Houses of Parliament, Effect of Fog

Monet painted the Houses of Parliament across multiple visits to London between 1899 and 1905, producing nearly forty canvases recording the Gothic Revival facade through fog, mist, and atmospheric haze. This 1904 version belongs to the mature phase of that series — one of the most sustained investigations of atmospheric light in the history of painting. The fog was not merely meteorological for Monet but a subject in itself, dissolving architectural mass into shimmering colour fields. The series marked a turning point toward pure abstraction and influenced generations of painters who followed.

The composition dematerialises the Palace of Westminster into a violet and amber silhouette suspended in fog. Thick, broken strokes create a pulsating atmospheric envelope; no firm contour anchors the structure, and reflections on the Thames mirror the dissolution above.