Waterloo Bridge

Claude Monet

National Gallery of Art

We look across a river at an arched bridge spanning the width of this horizontal landscape. Created with smudges of pastel almost entirely in tones of cream and bright white, pale lavender purple, soft teal, and the faintest sky blue, the bridge seems nearly lost in a bright fog. The straight deck of the bridge divides the composition in half, though it angles slightly away from us toward the right. The four low arches of the bridge are powder blue and lilac purple with cobalt blue shadows underneath. Blended areas of light, spring green, azure blue, and pale yellow create a hazy sky above. Vertical lines in ultramarine blue could be smokestacks or towers in the distance on the far bank. The blue paper is visible and has darkened at the edges of the sheet. The artist signed the work in smoke gray in the lower right corner: “Claude Monet.”