Claude Monet

Michel Monet, Giverny (the artist's son)
Private Collection, Switzerland (by descent from the above)
Private Collection, Switzerland (acquired from the above; sale: Christie's, London, 6th February 2003, lot 414)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

London, Royal Academy of Arts & Williamstown, Sterling and Francine Clark Institute, The Unknown Monet: Pastels and Drawings, 2007, no. 259, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Daniel Wildenstein, Monet, Catalogue raisonné, supplément aux peintures, dessins, pastels, Lausanne, 1991, vol. V, no. P103, illustrated p. 175

Executed on cream wove paper, not laid down, attached to the mount at all four corners and floating in the mount. All four edges are deckled. There is some previous mount staining along the upper and right edges, and there are some scattered spots of foxing to the sheet. There is a faint embossed mark to the upper left corner, possibly original. This work is in overall good condition.
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Waterloo Bridge, brouillard was composed from Claude Monet's apartment in the Savoy Hotel in London, where he executed his celebrated series of both Waterloo and Charing Cross bridges between 1901 and 1904. The artist shared much of his subject matter and subjectivity in regards to London with his friend and colleague James McNeill Whistler. Both artists were equally enchanted by the mesmerising effects of mist and fog on London's metropolis. As Monet himself declared, 'what I like most of all in London is the fog... because, without the fog, London would not be a beautiful city. It is the fog that gives it marvellous breadth. Its regular, massive blocks become grandiose in this mysterious cloak' (quoted in Monet's London, Artist's Reflections on the Thames, 1859-1914 (exhibition catalogue), Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida, 2005, p. 33).

Within the present work, Monet captures the impenetrable, hypnotising haze of a fog sunk over the River Thames on a cold winter morning, with an avant-garde, almost abstract, flair. A few successful rays of sun illuminate the three barges creeping carefully upstream, wary of the approaching bridge, masked behind a thick veil of cloud. The distinctive atmosphere of a winter morning is encapsulated through the use of heavy, layered pastel, the greys and whites of the sky encompassing the dreary dampness of the air. The welcoming soft blue silhouette of the bridge and triumvirate of barges absorb the viewer in the mysterious beauty of the scene. A faint outline of the London skyline illusively occupies the space just behind the bridge, subtly rendered in a slightly darker shade of pastel. Monet's movement away from figuration into more abstract realms in the present work is a testament to his creative process. He successfully renders the ethereal enigma of the subject matter with an unparalleled ability and technique.