Charing Cross Bridge. Fog on the Thames

Claude Monet

1903

Oil on canvas

73.7 x 92.4 cm

This view of Charing Cross Bridge strikingly differs from Claude Monet’s other depictions. Instead of neatly bisecting the composition, the bridge is here seen at an angle and part of the south bank is included, albeit barely visible. In this representation, Monet has taken the dissolving effects of the fog to their extreme.

Although the dates of Monet’s Views of the Thames range from 1900 to 1904, the artist’s correspondence confirms that no work was finished until shortly before their public display in 1904. The dates inscribed on the canvases were therefore added by Monet at that time and don’t necessarily correspond to their actual date of completion.

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum. Photo: President and Fellows of Harvard College