Houses of Parliament, London

CC0 Public Domain Designation

1900–1

Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926)

During his London campaigns, Claude Monet painted the Houses of Parliament in the late afternoon and at sunset from a terrace at Saint Thomas’s Hospital. This viewpoint was close to that of the English artist J. M. W. Turner in his visionary paintings of the fire that had destroyed much of the old Parliament complex in 1834. In his response to the poetry of dusk and mist, however, Monet was actually inspired by the work of a more recent painter of the Thames, the American James McNeill Whistler.

Status: On View, Gallery 243
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Claude Monet
Title: Houses of Parliament, London
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1900–1901
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Inscribed lower right: Claude Monet
Dimensions: 81.2 × 92.8 cm (32 × 36 9/16 in.); Framed: 103.6 × 115 × 10.8 cm (40 3/4 × 45 1/4 × 4 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
Reference Number: 1933.1164
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/16584/manifest.json

Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Art Institute of Chicago, 1925), p. 162, cat. 2147.
M. C., “Monets in the Art Institute,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 19, 2 (Feb. 1925), pp. 20 (ill.), 21.
Anthony Bertram, Claude Monet, The World’s Masters (Studio/William Edwin Rudge, 1931), pl. 20.
Daniel Catton Rich, “Französische Impressionisten im Art Institute zu Chicago,” Pantheon: Monatsschrift für freunde und sammler der kunst 11, 3 (Mar. 1933), p. 77. Translated by C. C. H. Drechsel as “French Impressionists in the Art Institute of Chicago,” Pantheon/Cicerone (Mar. 1933), p. 18.
California Palace of the Legion of Honor and M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, Seven Centuries of Painting: A Loan Exhibition of Old and Modern Masters, exh. cat. (Recorder, 1939), pp. 47, cat. L-132; 108, cat. L-132 (ill.).
Buford L. Pickens, “H. H. Richardson and Basic Form Concepts in Modern Architecture,” Art Quarterly 3 (1940), pp. 275, fig. 2; 277.
Oscar Reuterswärd, Monet: En konstnärshistorik (Bonniers, 1948), p. 287.
Wichita Art Museum, Three Centuries of French Painting, exh cat. (Wichita Art Museum, 1954), p. 3, cat. 18.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Catalogue,” Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly 51, 2 (Apr. 1, 1957), p. 34.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), p. 321.
Frank Seiberling, “A Guide to the Exhibition,” in University of Iowa Gallery of Art, Impressionism and Its Roots, exh. cat. (University of Iowa Gallery of Art, 1964), p. 7.
University of Iowa Gallery of Art, Impressionism and Its Roots, exh. cat. (University of Iowa Gallery of Art, 1964), p. 43, cat. 37 (ill.).
Anthea Callen, The Impressionists in London, exh. cat. (Arts Council of Great Britain, 1973), pp. 48–49, cat. 28 (ill.).
Grace Seiberling, “The Evolution of an Impressionist,” in Paintings by Monet, ed. Susan Wise, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1975), p. 36.
Susan Wise, ed., Paintings by Monet, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1975), p. 163, cat. 106 (ill.).
A. James Speyer, Twentieth-Century European Paintings, compiled by Courtney Graham Donnell (University of Chicago Press, 1980), p. 59, cat. 3A12; microfiche 3, no. A12 (ill.).
Grace Seiberling, Monet’s Series (Garland, 1981), p. 378, no. 53.
John House, “Catalogue of the Exhibition,” in Auckland City Art Gallery, Claude Monet: Painter of Light, exh. cat. (Auckland City Art Gallery/NZI, 1985), pp. 102; 103; 105, cat. 33 (ill.).
John House, “Monet and the Genesis of His Series,” in Auckland City Art Gallery, Claude Monet: Painter of Light, exh. cat. (Auckland City Art Gallery/NZI, 1985), pp. 16, 23.
Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné, vol. 4, Peintures, 1899–1926 (Bibliothèque des Arts, 1985), pp. 184; 185, cat. 1600 (ill.); 431, pièce justificative 278.
Richard R. Brettell, Post-Impressionists (Art Institute of Chicago/Abrams, 1987), pp. 91, 92 (ill.), 118.
Grace Seiberling, Monet in London, exh. cat. (High Museum of Art/University of Washington Press, 1988), pp. 23, fig. 17; 59; 62; 84; 102, cat. 20.
Judi Freeman, “Far from the Earth of France: The Fauves Abroad,” in Judi Freeman, The Fauve Landscape, exh. cat. (Los Angeles County Museum of Art/Abbeville, 1990), pp. 187; 190, pl. 192; 191.
Nina Kalitina, Claude Monet: Tableaux des musée d’URSS (Èd. d’Art Aurora/Cercle d’Art, 1990), p. 124 (ill.).
Andrew Forge, Monet, Artists in Focus (Art Institute of Chicago, 1995), pp. 56; 57; 99, pl. 28; 109.
Judi Freeman, Fauves, exh. cat. (Art Gallery of New South Wales/Thames & Hudson, 1995), p. 86, fig. 1.
Charles F. Stuckey, with the assistance of Sophia Shaw, Claude Monet, 1840–1926, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago/Thames & Hudson, 1995), p. 138, cat. 117 (ill.).
Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, vol. 4, Nos. 1596–1983 et les grandes décorations (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996), pp. 708–09, cat. 1600 (ill.).
Meyer Schapiro, Impressionism: Reflections and Perceptions (Braziller, 1997), pp. 181–82; 183, fig. 86.
Thomas McBurney, Artistic Greatness: A Comparative Exploration of Michelangelo, Beethoven, and Monet (Galde, 1999), p. 305 (ill.).
Matthew Drutt, ed., Thannhauser: The Thannhauser Collection of the Guggenheim Museum (Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 2001), pp. 140, 142 (ill.).
John E. Thornes and Gemma Metherell, “The Art and Science of London’s Atmosphere around 1900,” in London’s Environment: Prospects for a Sustainable City, ed. Julian Hunt (Imperial College Press, 2005), pp. 118, fig. 3; 119.
David A. Brenneman, “Claude Monet, Le Parlement de Londres, effet de brouillard,” in L’impressionnisme, de France et d’Amérique: Monet, Renoir, Sisley, Degas … , ed. Françoise Cachin and Richard R. Brettell, exh. cat. (Artlys/Musée Fabre/Musée de Grenoble, 2007), p. 136.
Eric M. Zafran, “Monet in America,” in Wildenstein and Co., Claude Monet (1840–1926): A Tribute to Daniel Wildenstein and Katia Granoff, exh. cat. (Wildenstein and Co., 2007), p. 112.
Gloria Groom and Douglas Druick, with the assistance of Dorota Chudzicka and Jill Shaw, The Impressionists: Master Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago/Kimbell Art Museum, 2008), pp. 167; 170, cat. 88 (ill.); 171. Simultaneously published as Gloria Groom and Douglas Druick, with the assistance of Dorota Chudzicka and Jill Shaw, The Age of Impressionism at the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2008), pp. 167; 170, cat. 88 (ill.); 171.
Paul Hayes Tucker, “André Derain, The Palace of Westminster, 1906–7,” in Richard R. Brettell, Paul Hayes Tucker, and Natalie H. Lee, The Robert Lehman Collection, vol. 3, Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Paintings (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York/Princeton University Press, 2009), pp. 253, fig. 3; 255.
“Cat. 41: Houses of Parliament, London, 1900/01” in Monet Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, ed. Gloria Groom and Jill Shaw (Art Institute of Chicago, 2014), https://publications.artic.edu/monet/reader/paintingsanddrawings/section/135470.
Gloria Groom, et. al. Monet and Chicago, exh. Cat. (Chicago: Art Institute, 2020), 110 (detail ill.), 111 cat. 67, 139.

