Houses of Parliament (Monet series)
Some of the 19 known paintings in the "Houses of Parliament" series: Under exile during the Franco-Prussian War, Monet travelled to London for the first time in 1870. Monet became enthralled with the city, and vowed to return to it someday. Monet's fascination with London lay primarily in its fogs, a byproduct of the Industrial Revolution. But writers hypothesize that Monet was also inspired by contemporaries J. M. W. Turner and James Abbott McNeill Whistler, who were similarly fascinated by London's atmosphere and atmospheric effects in general. Thus, in 1899, Monet returned to London and rented a room in the Savoy Hotel, which offered an extensive viewpoint from which to begin his series of the city. Between 1899 and 1905 Monet periodically travelled to London to paint. In addition to the "Houses of Parliament" paintings, Monet created other paintings of the city's sights, including the Charing Cross Bridge series and Waterloo Bridge series. While Monet began all of the paintings in London, he completed many of them in his studio in Giverny. As a result, some critics question whether the paintings are completely accurate. On the other hand, recent analyses of solar positioning report that Monet's paintings "contain elements of accurate observation and may potentially be considered as a proxy indicator for the Victorian smogs and atmospheric states they depict. " In 2018 the Tate Britain in London exhibited six paintings of the series, together in a single room, for the duration of a temporary exhibition titled "Impressionists in London, French artists in exile (1870–1904)", devoted to the temporary exile of French and impressionist artists in London during the Franco-Prussian War. This was a rare occurrence because no museum owns or exhibits more than two in a permanent collection. The paintings were also shown at the Petit Palais when the temporary exhibition travelled from London to Paris. The six paintings were the examples from the following collections: Again in 2018 the National Gallery in London exhibited three paintings of the series, together in a single room, for the duration of a temporary exhibition titled "Monet & Architecture", devoted to Claude Monet's use of architecture as a means to structure and enliven his art. This was a rare occurrence because no museum owns or exhibits more than two in a permanent collection. The three paintings exhibited were the examples from the following collections:
Context
By the time of the "Houses of Parliament" series, Monet had abandoned his earlier practice of completing a painting on the spot in front of the motif.