Parliament, Reflections on the Thames 1905

Claude Monet painted this view of the Houses of Parliament on the Thames during several visits to London between 1899 and 1901. It’s no accident that Monet, a French artist, turned his eye to the heart of the British Empire. In the late 19th century, London was the financial capital of the world, and its skyline was dominated by the Palace of Westminster, the seat of the British government. The Houses of Parliament represented the center of a vast colonial project. Monet’s painting is more than just a landscape. It represents the complex relationship between France and Britain at the turn of the 20th century. It asks us to think about the social conditions that shape artistic production, and the power of art to challenge existing social norms. To understand this work better, we might turn to political histories of Europe, studies of British Imperialism, and artistic criticism.