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The secret of Monet's style, part II
By Louise Jury, Evening Standard 14.06.07
Foggy mind: Monet's blurry painting of Waterloo Bridge
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His paintings are famously blurry and it was always thought the cataracts that afflicted Claude Monet were responsible.
Last month, American scientists even revealed just how badly the great French Impressionist's distinctive style was affected by his condition.
Now it has emerged that London's weather may also have contributed.
Christie's is auctioning letters that recorded the artist's struggles with thick fog when he painted one of his famous views of the River Thames.
They were written to his wife Alice in France in 1901 on headed notepaper from the Savoy Hotel, where he was staying.
Monet made it clear that poor weather was hampering the work that was to become worth millions.
On Friday 8 February, he wrote: "Today the sun did not show itself and that really both-ered me. The fog was very thick the whole day, even though I remained conscientiously on the look-out, having my lunch brought up to me for fear that a break in the weather might occur while I was in the restaurant, but in spite of everything the day was not much good ..."
What was particularly stupid, Monet noted, was that the weather was fine but the sun was obstructed by one of London's infamous pea-soupers.
The next was day was no better: "Another day of complete fog without seeing very much at all."
But he was slightly more cheery by the following Monday when he reported good progress, although the work remained hard.
"The weather is still very fine, the effects highly variable because of this marvellous mist," he wrote.
Monet's spirits had been raised by a visit to the Café Royal with the writer George Moore. He also passed on news of a poor British showing in the Boer War gleaned from a hotel waiter.
The artist later adapted to the weather and eventually declared: "What I like most of all in London is the fog."
The three letters are expected to make up to £7,000 when they are sold by Christie's in London on 3 July. Monet made three visits to the capital between 1899 and 1901, when he worked on his great series, Views Of The Thames. These include works such as The Waterloo Bridge, which is due to be sold in London next week. The artist wrote many letters describing the first few days of his second trip.
These were owned by the late Albin Schram, a wealthy Austrian banker, who also owned letters written by Lord Byron, Winston Churchill, John Donne, Charles Dickens, Elizabeth I, Sigmund Freud, Gandhi, Napoleon and Oliver Cromwell.
The collection's existence was known to almost no one, including his family, until his death in 2005.
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