Beschreibung:

MONET, Claude (1840-1926). Three autograph letters signed ('Claude') to an unidentified correspondent [his wife, Alice], Savoy Hotel, London, 8 - 11 February 1901, 8 pages, 8vo, and 2½ pages, 4to , on bifolia, printed heading of Savoy Hotel. FINE LETTERS DISPLAYING HIS ALERTNESS TO LIGHT AND WEATHER CONDITIONS DURING THE PAINTING OF THE LONDON SERIES. The letters dwell in particular on Monet's struggles with the London weather: on the 8th 'le soleil ne s'est pas montré et j'en étais bien faché. Le brouillard était épais toute la jounée', even causing him to leave his lunch early in case there should be an 'éclaircie' while he was in the restaurant; he comments that 'cela ne m'empêche pas de gâcher de la couleur à faire tous les essais possibles'; again the next day the fog is so thick that one cannot see much at all ('sans même apercevoir le petit balon qui est le soleil'), although what particularly arouses Monet's fury is that St Thomas's Hospital was closed, it being Saturday, just when 'c'était le même effet qu'hier et [je] me proposais après y avoir beaucoup réfléchi à réparer ce que j'avais fait de mal hier' - and the worst of it is that he would normally be able to take some canvases back to the hotel so as to see them better in his room on Sunday; the letter of the 11th is more positive about the conditions - 'Les effets variables au possible à cause de cette brume merveileuse' - though he comments ruefully 'J'en suis toujours aux mêmes toiles qui sortiront tout d'un coup mais combien de toiles resteront en plan si cela continue'. The letters, signed in each case 'Ton vieux qui t'aime', enquire solicitously after his wife's health, and complain about his solitude in London, which is broken by a pleasant evening spent with G[eorge Augustus] Moore at the Café Royale; he compares this with a certain unease he feels in the company of Mrs [Charles] Hunter and [John Singer] Sargent, though the latter is at present out of town. The letter of the 11th closes with reports of British setbacks in the Boer War, and the sense of unrest in London, in particular with the approaching opening of Parliament; Monet comments that this might be interesting to see, but he will be too busy painting. Monet made three successive visits to London in the years 1899 to 1901, when he worked on the notable series of Views of the Thames . The present letters describe his first few days' work on his second trip. The artist's struggles with the weather and the proliferation of canvases continued, and by mid-March he had fifty under way. Mrs Charles Hunter (hostess and friend of Sargent) had arranged for Monet to have a room in St Thomas' Hospital, from which he painted the series of views of the Houses of Parliament, working only in the late afternoons so as to concentrate on backlit and sunset effects. The irascible but charming novelist George Augustus Moore was well-known to a number of the Impressionist painters, and was painted by Manet and Sickert.