Description
Charing Cross Bridge, London is a hand-painted reproduction of Monet’s canvas in the Art Institute of Chicago: a pale bridge crosses a fog of grey, green and yellow, a cloud of smoke rises above it on the left, tall towers stand like shadows in the yellow haze on the right, and the river below repeats all of it in lilac and turquoise. The original measures 92.2 x 65 cm, is oil on canvas, is signed »Claude Monet 1901« at the lower right, dates from 1901 and carries accession number 1933.1150. We paint it in eight sizes or to your own, with a photograph of the finished work sent for approval before dispatch.
| Title: | Charing Cross Bridge, London |
| Other titles: | Charing Cross Bridge, London (the museum’s title); Londres, Charing Cross Bridge, soleil couchant, 1901 (the Durand-Ruel stock book entry of 1905); in the Wildenstein catalogue the work is number 1527 |
| Painter: | Claude Monet (1840–1926) |
| Year: | 1901 |
| Original size: | 92.2 cm x 65 cm |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Style: | Impressionism |
| Held at: | Art Institute of Chicago (inv. 1933.1150) |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted oil on canvas, eight sizes or made to measure |
Charing Cross Bridge, London – Claude Monet
What is on the canvas?
Fog fills almost the whole canvas, laid on in soft strokes of grey, pale green and yellow. Across the middle runs the bridge, a long pale turquoise band whose piers are reflected in the water below. Above it, towards the left, rises a cloud of smoke in turquoise, pink and white.
On the right, tall pale towers rise into a yellow haze that is brightest in the upper right corner; the museum sees in them the ghostlike silhouette of the Houses of Parliament. The river takes up the lower third in lilac, grey and turquoise, and at the lower right it catches the yellow of the sky. The signature stands at the lower right in blue.
When was it painted, and from where?
The museum dates the canvas 1901, Wikidata gives the same year, and so does the inscription at the lower right, which reads Claude Monet 1901. The museum record says that from September 1899 Monet made almost one hundred paintings of the Thames in London, and that they show only three views: Charing Cross Bridge and Waterloo Bridge, both painted from the Savoy Hotel, and the Houses of Parliament, painted from Saint Thomas’s Hospital.
The museum’s record of Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight Effect adds how the days ran: he painted Waterloo Bridge in the morning and Charing Cross Bridge at midday and in the afternoon, both from his fifth-floor window at the Savoy; he worked on all his London canvases in his studio at Giverny and sent none of them to his dealer until he was satisfied with them as a group.
What does the museum record say about the work?
The work is held by the Art Institute of Chicago under accession number 1933.1150, in the Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection. The museum gives its size as 65 x 92.2 cm, height first, and 87 x 113.1 x 11.2 cm with the frame; Wikidata gives the same 65 x 92.2 cm. The technique is oil on canvas, and in the Wildenstein catalogue the work is number 1527.
The record reads »Inscribed lower right: Claude Monet 1901«. On our own file the signature stands there in blue, with the year after the name, which agrees with the museum. The museum sees in the straight, skeleton-like lines of the bridge an echo of the bridges in Japanese prints, which Monet collected. Our file matches byte for byte the photograph Wikidata points to: 3000 x 2099 pixels, a ratio of 1.4292 against the canvas’s 1.4185. Whether that photograph is cropped we could not measure, because the museum’s photograph server refuses our requests.
Where has the canvas been?
The museum gives the chain in full. Monet sold the canvas to Durand-Ruel in Paris on 30 October 1905 for 8,000 francs; the dealer entered it in his stock book as Londres, Charing Cross Bridge, soleil couchant, 1901. On 20 December 1905 Adrien Hébrard bought it for 15,000 francs as agent for the Prince de Wagram, and on 4 April 1914 it went back to Durand-Ruel in Paris for the same 15,000 francs.
Durand-Ruel passed it to its New York house on 11 November or 9 December 1915; the museum prints both days. On 23 February 1916 Martin A. Ryerson of Chicago, who died in 1932, took it in exchange for a painting by Renoir, Pivoines, and 1,000 dollars in cash, and in 1933 it came to the Art Institute of Chicago by bequest.
The same Ryerson collection credit line stands on two more canvases we sell: The Customs House at Varengeville of 1897, which Ryerson also bought from Durand-Ruel, in 1914, and Water Lilies of 1906.
Which Charing Cross Bridge is this?
