''Waterloo Bridge'' is a series of 41

impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

oil paintings of the 1807–1810 Waterloo Bridge in London by

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

, produced between 1900 and 1904 and forming a sub-series within his larger 'London series' alongside the Charing Cross Bridge series and the Houses of Parliament series.

Context

Under exile during the Franco-Prussian War, Monet travelled to London for the first time in 1870. Monet became enthralled with the city, and vowed to return to it someday. His fascination with London lay primarily in its fogs, a byproduct of the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

. But writers hypothesize that Monet was also inspired by contemporaries

J. M. W. Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbulen ...

and

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

, who were similarly fascinated by London's atmosphere and atmospheric effects. In 1899 Monet returned to London and rented a room in the

Savoy Hotel The Savoy Hotel is a luxury hotel located in the Strand in the City of Westminster in central London, England. Built by the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan opera productions, it opened on 6 August 188 ...

, 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 paintings. He repeatedly painted the Waterloo Bridge and created other paintings of the city's sights, including the Houses of Parliament series and Charing Cross Bridge series. While Monet began all of the paintings in London, he completed many of them in his studio in

Giverny Giverny () is a commune in the northern French department of Eure.Commune de Giverny (27285)< ...

Selected works

References

{{Claude Monet 1903 paintings Paintings of London by Claude Monet Paintings in the collection of the Hermitage Museum Collections of the National Gallery of Art Collections of the National Gallery of Canada Series of paintings by Claude Monet Paintings in Copenhagen Bridges in art Water in art