Claude Monet’s “House of Parliament, Sun” is a quintessential example of Impressionism, a movement marked by an interest in capturing the transient effects of light and color. Painted in 1903, this artwork falls within the cityscape genre, representing a scene of the British Houses of Parliament in London. This piece is one of many in a series Monet painted during different times of the day and varying weather conditions, exploring the interplay of light across the face of the iconic structure.
The artwork depicts the Houses of Parliament enveloped in an atmosphere suffused with shades of fiery orange, reflective of the sun’s glow. The silhouette of the gothic architecture stands out against a backdrop of vibrant hues that seem to merge the sky and the water below. Monet’s brushstrokes are loose and expressive, typical of the Impressionist technique, which serves to create a sensation of the scene rather than a detailed representation. This approach evokes a sense of the ephemeral moment when the sun casts its warm light upon the city, thereby imbuing the artwork with a vivid, almost ethereal quality. The water’s surface is rendered with dashes of color, suggesting the reflection of the sun and the sky, and contributing to the overall impression of a fleeting instant captured in paint.
