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Monet visited London several times after 1871. He created many fine works during his three trips in 1899, 1900 and 1901. Setting up his easel on the balcony of the Savoy Hotel that faces the Thames River, Monet painted works that combined the three motifs of the Waterloo Bridge, Parliament and Charing Cross Bridge. This painting is one of this series of works. Caught in a diagonal bird's eye view, the Waterloo Bridge is shown in a slightly reddish palette, with the figures and horses crossing it seeming to float against London's trademark fog. The light faintly shining from the surface of the water is diffused by the vague fog before the object of the bridge which definitively recreates a three dimensional space. The hard compositional element of the bridge is almost completely obscured, and its shape is only slightly visible in the pigments that reflect light. The NMWA collections also contain a painting by Monet of Charing Cross Bridge in London. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no.77)

Provenance

K. Matsukata; Sequestered by the French Government, 1944; Returned to Japan, 1959.

Exhibition History

1952

Monet, Dienst voor Schone Kunsten, Den Haag, 1952 - 1952, cat. no. 78

1960

The Masterpieces of the Ex-Matsukata Collection, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 14 May 1960 - 10 July 1960, cat. no. 77

1962

[Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Hakutsuru Museum, Kobe, 20 October 1962 - 5 November 1962, P-213

1962

[Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Art Gallery of Aichi Prefecture, Nagoya, 17 November 1962 - 9 December 1962, cat. no. 39 (当館記録による）

1963

The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Shimane Prefectural Museum, Matsue, 5 October 1963 - 20 October 1963, P-213

1963

[Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Ishibashi Museum of Art, Kurume, 26 October 1963 - 10 November 1963, P-213

1973

[Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Cultural Center of Kochi Prefecture, Kochi, 28 October 1973 - 25 November 1973, cat. no. 44

1974

[Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Cultural Center of Fukuoka Prefecture, Fukuoka, 13 October 1974 - 10 November 1974, cat. no. 43

1974

[Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Saga Prefectural Museum, Saga, 16 November 1974 - 1 December 1974, cat. no. 43

1975

[Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Yamagata Museum, Yamagata, 1 November 1975 - 30 November 1975, cat. no. 43

1976

[Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Tottori Prefectural Museum, Tottori, 9 October 1976 - 7 November 1976, cat. no. 13

1977

[Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Nara Prefectural Museum, Nara, 15 October 1977 - 13 November 1977, cat. no. 12

1978

European Landscape Painting, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 14 September 1978 - 26 October 1978, cat. no. 77, repr.

1978

European Landscape Painting, Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, Kofu, 3 November 1978 - 15 January 1979, cat. no. 74

1982

Monet, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 9 October 1982 - 28 November 1982, cat. no. 46

1995

[Tour Exhibition] Painting: Tradition and Innovation, Yatsushiro Municipal Museum, Yatsushiro, 14 January 1995 - 5 February 1995, cat. no. 20

1995

[Tour Exhibition] Painting: Tradition and Innovation, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of History, Himeji, Himeji City Museum of Art, 11 February 1995 - 12 March 1995, cat. no. 20

1996

The Crossing Visions: European and Modern Japanese Art from the Collections of The National Museum of Western Art & The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 20 July 1996 - 8 September 1996, cat. no. 8

Bibliography

1955

La Collection Matsukata, Tokyo, Asahi- Shimbun, 1955 (Japanese), no. 39, repr.

1959

Mizue: a monthly review of the fine arts. no. 651, Special Number, July 1959 (in Japanese), repr.

1961

Catalogue du Musée National d'Art Occidental, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1961 (Préface and Catalogue Général in Japanese and French), P-213.

1968

Annual bulletin of the National Museum of Western Art. No. 2, 1968, p. 18, no. 28, repr.

1971

Les cent chefs-d'œuvre du Musée National d'Art Occidental. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1971 (Japanese), no. 55, repr.

1975

Les cent chefs-d'œuvre du Musée National d'Art Occidental. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1975 (Japanese), no. 39, repr.

1978

Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1978 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 46, repr.

1979

The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo: Catalogue of paintings. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1979, no. 195, repr.