San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor and the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, Seven Centuries of Painting: A Loan Exhibition of Old and Modern Masters, Dec. 29, 1939–Jan. 28, 1940, cat. L-132 (ill.).
University of Chicago, Lexington Hall, Nov. 28–Dec. 19, 1951, no cat.
Chicago, Remington Rand, window display, Apr. 14–30, 1952, no cat.
Wichita (Kans.) Art Museum, Three Centuries of French Painting, May 9–23, 1954, cat. 18.
Park Forest (Ill.) Art Center, Mar. 25–Apr. 22, 1956, no cat.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Paintings of Claude Monet, Apr. 1–June 15, 1957, no cat. no.
Iowa City, University of Iowa Gallery of Art, Impressionism and Its Roots, Nov. 8–Dec. 6, 1964, cat. 37 (ill.).
London, Hayward Gallery, The Impressionists in London, Jan. 3–Mar. 11, 1973, cat. 28 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings by Monet, Mar. 15–May 11, 1975, cat. 106 (ill.).
Shelburne (Vt.) Museum, June 7, 1984–Jan. 29, 1985, no cat.
Auckland City Art Gallery, Claude Monet: Painter of Light, Apr. 29–June 9, 1985, cat. 33 (ill.); Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, June 21–Aug. 4, 1985; Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria, Aug. 14–Sept. 29, 1985.
Atlanta, High Museum of Art, Monet in London, Oct. 9, 1988–Jan. 8, 1989, cat. 20 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Claude Monet, 1840–1926, July 22–Nov. 26, 1995, cat. 117 (ill.).
Fort Worth, Tex., Kimbell Art Museum, The Impressionists: Master Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago, June 29–Nov. 2, 2008, cat. 88 (ill.).
London, Tate Britain, Crossing the Channel: Impressionists in London 1870-1904, Nov. 2, 2017-May 5, 2018; traveled to Paris, Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris and used new title Impressionists in London, French artists in exile, 1870-1904, June 6-Oct. 14, 2018.
Art Institute of Chicago, Monet and Chicago, September 5, 2020-June 14, 2021, cat. 67.

Rosenberg, Paris, by Oct. 10, 1916 [this and the following Durand-Ruel, Paris, stock book for 1913–21 (no. 10899, as Westminster, 1903), as confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 21, 2013, curatorial object file]; sold to Durand-Ruel, Paris, Oct. 10, 1916, for 22,500 francs; sold to Durand-Ruel, New York, Nov. 6 or Dec. 4, 1916 [per Durand-Ruel, Paris stock book for 1913–21 (no. 10899, as Westminster, 1903) and New York stock book for 1904–24 (no. 4026, as Vue de Londres, Westminster, 1903), both confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 21, 2013, curatorial object file; The Paris and New York Durand-Ruel stock books record different dates for the sale]; sold to Martin A. Ryerson (d. 1932), Chicago, Dec. 18, 1916, for $10,000 [per Durand-Ruel, New York, stock book for 1904–24 (no. 4026, as Vue de Londres, Westminster, 1903), as confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 21, 2013, curatorial object file; see also, Durand-Ruel to M. A. Ryerson, Dec. 26, 1916, in which Durand-Ruel informs Mr. Ryerson that they sent, on the date of the letter, the painting Mr. Ryerson had recently purchased, excerpt published in Wildenstein 1985]; bequeathed to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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