Houses of Parliament in the Fog

Monet continued to record fleeting effects of light and atmosphere long after many of his fellow Impressionists had abandoned the practice. Around 1890 he began to paint multiple versions of the same motif. Around the turn of the century Monet was working in London and painted a series of views of the Houses of Parliament as seen from a balcony of Saint Thomas’s hospital directly across the River Thames. As is typical of Monet’s late work, this composition, which has no suggestion of depth and features very free brushwork, verges on abstraction.