Charing Cross Bridge (private collection, c. 1900)

This Charing Cross Bridge is one of the most dissolved canvases Claude Monet painted of the London railway bridge. Begun around 1900 at the Savoy Hotel, it shows a thick green-gray fog in which the bridge is little more than a pale horizontal, while streaks of coral and orange light spread across the river below. It is in a private collection; its image on Wikimedia Commons comes from a sale at Sotheby's New York on 12 November 2018.

What you are looking at

The canvas is about 65 by 81 cm, and its whole surface is a soft, fog-green field. The bridge runs across the upper third as a slightly paler band. Its piers appear only as two lit blocks beneath the deck: on the left a rectangle of orange and pink, on the right a cluster of vertical green and red strokes, as if the sun were shining through the gaps between the piers.

The river takes up most of the picture, and here Monet concentrated his color. Long horizontal streaks of coral, salmon and orange are laid over green and blue, broken into short dashes that ripple downward toward the viewer. In the lower left a group of rounded, pale blue-gray shapes, perhaps puffs of smoke from a tug or reflections of steam, floats on the water. There are no Parliament towers, no boats with figures, no foliage. The picture is almost entirely about colored light in fog.

Where and when it was painted

Monet painted from the Savoy Hotel during his three London campaigns, in autumn 1899 and in early 1900 and 1901. The view upriver showed the Hungerford railway bridge, known as Charing Cross Bridge; downriver was Waterloo Bridge. He went to London precisely for its fogs, which he described as giving the city its "breadth", and his letters to Alice record days when the sun turned the fog red, orange or green. Our Monet in London hub follows the campaigns.

Wikidata dates the canvas to about 1900, with a range of 1899–1901.

How it was painted

The handling is loose and layered. Monet seems to have laid down an overall green-gray, then brushed horizontal strokes of warm color into it while the paint was still soft, so that the coral streaks blend at their edges. The bridge is reserved rather than drawn, a strip left slightly lighter than the fog around it. This is one of the least finished-looking canvases in the series, and it may have remained in a working state, though it is fully developed in color.

Sunset in the fog

The warm reflections under a green fog suggest late afternoon or sunset, when the low winter sun stood west over the river beyond the bridge and lit it from behind. Compare the Art Institute of Chicago canvas, which Durand-Ruel recorded as soleil couchant (sunset), where the sun is a yellow glow at upper right, or the green-gold Murauchi Art Museum version. Here the effect is pushed further: the bridge and skyline have gone, and only the light on the water remains.

How this version differs

Most Charing Cross canvases keep the towers of Westminster as an anchor at upper right. This one leaves them out entirely, which gives it an abstract quality closer to Monet's late water lilies than to the topographical pictures of the series. It pairs naturally with the dark, unfinished Marmottan study as evidence of how differently Monet could start the same motif. See all versions on our Charing Cross Bridge series page.

Reading an unsigned surface

No signature is visible in the reproduction, which fits a canvas Monet may have kept in a working state rather than sending to his dealer. Many such pictures surfaced only after his death, and their dating relies on comparison with the signed works. Here the color, close to the late-day canvases, and the format, the standard 65 by 81 cm used for many 1899–1900 pictures, both support the date of about 1900.

Where to see it

The painting is in a private collection and is not on public view. Its appearance at Sotheby's New York in November 2018 is the most recent public record. For Charing Cross canvases you can visit, see the museum versions listed in our series page, or where to see Monet's paintings.