The Japanese Bridge

The Japanese Bridge (Le Pont japonais) is one of the late paintings Claude Monet made of the wooden footbridge in his water garden at Giverny, listed in Wildenstein's catalogue raisonné as no. 1922 and dated to about 1919–24. It measures 89 by 116 centimeters. The painting belongs to a private collection and has been lent to the National Gallery in London, which showed it alongside its own Giverny pictures.

What you're looking at

The bridge is a long, shallow arch of deep blue-green crossing the canvas just above the middle, its upper rail picked out with a dark, wiry line. Above it hangs the wisteria and the foliage beyond, a soft mass of turquoise, jade and dark teal, brushed in short arcs and curls, with a few blood-red flecks among the leaves. At the center of the upper half a paler, misty patch of blue-white opens, the distant light under the trees.

The lower half is the pond, and here this version is unusually legible. Pale pink, cream and lilac dabs float on the blue-green water in a loose diagonal band from left to right: lily pads catching the light, and perhaps a few flowers. They make the water read as a flat surface receding toward the bridge, something many of the late bridges lose. At the lower left, a thick clump of blue-violet strokes marks a plant on the bank, perhaps irises. The right edge is a curtain of dark verticals, the willow and reeds.

The overall color is cool and harmonious, close to the bridges of 1899 in key but painted with the swirling, layered touch of Monet's last decade.

Giverny after the war

Monet had first painted the bridge in 1899–1900 in a group of clear, finely balanced views, such as The Japanese Footbridge in Washington. When he returned to it around 1918, the plants had grown over the structure and his eyesight had declined. Cataracts, diagnosed in 1912, dimmed and yellowed his vision until he agreed to an operation on his right eye in 1923.

The late bridges therefore range widely in color, from fiery reds to subdued blues. This canvas sits at the cool end, with the Marmottan Japanese Bridge of 1918–19 and the version in the Van Gogh Museum.

How it was painted

The width, 116 centimeters, makes this a horizontal picture, like the Marmottan's Le Pont japonais (W 1933) of the same size. Monet works the foliage with a loaded brush in curving, overlapping strokes, and the water in horizontal touches separated by bare gaps, so the lily pads float. Thin passages near the edges show the canvas weave. The paint surface is dense but not crusted, and the color is mixed as much on the canvas as on the palette.

How this version differs

Three features set it apart: its cool turquoise palette, its relatively readable pond with pink lily pads, and its horizontal format. Placed beside the emerald São Paulo bridge, it is lighter and more varied in color. Beside the red Marmottan pictures it looks almost serene. See all the versions in the Japanese Footbridge series and the garden in Monet's Giverny.

Where to see it

The painting is privately owned. The National Gallery in London announced its loan from a private collection to hang with the gallery's own Giverny pictures. Long-term loans can end, so check the gallery's current displays before visiting. For Monet's bridge pictures in public collections, see where to see Monet's paintings.