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拍品专文
Waterloo Bridge is part of a series of twenty-six pastels completed by Monet during his 1901 stay in London (Wildenstein, P.83-P.108), which ranks as one of Monet's most significant. Executed from the room Monet rented at the Savoy Hotel on Victoria Embankment, Waterloo Bridge revisits a landscape already explored by the artist in 1871 at the time of his self-imposed London exile during the Franco-Prussian War. By 1901, however, Monet's interest had shifted from subject matter to atmospheric impressions.
Waterloo Bridge depicts the bridge's characteristic arcs, some boats gliding over the Thames and, far in the background, a few faint factory chimneys. Fog and mist, however, are the real protagonists of the scene: the shades and colours blend under a grey and dusty layer, recreating the feeling of the wet, dense air of a misty day. Over the bridge, an energetic stream of marks conveys the busy hustle of a commuting crowd fending through the fog.
In his letters, Monet expressed his enchantment and despair at the English weather. In early February that year, Monet cheered: "there is no country more extraordinary (than this one) for a painter!" (C. Monet, quoted in D. Wildenstein, Claude Monet, Catalogue raisonné Vol. IV, Letter 1593, London 1901, p. 351). Already in March, however, he bemoaned: "This is not a country where you can finish a picture on the spot; the effects never reappear". Contemplating the uncertain outcome of a series of paintings which he had began during his previous stays in London and enlarged on that same occasion (Wildenstein 1521-1614), Monet thus complained: "I should have made just sketches, real impressions" (C. Monet, quoted in D. Wildenstein, Monet: The Triumph of Impressionism, Cologne, 1999, p. 354).
Within this context, Waterloo Bridge presents an important counterexample to Monet's London paintings such as Waterloo Bridge, Morning Fog (Wildenstein, 1559). Exasperated with the volubility of London's weather, Monet was forced to complete many canvases back at Giverny, where he reworked and completed them in his studio, far from his motif. Waterloo Bridge, on the other hand, presents a spontaneous, highly evocative and atmospheric sketch of the city's river side: the sought-after 'real impression' Monet tried to recapture at home on his canvases.
Waterloo Bridge depicts the bridge's characteristic arcs, some boats gliding over the Thames and, far in the background, a few faint factory chimneys. Fog and mist, however, are the real protagonists of the scene: the shades and colours blend under a grey and dusty layer, recreating the feeling of the wet, dense air of a misty day. Over the bridge, an energetic stream of marks conveys the busy hustle of a commuting crowd fending through the fog.
In his letters, Monet expressed his enchantment and despair at the English weather. In early February that year, Monet cheered: "there is no country more extraordinary (than this one) for a painter!" (C. Monet, quoted in D. Wildenstein, Claude Monet, Catalogue raisonné Vol. IV, Letter 1593, London 1901, p. 351). Already in March, however, he bemoaned: "This is not a country where you can finish a picture on the spot; the effects never reappear". Contemplating the uncertain outcome of a series of paintings which he had began during his previous stays in London and enlarged on that same occasion (Wildenstein 1521-1614), Monet thus complained: "I should have made just sketches, real impressions" (C. Monet, quoted in D. Wildenstein, Monet: The Triumph of Impressionism, Cologne, 1999, p. 354).
Within this context, Waterloo Bridge presents an important counterexample to Monet's London paintings such as Waterloo Bridge, Morning Fog (Wildenstein, 1559). Exasperated with the volubility of London's weather, Monet was forced to complete many canvases back at Giverny, where he reworked and completed them in his studio, far from his motif. Waterloo Bridge, on the other hand, presents a spontaneous, highly evocative and atmospheric sketch of the city's river side: the sought-after 'real impression' Monet tried to recapture at home on his canvases.