Monet painted this bridge more than once, so a title alone does not pick out one canvas. Harvard Art Museums hold one of 1903, Charing Cross Bridge: Fog on the Thames, oil on canvas, 73.7 x 92.4 cm, object number 1979.329. Ours is the Art Institute’s 1933.1150, dated 1901 and 65 x 92.2 cm; if you are looking for this work in particular, go by that number.
Why does this work matter?
Because of what the museum says Monet set himself in London: in a smoky industrial city he took on the challenge of catching effects of light seen through a dense screen of atmosphere. Here the bridge, the smoke and the towers are given in the same few pale colours, and only their edges tell them apart.
Two more London canvases are on our shelf: Waterloo Bridge, Gray Day, the other bridge the museum names as painted from the Savoy, and London, the Houses of Parliament in the Fog, the building whose silhouette stands here in the haze. An impressionist painting of this kind tells no story; it shows light seen through fog.
How is our hand-painted version made?
Every order is painted individually by an artist, in oil on cotton or linen. That is how every canvas painting leaves us, with no print and no machine step. This oil painting reproduction is demanding in the fog: the pale strokes must stay separate and close in value, or the bridge and the towers either vanish or turn hard.
The second test is the yellow in the upper right, which must glow without flattening the grey around it. A Monet reproduction of this kind depends on keeping every colour pale enough to belong to the same air. Work of this kind will not take a high gloss, so ours is matt. A hand-painted copy is not a facsimile; two canvases of the same size always differ in the brushwork.
Which size for which wall?
There are eight sizes, from 50 x 35 to 150 x 110 cm. By size the closest to the original is 90 x 65 cm, 2.2 cm narrower and the same height, and at 1.3846 slightly less elongated than the original’s 1.4185. By proportion the closest are 70 x 50 and 105 x 75 cm, both at 1.4000.
If you want nearly the size of the original, take 90 x 65; if you want its shape on a larger wall, 105 x 75. Its pale, even colour sits quietly in a room used every day, which makes this a good painting for the living room. All sizes are listed with the product in our Claude Monet gallery.
Custom size, stretcher bar and frame
For a size not on the list, made to measure is the only route; send us the width and height and we keep the proportion of the original. The canvas is stretched on a wooden bar. A frame is not included; the museum’s own measures 113.1 x 87 cm and is 11.2 cm deep.
Delivery and guarantee
Making it takes two to three weeks, a few days more at the largest sizes. It arrives stretched on its bar in a rigid box, or rolled in a tube, with tracking. If it arrives damaged or differs noticeably from the approved photograph, we replace it or refund. Small differences in the brushwork are expected in handwork; damage is not.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the original?
In Chicago, at the Art Institute of Chicago, accession number 1933.1150.
What year is it from?
1901. The museum, Wikidata and the inscription at the lower right all give that year.
What does it show?
Charing Cross Bridge in London in fog, with smoke above it and tall towers in the yellow haze beyond.
Where did Monet paint it from?
From the Savoy Hotel, as the museum records; its record of Waterloo Bridge names his fifth-floor window.
Is this a print?
No. Ours is made by hand, in oil on canvas; we sell no printed work.
Which size should I choose?
90 x 65 cm if you want nearly the size of the original, and 70 x 50 or 105 x 75 cm if proportion matters.
Can I have a size that is not listed?
Yes. A piece to your own measurement keeps the proportion of the original at any width.
How does the work reach me?
Stretched on its bar in a rigid box, or rolled in a tube, with tracking.
What is this work about, in one sentence?
About a bridge, a cloud of smoke and a row of towers, all seen through the same London fog.
Is the original for sale and what is it worth?
Not for sale: it is in a museum collection, and we give no valuation.
Is it suitable as a gift?
It is, and if you are unsure of the size there is a voucher with which the recipient chooses.
- Subject. Charing Cross Bridge in fog, with smoke above it and tall towers in the yellow haze.
- Original. Oil on canvas, 92.2 x 65 cm, 1901; signed at the lower right »Claude Monet 1901«; Art Institute of Chicago, inv. 1933.1150.
- Ours. Eight sizes; 90 x 65 cm is closest by size, 70 x 50 and 105 x 75 cm by proportion.
- Worth knowing. The museum records that in 1916 Ryerson took this canvas from Durand-Ruel in exchange for a Renoir and 1,000 dollars.
