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A smudged, vague depiction of a foggy riverscape.

A painterly scene in different shades of light blue shows a very minimal scene of a bridge over water. The moon is visible high in the sky, surrounded by slightly darker blue-green, and it reflects in the water, drawing the eye to the warm almost light-pink ripples of its reflection. At the middle toward the right, in a blue-green color similar to that which surrounds the moon, there is the faintest suggestion of a bridge. There is a swath of slightly darker blue through the middle which may suggest the opposite bank of the river.

Gallery Text

Between 1899 and 1901, Monet visited London three times, for a total of more than seven months. He rented the same room on the sixth floor of the Savoy Hotel on the Victoria Embankment and painted the view from his window of south London and the Thames. The resultant works — more than a hundred paintings and twenty pastels — formed the largest series he had produced to that date. Here, as in other works, he layers blue, green, and pink tones on a cool backdrop, offering an atmospheric view of the riverfront. This oil was included in an exhibition of his views of the Thames at the Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris in 1904. René Gimpel, a prominent art dealer in Paris, visited Monet at his home years later and quoted him in his diary as having said: “I adore London; it’s a mass, a whole, and it’s so simple. But what I love more than anything in London is the fog.”

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1979.329
People
Claude Monet, French (Paris, France 1840 - 1926 Giverny, France)
Title
Charing Cross Bridge: Fog on the Thames
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Charing Cross Bridge, Brouillard sur la Tamise
Original Language Title: Le Soleil sur la Tamise à Londres, brouillard
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1903
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/222214

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2700, European and American Art, 19th century, Impressionism and the Late Nineteenth Century
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
73.7 x 92.4 cm (29 x 36 3/8 in.)
frame: 90.5 x 109.9 x 7 cm (35 5/8 x 43 1/4 x 2 3/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • stamp: back of frame, black stamp on all four sides and stretcher bar: 30W
  • inscription: back of frame, left edge, black ink: 6492[?]
  • label: back of frame, top, label with blue edges, inscribed in black ink: Cadre no. 3
  • inscription: back of frame, right edge, blue chalk: 6492 [double underline]
  • stamp: Back of stretcher, right edge, black stencil: 30
  • inscription: back of stretcher, upper right, inscription on cloth tape in black ink: MONET, C. / 605.66 / Anonymous Loan
  • inscription: back of stretcher, upper right, pinkish-tan label, inscribed in brown ink: Monet [printed:] No. [inscribed:] 4813 [Durand-Ruel New York stock no.] / Le soleil s/ la Tamise / à Londres, Charing / Cross 1903 M4
  • label: stretcher bar, cream label, inscribed in brown ink: Le Soleil sur la Tamise / à Londres Brouillard
  • label: stretcher bar, cream label, inscribed in brown ink: Monet n. 11864 [Durand-Ruel Paris stock no.] / Le soleil sur la Tamise / à Londres / (Brouillard) / 1903
  • inscription: stretcher bar, blue chalk: 9330
  • inscription: stretcher bar, graphite: M29[?] / 128[?] / 6P.#2[?]
  • inscription: stretcher bar, blue chalk: Box / 4
  • inscription: lower right: Claude Monet 1903

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Claude Monet, sold; [to Bernheim-Jeune and Durand-Ruel, Paris, December 1920], transferred; to [Durand-Ruel, New York, 1923], sold; to Mrs. Henry C. Lyman (Elizabeth), January 1928, gift; to Fogg Art Museum, 1979.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Mrs. Henry Lyman
Accession Year
1979
Object Number
1979.329
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Par Valentine Buvat, Turner, Whistler, Monet: Peindre l'essence des choses, Tate Modern, p. 21
  • Galeries Durand-Ruel, Claude Monet: Vues de la Tamise a Londres (1902-1904), exh. cat. (Paris, 1904), p. 9, cat. no. 7
  • Gustave Geffroy, Claude Monet, sa vie et son oeuvre, G. Crès et Cie (Paris, France, 1924), p. 310
  • Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et Catalogue Raisonné, La Bibliothèque des Arts (Lausanne, Switzerland, 1974 - 1991), vol. IV, p. 168, cat. no. 1554
  • Caroline A. Jones, Modern Art at Harvard: The Formation of the Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums (New York, NY and Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press, 1985). With an essay by John Coolidge and a preface by John M. Rosenfield. To accompany the inaugural exhibition at the Sackler Museum, Oct 21 1985 - Jan 5 1986, p. 6, fig. 1, ill. (color)
  • Jean C. Harris and Stephen Kern, Lasting Impressions: French and American Impressionism from New England Museums, exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Springfield, MA, 1988), p. 19, cat. no. 11, repr.
  • Grace Seiberling, Monet in London, exh. cat., High Museum of Art and University of Washington Press (Seattle, 1988)
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990)
  • Eric Shanes, Impressionist London, Abbeville Press (New York, NY, 1994), p. 130-131, no. 105, repr. p. 130
  • Katharine A. Lochnan, Turner Whistler Monet: Impressionist Visions, exh. cat., Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, Ontario, 2004), no. 73, repr. in color
  • Claude Monet 1840-1926, exh. cat., Réunion des Musées Nationaux / Musée d'Orsay (Paris, 2010), cat. no. 137, repr., p. 266, checklist p. 369
  • Greg Stone, Artful Business: 50 Lessons from Creative Geniuses (Boston, 2016), p. 30, ill. (color)
  • Eight Art Events to get to this Month, Apollo (January 10, 2017), online feature, https://www.apollo-magazine.com/top-art-shows-january-2017, accessed May 5, 2017, repr.
  • Ulf Küster, ed., Monet: Light, Shadow, and Reflection, exh. cat., Fondation Beyeler (Basel, 2017), cat. no. 124, repr. p. 124
  • Nancy Norwood, Monet's Waterloo Bridge: Vision and Process, exh. cat., RIT Press and Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester (Rochester, New York, 2018), p. 82, repr.

Exhibition History

  • Claude Monet, Vues de la Tamise à Londres, 1902-1904, Durand-Ruel Paris, 05/09/1904 - 06/04/1904
  • Exhibition of Paintings by Claude Monet, Durand-Ruel [New York], 01/04/1922 - 01/21/1922
  • Modern Art at Harvard, Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, 07/31/1999 - 09/26/1999; Takamatsu City Museum of Art, Kagawa, 10/09/1999 - 11/14/1999; Matsuzakaya Art Museum, Nagoya, 12/02/1999 - 12/27/1999; Oita City Museum, Oita, 01/06/2000 - 02/06/2000; Museum of Modern Art, Ibaraki, Ibaraki, 02/11/2000 - 03/26/2000
  • Turner, Whistler, Monet, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 06/12/2004 - 09/12/2004; Grand Palais, Paris, 10/16/2004 - 01/16/2005; Tate Britain, London, 02/12/2005 - 05/15/2005
  • Claude Monet 1840-1926, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 09/22/2010 - 01/24/2011
  • Ancient to Modern, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/31/2012 - 06/01/2013
  • 32Q: 2700 Impressionism, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 10/11/2016; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 07/14/2017 - 01/01/2050
  • Monet: Light, Shadow, and Reflection , Fondation Beyeler, Riehen / Basel, 01/22/2017 - 05/28/2017

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu