Claude Monet’s masterpiece Charing Cross Bridge, brouillard travels from the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto to the McNay for this special presentation. This painting shows one of the key bridges over the Thames River in London with the Houses of Parliament in the background. The Thames held a great fascination for Monet and many other artists, including the American expatriate artist, James Abbott McNeill Whistler. They were fascinated not only by the topography of the Thames but by the ever-changing light effects created by the moisture-laden atmosphere of the river valley. Monet depicts the Thames under a thick layer of fog which softens the sunlight into a diffused, golden haze. Similarly, Whistler showed the dewy air hanging over the river in his lithograph Early Morning. Accompanying the Monet and Whistler works are prints by James Jacques Tissot, John Marin, and contemporary New York artist Yvonne Jacquette.
Monet and Whistler in London is organized for the McNay Art Museum by Lyle W. Williams, Curator of Prints and Drawings, Curator of Modern Art.
