Charing Cross Bridge (overcast day), 1900

Coal dust combined with naturally damp weather in the 19th century to create near twilit conditions in London, even at midday. Seated on the balcony of his hotel room overlooking the Thames, Monet produced thirty-five views of Charing Cross Bridge in September of 1899, using the city’s polluted atmosphere to poetic ends. Glittering reflections of yellow sunlight dapple the water through a violet fog, dissolving the bridge and distant towers of Parliament into hazy abstraction.

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

painting by Claude Monet (Museum: Museum of Fine Arts)