Waterloo Bridge, Hazy Sun

Waterloo Bridge, Hazy Sun (Waterloo Bridge, soleil voilé) is one of Claude Monet's views of the Thames from the Savoy Hotel, signed and dated 1903 at lower left. It measures 65.1 × 100.7 cm and is number 1591 in the Wildenstein catalogue raisonné. It belonged to the Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen, reportedly from 1997, and was sold at Christie's New York on 9 November 2022, in the sale of his collection, for $64.5 million with fees. It is now in a private collection.

What you're looking at

The bridge is the brightest thing in the picture, which is unusual for the series. Its arches, deck and parapet are painted in warm peach, apricot and cream, as if the low sun, veiled by haze, were striking the stone from the side. Along the deck runs a lively line of small touches in orange, yellow and green, the morning traffic catching the light.

Above, the sky is a soft lilac-grey. Through it, the chimneys and towers of the south bank rise as faint violet verticals, with a trail of smoke from the tallest. The river below is a calm lilac-blue, with long, soft reflections of the pale arches. At lower right, a barge with a red-brown sail and a smaller boat sit on the water.

This version is distinct for that warm, side-lit bridge against cool surroundings. The title's "veiled sun" is never seen directly; it is felt in the peach glow on the stonework.

Where and when it was painted

Monet painted Waterloo Bridge in the mornings from the Savoy during his London stays of 1899, 1900 and 1901, and then reworked the canvases at Giverny, dating them when he considered them finished. Like many of the 1903 canvases, this one was probably begun in London several years before the date it carries. Thirty-seven of the Thames views were shown at Durand-Ruel in Paris in 1904.

How it was painted

The paint is layered in small, dense strokes, warmer on the bridge, cooler on sky and water. The traffic and the barge's sail are the thickest touches. The careful modulation of warm and cool across a narrow range of values reflects the long studio reworking that Monet gave the London pictures.

How this version differs

In the Waterloo Bridge series, its closest relatives are the Tokyo Waterloo Bridge in London, pinker and without chimneys, and the Art Institute of Chicago's Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight Effect of the same year, where the bridge is lilac and the sun shows as colored flecks. The Memorial Art Gallery's Waterloo Bridge, Veiled Sun shares the title but is a different canvas.

A detail to look for

The barge at lower right has a red-brown sail and a long dark hull, and next to it a smaller boat seems to be rowing or drifting. Painted in a few strokes, these boats are the only firm forms on the water. Monet often included Thames sailing barges in the Waterloo Bridge canvases, and they tie the series to the working life of the river: these barges carried hay, bricks and other cargo up and down the Thames. Here, their warm sail echoes the peach glow of the bridge above, a subtle link between the river's traffic and the light.

Ownership

The 2022 sale of the Paul G. Allen Collection at Christie's totaled more than $1.5 billion, the largest single-owner auction to that date, with proceeds directed to philanthropy. The Monet's hammer price, about $56 million, fell slightly short of its reported estimate of around $60 million, and the buyer was not named. For London views by Claude Monet on public view, see Monet in London and where to see Monet's paintings.

Monet's Waterloo Bridge canvases appear on the market only rarely, because so many are in museums, and each sale of one in good condition is closely watched as a measure of demand for his London series.