Houses of Parlilament, Sunlight Effect 1901

Claude Monet daubed this Houses of Parliament, Sunlight Effect with oil on canvas. What an atmospheric hazing of pigment, with the violet and lavender bleeding into a river of ochre. You can just see Monet out there, in his boat-studio on the Thames, battling the light, trying to trap it on the canvas. I love that it’s a parliament, a seat of power, but it is rendered with such a soft, dissolving touch. I think he's not just painting what he sees, but what he feels when he looks at it. You know, that golden light—those flicks of sun bouncing off the water—he’s trying to capture something so fleeting and so gorgeous. There’s a real conversation here with Turner and Whistler, those other painters of atmosphere and mood. What they all share is a very physical, embodied response to what they see. Like a way of thinking with their eyes and hands at the same time.