Monet's London: Parliament in the Fog

Monet first came to London in 1870, to avoid the Franco-German War. There, with Camille Pissarro, he was introduced to the dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, who later became his dealer.¹

He came back as a famous painter. Between 1899 and 1904 he made at least three trips to London for a long series of paintings: the River Thames, Waterloo and Charing Cross bridges, and the Houses of Parliament.¹

In these works the buildings almost disappear. As Britannica puts it, atmosphere, more than the buildings themselves, is Monet's subject: bridges and towers become less solid than the brushstrokes that give volume to “the light-filled fog and mist.”¹

Their colors and romantic mood recall the Thames paintings of J. M. W. Turner and James McNeill Whistler.¹

In 2023, two researchers, Albright and Huybers, published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They measured the contrast in 60 paintings by Turner and 38 by Monet, and compared it with historical sulfur dioxide emissions, an indicator of coal smoke.²

The result: as emissions rose, contrast in the paintings fell, even after accounting for time and subject. Monet's works showed the same shift as Turner's, from crisp outlines toward soft, hazy color.²