Claude Monet
1903
Oil on canvas
Writing to his wife, Alice, from London in March 1900, Claude Monet described the day’s astonishing weather: ‘today’s weather has been crazy, at times very fine with a delicious fog, then suddenly an extraordinary clarity and, with that, very cold with gusts of snow’. In this depiction of Waterloo Bridge, one feels the crisp air that accompanies the bright sunshine turning the grey of the granite bridge into a soft pink. The golden light seems more reminiscent of the south of France or Venice (other places painted by Monet) than of England. However, the incredible variety of light and the ever-changing weather effects were precisely what so fascinated Monet about London.