Monet and London

The first collection of Monet’s paintings of the Thames exhibited in London since 1904

This beautiful volume accompanies a major exhibition at The Courtauld Gallery that reunites for the first time in 120 years an extraordinary group of Claude Monet’s Impressionist paintings of London. The exhibition realizes the artist’s unfulfilled ambition of showing the group on the banks of the Thames, just a stone’s throw from where many of them were created.

Monet (1840–1926) is world renowned as the leading figure of French Impressionism, but many forget that some of Monet’s most remarkable Impressionist paintings were made not in France but in London. They depict extraordinary views of the Thames as it had never been seen before, full of mysterious light and radiant colors. Captured over three stays in the capital between 1899 and 1901, the series—depicting Charing Cross Bridge, Waterloo Bridge, and the Houses of Parliament—was unveiled at a landmark exhibition in Paris in 1904. Monet fervently wanted to show them in London the following year, but plans fell through. Until now, they have never been the subject of an exhibition in the UK.

Monet and London: Views of the Thames realizes Monet’s ambition of showing this extraordinary group of paintings in London. By presenting the paintings Monet himself selected in 1904, it provides visitors with the unique experience of seeing the show Monet curated and the works he felt best represented his ambitious artistic enterprise, brought together more than a century after their inaugural exhibition. The catalogue is richly illustrated and includes twenty-one entries and four original essays that shed new light on this famous series.

Author Biography

Karen Serres is senior curator of paintings at The Courtauld Gallery. Frances Fowle is chair of nineteenth-century art at the University of Edinburgh and senior curator of French art at National Galleries Scotland. Jennifer A. Thompson is head of European painting and sculpture at Philadelphia Museum of Art.