Waterloo Bridge, Overcast 1903, oil on canvas, Ordrupgaard, Denmark, photo: Anders Sune Berg

FEW artists would mind reaching the end of a selling exhibition with just short of two-thirds of their paintings purchased.

But for Claude Monet (1840-1926) the sales from his series of views of the River Thames, shown in Paris in 1904, effectively put paid to his plans for a speedy follow-up exhibition in London.

Yet as Dr Karen Serres, curator of a new show* at the Courtauld Gallery says, the exposure at his dealer Paul Durand-Ruel’s premises on the Rue Lafitte was such a success that it “proved to be a landmark in Monet’s career, bringing him critical and commercial success and confirming his status as France’s leading painter”.

A total of 37 paintings were there in Paris and, remarkably, the Courtauld has managed to gather together 18 of those in its current show of 21 Thames views.

Waterloo Bridge, Veiled Sun, 1899-1903, oil on canvas, private collection, photo © Christie’s Images / Bridgeman Images

Monet and his family had sought refuge in London from the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. His fascination with its river and its polluted industrial backdrop would develop and by 1887 he had mentioned a possible return to capture “some fog effects” on the Thames.
Or wintry smog!

What would follow, though, few would have predicted. As Serres notes Monet ended up producing some 100 or so views of the river concentrating on three sites, Charing Cross Bridge, Waterloo Bridge and the Houses of Parliament (34 known paintings, 41, and 19, respectively).

All of these were begun during stays in the capital in 1899-1901 but many finished and reworked in his Giverny studio. Dates included for individual works are therefore questionable.

So the significance of reuniting this extraordinary group of paintings after 120 years – at the same time marking 150 years since the first Impressionist exhibition – is not lost.

The Houses of Parliament: Effect of Fog, London 1904, oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, St Petersburg, Florida

Or, indeed, the Somerset House location, which is about 300 metres away from the Savoy Hotel where Monet had first taken two sixth-floor rooms overlooking the Thames, one cleared out as a studio. He would later return but be relocated directly underneath, on the fifth floor; and he would also cross the river where some of the parliament paintings were undertaken from the grounds of St Thomas’ Hospital.

In an interview with an American journalist in September 1901, Monet reportedly said of his Thames views: “The fog assumes all sorts of colours; there are black, brown, yellow, green purple fogs. My practiced eye has found that objects change in appearance in a London fog more and quicker than in any other atmosphere and the difficulty is to get every change down on canvas.”

The Houses of Parliament, Sunset, 1904, oil on canvas, Kunstmuseen Krefeld – Volker Döhne – ARTOTHEK

And the Courtauld’s view is that these works, produced 40 years after Monet’s debut, embody the complexity of his practice “as he pushed the Impressionist approach to the extreme”.

And Serres likens his series paintings to “what we would call today ‘an installation’,” and says: “For him it was very important that his paintings be seen together not one by one.”

Truly spectacular, these subtle works take on a new significance here, and an accompanying catalogue includes detailed new research. Loans have been made from far and wide, including Paris, Lyon, Harvard, Milwaukee, Florida, New York, Potsdam and from private collections.

• The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Monet and London, Views of the Thames* is at The Courtauld Gallery, Somerset House, Strand WC2R 0RN until January 19. Further details: www.courtauld.ac.uk