Claude Monet's 1902 painting Charing Cross Bridge, which was gifted to Winston Churchill in 1949, was heavily coated in residue from the former prime minister's cigar smoke.
National TrustClaude Monet’s painting Charing Cross Bridge was gifted to Winston Churchill in 1949.
Claude Monet’s painting Charing Cross Bridge depicts London’s cityscape shrouded in a yellow haze. In 1949, an American literary agent named Emery Reves gifted the painting to former prime minister Winston Churchill. Until his death in 1965, Churchill cherished the piece and kept it in the drawing room of his Kent country home, Chartwell.
Over the years, Churchill’s heavy cigar smoking left a layer of grime on the painting, which experts originally mistook for more of the smog Monet had intentionally added to the work. An art conservator recently removed the smoke damage and revived much of the masterpiece’s original brilliance, and now the restored painting is on display in London, marking the first time it’s left Churchill’s home in 75 years.
Claude Monet’s Painting Of Charing Cross Bridge
In 1899, Impressionist painter Claude Monet traveled to London and began a series of paintings depicting the cityscape. In Charing Cross Bridge, Monet captured the likeness of the bridge over the River Thames and the Houses of Parliament covered in a yellow haze, a result of pollution from extensive coal burning in the city. Monet signed the painting in 1902 but continued to make changes to it until 1923.
In 1949, American literary agent Emery Reves purchased the work of art and gifted it to Winston Churchill, who was an amateur painter himself and had a deep appreciation for Monet’s work.
Fremantle/Alamy Stock PhotoWinston Churchill painting at a Swiss villa in 1946.
“Churchill’s love of Monet dates right back to when he was first studying painting himself in the 1920s,” Katherine Carter, a curator at Chartwell, told The Guardian. “I think he went on to have the most fun recreating the style of Monet and the other Impressionists. He once described the process as ‘a joyride in a paintbox.'”
In December 1949, Reves wrote to Churchill, according to The Art Newspaper: “Knowing that Monet is your favourite painter I have been searching for one of his good paintings for many months… Please accept it as a very small token of my gratitude for your friendship.” He continued, “My very best wishes for a happy 1950 during which I hope you will dissipate the fog that shrouds Westminster.”
Churchill hung the painting in his drawing room at Chartwell, where it remained until its recent restoration. The prime minister kept a stash of up to 4,000 cigars in the house, and he reportedly smoked 10 of them each day, often while sitting in the drawing room. By the time Churchill died in 1965, the painting was covered in the residue from 16 years of smoke.
Now, however, it once more looks “how it would have been left by Monet,” says National Trust conservator Rebecca Hellen.
The Restoration Of Winston Churchill’s Prized Monet Painting
In the years following Churchill’s death, the National Trust took ownership of Chartwell. At first, conservators believed Charing Cross Bridge to be a typical, hazy Impressionist painting, but they soon realized the yellow smog was not solely the work of Monet.
Chartwell/National Trust/FacebookThe drawing room at Chartwell where Charing Cross Bridge has been hanging since 1949.
National Trust conservator Rebecca Hellen was tasked with restoring the piece. Now, the painting has been fully cleaned. Its 20th-century French gilded frame was refurbished as well.
Charing Cross Bridge is on display alongside 20 other Monet pieces at the Courtauld Gallery in London as part of the exhibition “Monet and London: Views of the Thames.” This is the first time the painting has gone on display outside of Churchill’s home in 75 years, giving a wider audience the chance to see Monet’s masterpiece for themselves.
After reading about the restoration of Winston Churchill’s Monet painting, look through embarrassing photos of Adolf Hitler that the dictator tried to have destroyed. Then, read about the Monuments Men, the civilians who rescued precious artworks during World War II.
