Monet at The National Gallery
The National Gallery in London holds a small but exceptionally well chosen group of paintings by Claude Monet. It is not a collection built on quantity; almost every canvas is a turning point, which makes the Monet rooms in Trafalgar Square unusually efficient for anyone trying to understand how Impressionism came about.
Britain, the Thames and a reluctant welcome
Monet knew London well. He sheltered there during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, studied Turner and Constable in its museums, and returned around the turn of the century to paint the Thames from the Savoy Hotel and St Thomas’ Hospital. British institutions were slow to buy Impressionism, and the National Gallery’s holdings were assembled largely through later purchases and private bequests, once the argument had been won. That late start had one advantage: by the time the gallery bought, it could choose carefully rather than take what was available.
Visitors typically find Bathers at La Grenouillere, painted in 1869 beside Renoir and often called one of the first true Impressionist canvases, along with The Thames below Westminster from Monet’s wartime stay, a version of The Gare St-Lazare, and The Water-Lily Pond of 1899 with its green Japanese footbridge. Seen in one visit, they compress thirty years of change into a handful of rooms. Every painting listed below can be commissioned as a hand-painted oil reproduction in the size your wall needs.
16 Monet works from The National Gallery
These paintings tend towards the cool end of Monet: river greens, Thames greys, damp air and soft light. That is a gift in British and northern European homes, where a picture has to hold up on an overcast afternoon as well as in July. The Thames and Seine views suit hallways and stairwells, where their long horizontals do useful work. The Water-Lily Pond is the natural choice for a room you want to feel enclosed and green. Hang them slightly lower than instinct suggests; these are paintings that reward being met at eye level. See the full range.
Official collection: The National Gallery