Claude Monet - London in the Fog
Claude Monet’s legacy as an artist will always centre around his paintings of French landscapes.
From Paris and it’s surrounding communes, to holidays in the South of France, to his own home gardens and the iconic water lily pond at Giverny . . . his prolific output of more than 2500 surviving works continue to cement his status as one of the world’s most famous painters.
But today, I wanted us to follow Monet on a couple of trips outside of his home country - to the times he spent “across the pond” in London, England.
Monet actually first visited London as a young man in 1870 - taking refuge in England, (much like his friend Camille Pissarro at the time), in order to avoid conscription and countless other possible dangers from the recent outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War.
While there, the artist still painted as much as his limited financial situation would allow. But in fact, the most transformative part of this initial visit would not necessarily be the paintings Monet created personally - rather, it was those that he observed instead.
Particularly from the likes of John Constable and JMW Turner.
Though both men had been dead for decades before Monet’s arrival - their work was still shown across London as some of the very best that British art had ever produced.
And especially with Mr. Turner - due to his extraordinary gift of painting sublime sunsets, and foggy/atmospheric light - Monet found someone who seemed to be speaking the exact language he had always been looking for as a painter.
This was the kind of art where the emotion of a landscape could be captured in a way that did not rely on absolute realism.
Had finances allowed, there is no doubt that Monet would have chosen to stay much longer on this first visit to England.
Yet still, in moving back to France again in 1871, he vowed to return to London at some point to build on the creative foundations he had already left there.
And though it would take another 28 years (in which time, Monet’s reputation went from being one of the most mocked artist in all of Paris, to one of the most admired) . . . eventually, the great man did indeed make good on this promise.
In 1899 spent a few weeks in London again - this time, with the added luxury of being able to afford residence at the famous Savoy Hotel.
And over the course of three more visits in the coming years, Monet painted almost 100 pictures of England’s capital.
These paintings show London in a light and an atmosphere that really had never been known before. And for that reason, they stand equal to all his greatest landscapes of his home country too.
You can take the artist out of France. . . . but you cannot take the magic of impressionism out of a man like Claude Monet!
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The recent exhibition at the Courtauld devoted to these was miraculous - and the catalogue is easy to get. Makes one proud again of Turner. Thanks for such a perceptive piece - as usual!
Thank you! BTW: Have you ever seen a Constable with a clear sky?