Le Pont de Waterloo, Londres

Monet's Le Pont de Waterloo, Londres perfectly captures the hazy London light that so fascinated Monet on his trips to the English capital, harnessing with a minimum of means the atmosphere that the artist found so beguiling. Between 1899 and 1901, Monet made several visits to London, during which he painted Waterloo Bridge a number of times, amongst other sights. The first of these visits was not an expressly artistic voyage like so many of his excursions, but was merely a trip to visit his son Michel and inspect his accommodation. However, Monet immediately fell in love with the view from his room in the Savoy Hotel, with both Waterloo Bridge and Charing Cross Bridge below him, and proceeded to paint it with great vigour. One of the most appealing attractions for Monet was the muted, changeable light, largely the product of the London fog. Rendering the plays of light this created, with the sun's rays filtered in a diffuse way, represented a great challenge for him and he was filled with enthusiasm to capture the scenes, turning his suite into an impromptu studio. Monet had previously visited London in 1870, with his first wife Camille, largely to escape the turmoil of the Franco-Prussian War. It was a very important time for him art historically, as he renewed his ties with Camille Pissarro, one of the greatest influences on his work. Likewise, these renewed visits had a huge impact on his work and his appreciation of light. The smog, a fog created by industrial smoke from London's factories, created an atmosphere that appealed hugely to Monet, even to the extent that he once wrote, 'When I got up, I was terrified to see that there was no fog, not even the least trace of a mist; I was in despair... but then little by little, as the fires were lit, the smoke and the mist returned' (cited in D. Wildenstein, Monet or the Triumph of Impressionism, vol. I, Cologne, 1996, p. 345).

Monet repeated his trips to London in 1900 and 1901. This latter was largely in order to attend an exhibition of Impressionist art at the Hanover gallery, being organised by the dealer Durand-Ruel. From the beginning, though, Monet had intended to utilise this trip to paint, finishing some of his older works. He therefore arranged for several crates of canvases to be sent to the Savoy. However, these were delayed and while he waited, Monet turned to pastel. In fact, this medium was far more suited to capturing the whimsical London light, as Monet could complete a pastel in far less time than an oil. John Singer Sargent, visiting Monet in the Savoy, was amused by the sight of the Frenchman darting around the room seeking precisely the right picture in order to recapture a light effect outside, usually only finding the right canvas by the time the light had changed. With pastel, however, Monet could capture these ephemeral effects in a moment. Later, he regretted not producing more immediate works: 'This is not a country where you can finish a picture on the spot; the effects never reappear. I should have made just sketches, real impressions' (cited in ibid., p. 354).

Le Pont de Waterloo, Londres perfectly shows how Monet managed, as he surmised, to capture the strange London light by using speed of execution to his advantage. The gentle haze of the mist, punctuated by the muted shadows and relieved by the sunlight that manages to peep through, reflected on the bridge and water, has been instantaneously captured, Monet managing to perfectly condense the atmosphere and impression of this London scene.