Claude Monet
1903
Oil on canvas
63.5 x 98.4 cm
Visitors to London were struck by the scale of the Thames, the amount of daily traffic around it and the level of industrial activity along its banks. London was the most populous city in the world at the time and the Thames its vital artery. The long barges and the steamboat in the foreground of this painting, as well as the factories in the distance – which worked at full blast six days a week – are a reminder of the hidden human labour powering the city, most often in dangerous and polluted circumstances.