Houses of Parliament, London

Houses of Parliament, London is the most symbolically loaded of the three Thames motifs — the gothic towers of Westminster carrying the weight of British imperial power filtered through Monet's atmospheric dissolution into ghostly orange and violet shapes. He painted the Houses of Parliament from the Albert Embankment on the south bank, at dusk when the sunset silhouetted the gothic profile. The resulting canvases transform British political power into Symbolist reverie, the solid stone of empire dissolved by fog and failing light into a mirage.

Monet reduces the gothic towers to near-silhouette against a sky and river that share the same orange, copper, and violet palette, creating a unified atmospheric field. The water surface mirrors the sky's colour, so the buildings float in a wash of reflected light above and below. The actual architectural detail is suppressed in favour of mass and profile.