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We look across a river at a bridge that spans the center of this horizontal landscape, which is painted entirely with broad, visible brushstrokes in pastel colors. The straight deck of the bridge crosses the center of the composition but angles slightly away from us as it moves to our right. The four low arches of the bridge are painted with cotton candy pink and pale apricot. The sky above is painted loosely with light aquamarine blue and watery turquoise. A few vertical strokes of paint over the bridge suggests buildings along the riverbank beyond. The bridge is reflected in the water below so the blue, green, orange, and pink swirl together. The artist signed the painting in violet-purple letters in the lower right corner: “Claude Monet.”

Claude Monet

Waterloo Bridge, London, at Sunset, 1904

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 80

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 65.5 × 92.7 cm (25 13/16 × 36 1/2 in.)

framed: 84.46 × 111.13 × 8.89 cm (33 1/4 × 43 3/4 × 3 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Accession Number

1983.1.28

Artists / Makers

Claude Monet (artist) French, 1840 - 1926

Image Use

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Inscription

lower right: Claude Monet

Provenance

Purchased from the artist December 1920 by (Durand-Ruel, Paris) and (Bernheim-Jeune, Paris); (Durand-Ruel, New York) by 1922.[1] (Sam Salz, Inc., New York); sold 2 November 1960 to Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia; gift 1983 to NGA.

[1]See Wildenstein, Daniel, Monet: Catalogue Raisonné, 1996, vol. III: no. 1583 regarding the early history of this painting.

Associated Names

Bernheim-Jeune
Durand-Ruel et Cie
Mellon, Paul
Salz, Sam

Exhibition History

1966: French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, no. 90, repro

1986: Gifts to the Nation: Selected Acquisitions from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1986, unnumbered checklist

1988: Monet in London, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 1988-1989, no. 14, repro.

1996: Claude Monet, Österreichische Galerie, Vienna, 1996, no. 69, repro., as Waterloo Bridge, Pink Effect.

1996: Obras Maestras de la National Gallery of Art de Washington, Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City, 1996-1997, unnumbered catalogue, 170-171, color repro.

1997: Loan for display with permanent collection, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, England, 1997.

2004: Claude Monet, A Hymn to Light: Selected Works from the 1870s and 1890s, Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum; Nara Prefectural Museum of Art, 2004, no cat.

2005: Monet's London: Artists' Reflections on the Thames, 1859-1914, Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida; Brooklyn Museum; The Baltimore Museum of Art, 2005, no. 32, repro.

2011: Turner, Monet, Twombly: Later Paintings, Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Staatsgalerie Stuttgart; Tate Liverpool, 2011-2012, no. 21, repro.

2017: Monet: Light, Shadow, and Reflection, Fondation Beyeler, Basel, 2017, no. 131, repro.

Bibliography

1974: Wildenstein, Daniel. Claude Monet: biographie et catalogue raisonné. 5 vols. Lausanne and Paris, 1974-1991: no. 1583.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 282, repro.