3218 - CLAUDE MONET

CLAUDE MONET (Paris 1840–1926 Giverny) Bateaux sur la Tamise. 1900/01. Pastel on paper. Signed lower left: Claude Monet. 31.5 × 43.8 cm. Provenance: - Michel Monet, Giverny, 1926. - Dr August Meyer, Basel, acquired from the above before 1977. - Kunstmuseum Basel, received as a gift from the above in 1977. - Auction Galerie Fischer, Lucerne, 17 November 1982, lot 320 (as ‘Flotte, einen Hafen durchquerend, bei Sonnenuntergang’). - Jacques Fricker, Crespières, acquired at the above auction through Galerie Fricker, Paris. - J.P. Schneider Jr, Frankfurt am Main, acquired from the above in 1984 through Kunstkabinett Fleischmann, Munich. - Private collection, Germany, acquired from the above in 1984. - Private collection, Germany, acquired from the above collection in 2003 through J.P. Schneider Jr. - Private collection, Germany, acquired from the above collection in 2012. Exhibited: Possibly exhibited: Basel 1949, Impressionisten. Monet, Pissarro, Sisley, Vorläufer und Zeitgenossen, Kunsthalle Basel, 3 September–20 November 1949, no. 242. Literature: - Wildenstein Plattner Institute: Claude Monet. The Revised Catalogue Raisonné. The Pastels, no. CMRJZ9 P107 (online catalogue raisonné: https://digitalprojects.wpi.art/monet/artworks/detail?a=75623-bateaux-sur-la-tamise). - Daniel Wildenstein: Monet. Catalogue raisonné. Werkverzeichnis, Bonn 1996, vol. V, p. 174, no. P 109 (ill.). We thank the Wildenstein Plattner Institute for confirming the authenticity of the work, June 2026. When Monet returned to London in 1899 after an absence of almost thirty years, he found the Thames an ideal subject for his artistic explorations. London's characteristic fog, mingling with the smoke of the industrial city, transformed buildings and bridges into ever-changing arrangements of colour and form. On subsequent visits in 1900 and 1901, he devoted himself to the shifting light and weather that could alter the city's appearance in a matter of moments. From his room at the Savoy Hotel, he painted Waterloo Bridge and Charing Cross Bridge; for his views of the Houses of Parliament, he worked from St Thomas’ Hospital on the opposite bank. Yet Monet did not always turn to London's famous landmarks to capture its distinctive atmosphere. Alongside his celebrated views of the bridges and Parliament, he made a handful of pastels devoted instead to boats and fleeting impressions of the Thames. The present ‘Bateaux sur la Tamise’ belongs to a group of just four sheets whose exact place of execution remains unknown. The absence of an identifiable setting is part of their appeal. During his London visits, Monet produced only 28 pastels alongside his celebrated series of paintings. His choice of medium initially arose from necessity: on arriving in London, he did not yet have his usual painting materials. Pastel was nevertheless familiar to him from his youth. His early mentor Eugène Boudin, who encouraged him to paint outdoors, had used it to capture changing natural phenomena directly. Monet, too, appreciated the medium's ability to convey observations on paper in just a few strokes. He described these sheets as a kind of exercise and later acknowledged how useful the quickly executed pastels had been in developing his paintings. Two other pastels depicting similar subjects – one in the Artizon Museum, Tokyo (ill. 1), and another in a private collection (ill. 2) – further demonstrate Monet's interest in the river. Like the present work, they largely dispense with the prominent architectural landmarks that define his major London series. Instead, boats become the focus, while the banks recede into the mist and the boundaries between river, city and sky begin to dissolve. The precise viewpoint of the present sheet cannot be established either. What emerges more clearly is Monet's fascination with the changing atmosphere of the Thames, rather than an exact record of its topography. The expressive strength of these seemingly spontaneous pastels is particularly apparent in ‘Bateaux sur la Tamise’. The composition contains only a few elements. Monet delineates the boats with delicate strokes, barely suggesting the far bank through the haze. Rich blues blur the distinction between sky and river, offset by warmer touches of colour. On the water, yellow, orange and pink pigments gather in short, vigorous strokes, evoking the reflection of the day's last sunlight. In contrast to the predominantly cool blues and greys of many of his London pastels, this sheet is remarkable for its varied palette. The exposed paper and freely applied strokes make the act of creation visible, revealing Monet's mastery of the medium. The pastel remained in the artist's family for many years before the Basel collector Dr August Meyer acquired it directly from Michel Monet. In 1977, Meyer bequeathed his entire collection to the Basel art museum. The museum retained some works and sold the remainder, including the pastel offered here, at a