Waterloo Bridge, London, at Sunset

Waterloo Bridge, London, at Sunset was painted in 1904 as part of Monet's celebrated London series, executed across three extended winter visits between 1899 and 1901 and completed in his Giverny studio afterward. Waterloo Bridge, seen from the fifth floor of the Savoy Hotel where Monet habitually stayed, became one of three motifs he painted obsessively alongside Charing Cross Bridge and the Houses of Parliament. The National Gallery of Art in Washington holds several works from this series. The London atmosphere — fog, industrial smoke, and watery winter light — provided conditions of atmospheric transformation far exceeding even the Seine valley's variety.

Sunset on the Thames dissolves the bridge's masonry into warm orange and violet tones reflecting across the water, the structure barely distinguishable from the atmospheric haze. Monet applies paint in curved, directional strokes that create a sense of light physically emanating from the surface.