Charing Cross Bridge, London

Charing Cross Bridge, London is one of the Thames series from Monet's 1899–1901 London campaigns. Charing Cross Bridge, a railway bridge, offered a more industrial subject than the gothic silhouette of the Houses of Parliament, its iron structure and the steam from passing trains contributing to the atmospheric dissolved effects Monet sought. He painted all three Thames subjects — Waterloo Bridge, Charing Cross Bridge, the Houses of Parliament — simultaneously from his Savoy Hotel window, the three series constituting a unified serial investigation of London atmosphere at different distances and architectural scales.

The railway bridge's iron structure is dissolved into the London atmosphere, its arches readable as tonal suggestions rather than described forms. Steam from trains merges with the overall haze, contributing to the atmospheric unity. Monet works in a close, muted tonal range of greys, mauves, and warm ochres appropriate to the London fog.