Charing Cross Bridge, reflets sur la Tamise

Charing Cross Bridge, Reflets sur la Tamise (Reflections on the Thames) from 1900 at the Baltimore Museum of Art emphasizes the river's reflective surface as much as the bridge above it — the warm atmospheric color of the London air reflected and transformed in the Thames below, creating a doubled chromatic field. Reflections had been central to Monet's visual thinking since the Argenteuil period, and the London river presented them in an atmospheric context unique to this city: the reflections carried the coal-smoke color of the air as well as the sky's hue, giving them a warmth absent from the cleaner reflections of the Norman Seine. The Baltimore Museum of Art holds two Monet London series canvases — this and the Waterloo Bridge in Sun with Smoke — together documenting different aspects of the series. Baltimore's French Impressionist holdings, built through the Cone Collection and other major gifts, include major works from multiple periods and make the BMA one of America's most important Impressionist venues outside New York and Boston.

Monet lays color in broad horizontal strokes across the river surface, with warm oranges and pinks floating against cool greys and blues. The bridge is barely distinguishable from its reflection, both dissolved into atmospheric shimmer. Forms are entirely subordinated to the sensation of light.