Claude Monet Goes Abroad

This week in "Monet: The Art of the Series," we turn to the artist's work in London and Venice.

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Houses of Parliament, Effect of Sunlight in the Fog, Claude Monet ca. 1904. © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski

In 1834, a fire burned most of the United Kingdom’s Houses of Parliament to the ground. Westminster Hall, built in 1097, was salvageable—a miracle, thanks to the efforts of brave firefighters and a change in the winds.

Once the ashes settled, it grew obvious that rebuilding would be a tremendous undertaking. A committee in each House decided to host a contest, in which architects could submit plans for a revamped Palace of Westminster. At the time, the Classical style was the norm for British state buildings. But Charles Barry had a bold idea: he submitted a design in the Gothic Revival style. After all, England wasn’t unified until the late 900s; the Gothic seemed a more fitting choice for Parliament’s new home. Barry won the contest, and he soon recruited Augustus Pugin, an architect who believed that the Gothic was the only truly acceptable style for a Christian nation.¹

The entire project wouldn’t be finished until 1870, by which time Barry and Pugin had both passed away. While the Gothic Revival style clearly payed homage to Britain’s medieval past, its construction included modern developments. Its central tower was designed as a ventilating chimney, making it one of the world’s earliest artificial ventilation systems, and its clock tower (famously known as Big Ben) was the most accurate clock of its kind when it was completed in 1859.²

Claude Monet arrived in London in 1870, just in time to see Barry and Pugin’s final masterpiece. It was four years before the First Impressionist Exhibition would shock Paris, though gallery shows were likely the furthest thing from Monet’s mind. He and his first wife Camille were among the many refugees of the Franco-Prussian War who had temporarily relocated to Britain.