Description

Beginning in September 1899, Claude Monet made almost one hundred paintings of the river Thames in London. These works show only three different views—Charing Cross Bridge and Waterloo Bridge, both painted from the Savoy Hotel; and the Houses of Parliament, painted from Saint Thomas’s Hospital. In the smoggy, industrial city, Monet challenged himself to capture effects of light seen through a dense atmospheric screen. Beyond the rectilinear skeleton of Charing Cross Bridge—reminiscent of bridges in Japanese prints, which the artist collected—rises the ghostlike silhouette of the Houses of Parliament.

Provenance

The artist (d. 1926); sold to Durand-Ruel, Paris, Oct. 30, 1905, for 8,000 francs [this and the following per Durand-Ruel, Paris, stock book for 1901–13 (no. 8018, as Londres, Charing Cross Bridge, soleil couchant, 1901), as confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 21, 2013, curatorial object file]; sold to Adrien Hébrard, as agent for the Prince de Wagram (Alexandre Berthier, 4th Prince de Wagram), Paris, Dec. 20, 1905, for 15,000 francs; sold back to Durand-Ruel, Paris, Apr. 4, 1914, for 15,000 francs [this and the following per Durand-Ruel, Paris, stock book for 1913–21 (no. 10528, as Londres, Charing Cross Bridge, soleil couchant, 1901), as confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 21, 2013, curatorial object file]; sold to Durand-Ruel, New York, Nov. 11 or Dec. 9, 1915; sold to Martin A. Ryerson (d. 1932), Chicago, Feb. 23, 1916, for a painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir [Pivoines, no. 3094], plus $1,000 [per purchase receipt on Durand-Ruel letterhead, dated February 23, 1916, details that this painting (no. 3898, Claude Monet, Charing Cross Bridge, 1901, Soleil couchant) was acquired by M. A. Ryerson, in exchange for a painting by Renoir (no. 3094, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Pivoines) in addition to a cash payment of $1,000, photocopy in curatorial object file; see also Durand-Ruel, New York, stock book for 1904–24 (no. 3898, as Londres, Charing Cross Bridge, soleil couchant, 1901), as confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 21, 2013, curatorial object file]; bequeathed to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.