Houses of Parliament (Monet series)

Claude Monet painted several series of nearly 100 impressionist oil paintings of different views of the Thames River in the autumn of 1899 and the early months of 1900 and 1901 during stays in London.^[1] One of these series consists of views of the Palace of Westminster, home of the British Parliament, and he began the first of these paintings at about 15.45 on 13 February 1900.^[2] All of the series' paintings share the same viewpoint from Monet's window or a terrace at St Thomas' Hospital overlooking the Thames and the approximate canvas size of 81 cm × 92 cm (32 in × 36 3/8 in).^[3][4] They are, however, painted during different times of the day and weather conditions.

By the time of the Houses of Parliament series, Monet had abandoned his earlier practice of completing a painting on the spot in front of the motif. He carried on refining the images back home in Giverny, France, and sent to London for photographs to help in this. This caused some adverse reaction, but Monet's reply was that his means of creating a work was his own business and it was up to the viewer to judge the final result.