time in his series.”

Interpretation

In this series, Monet represents the same subject in various conditions of light and atmosphere. Specifically, Monet was both captivated and challenged by the ways in which the ever-changing London fog affected the appearance of the bridge. In each of the paintings, Monet surrounds the bridge with ''enveloppe'', a term that he himself defined as "the same light spread over everything." John House further describes this concept, writing that this "colored atmospheric cloak... allowed...

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to give his paintings, both singly and when exhibited in groups, the internal coherence and unity he sought." Indeed, Monet experimented with ambience throughout his career, as seen in his Haystacks,

Rouen Cathedral Rouen Cathedral () is a Catholic church architecture, church in Rouen, Normandy, France. It is the Episcopal see, see of the Archbishop of Rouen, Primate of Normandy. It is famous for its three towers, each in a different style. The cathedral, b ...

, and Water Lilies series. In addition to building upon his previous work, Monet builds upon the foundation laid by his contemporaries. Like Turner, Monet was intrigued by the interplay between subject matter and the outer, natural world. Sweetnam argues, "Charing Cross Bridge with its passing trains made up a subject in which subject content and light, as in Turner, were totally merged." Besides Turner's work, the ''Charing Cross Bridge'' series also parallels Whistler's work. In his Nocturne paintings, Whistler advocated for and succeeded in making London an acceptable subject of paintings. While Monet also sought to represent London in his paintings, he did not represent the city in the same muted colors that Whistler used. House views Monet's approach as "very different from that of his contemporaries... Monet's mists are suffused with delicate yet endlessly varied harmonies of colour."

Gallery

Eight of the paintings in the ''Charing Cross Bridge'' series: File:Charing Cross Bridge, Monet.jpg, ''Charing Cross Bridge'', 1899,

, Madrid File:Claude Monet - Charing Cross Bridge (1899-1901).jpg, ''Charing Cross Bridge'', , private collection File:Monet, Claude - Charing Cross Bridge - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Charing Cross Bridge'', , Indianapolis Museum of Art File:Claude Monet - Charing Cross Bridge (Saint Louis).jpg, ''Charing Cross Bridge, London'', 1899–1901, Saint Louis Art Museum File:Charing Cross Bridge, London.jpg, ''Charing Cross Bridge, London'', 1901, Rotterdam police File:Claude Monet - Charing-Cross Bridge in London - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Charing-Cross Bridge in London'', ,

National Museum of Western Art The is the premier public art gallery in Japan specializing in art from the Western tradition. The museum is in the Ueno Park in Taitō, central Tokyo. It received 1,162,345 visitors in 2016. History The NMWA was established on June 10, 1959 ...

, Tokyo File:Monet-Tamise-Lyon.jpg, ''Charing Cross Bridge'', 1903, Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon File:Claude Monet - Charing Cross Bridge, Fog.jpg, ''Charing Cross Bridge, Fog'', 1902,

References

External links

{{commonscatinline 1899 paintings 1900 paintings 1901 paintings Architecture paintings Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago Collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario Paintings in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum Paintings in the Indianapolis Museum of Art Paintings of London by Claude Monet Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Series of paintings by Claude Monet Rivers in art Bridges in art Stolen works of art Sun in art

Context

Description

Interpretation

Gallery

See also

References

External links