Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami

Waterloo Bridge

Artist/Maker Claude Monet (France, 1840-1926)

Date1903

Mediumoil on canvas

DimensionsSight: 25 1/8 x 31 1/4 in. (63.8 x 79.4 cm)
Framed: 35 1/8 x 41 3/4 x 3 3/8 in. (89.2 x 106 x 8.6 cm)

ClassificationsVisual Works

Credit LineGift of Ione T. Staley

Terms

Object number60.057.000

On View

Not on view

Collections

Art of Europe

Description"In London, what I love more than anything else is the fog," said Monet. His great series of the River Thames in fog, sunlight, mist, and smoke, painted between 1899 and 1904, is the outstanding example of Impressionist painting of London. Beginning in September 1899, Monet rented a suite of rooms on the fifth floor of the Savoy Hotel, on the north bank of the Thames. From his balcony he could see Waterloo Bridge to his left and Charing Cross Bridge to his right. He worked quickly from the motifs, switching from canvas to canvas to capture the fugitive impressions of light and atmosphere and then took the paintings back to his studio in Giverny, where he completed them from memory and detailed sketches. He returned to London again in 1900 and 1901, eventually producing more than forty paintings of this busy section of the river. The Lowe's picture depicts Waterloo Bridge backlit by morning sun. The massive solidity of the bridge and its arches evanesces out of the refracted haze of sky and water. Objects are equal with atmosphere, drawing with color, observation with memory. Monet's work, at this mature stage of his career, exists at the intersection of 19th century naturalism and 20th century abstraction.