“Some of Monet’s most remarkable Impressionist paintings were made not in France but in London,” says the London gallery hosting the show. “They depict extraordinary views of the Thames as it had never been seen before, full of evocative atmosphere, mysterious light and radiant colour.”
Between 1899 and 1903, Claude Monet created 94 pieces featuring the Thames over the course of three trips to London. These works showed the Charing Cross Bridge, the Waterloo Bridge and the Houses of Parliament at different times of day and in various weather conditions.
Claude Monet had planned to display these paintings at an exhibition in London in 1905, but changed his mind shortly before the show was due to open as he was worried the works weren’t good enough. Despite Monet’s reservations about his Thames pieces, the works have only grown more popular - some fetching astonishing sums at auction. In 2022, Le Parlement, soleil couchant (Houses of Parliament, Sunset) sold for a whopping $76 million at Christie’s.
Now, nearly 120 years later, nineteen of the original paintings are finally coming together at London’s Courtauld Gallery. The show, Monet and London: Views of the Thames, will open on 27 September and run until mid January 2025.
The Courtauld Gallery writes that the exhibition will “realize Monet’s unfulfilled ambition of showing this extraordinary group of paintings in London, on the banks of the Thames just 300 meters from the Savoy Hotel, where many of them were created.”
Let's hope that this time, there won’t be a last-minute cancellation.
Komentar