A Monet masterpiece that hung in Churchill’s home is now free of the grime of cigar smoke

Claude Monet Charing Cross BridgeOnce owned by Winston Churchill, it captures the smoggy yellow haze above London’s River Thames, with the shadowy Houses of Parliament in the background. It turns out, though, that some of that haze wasn’t Monet’s work; it arose in part from the lingering smoke of Churchill’s cigars.

The painting was recently cleaned for a new exhibition – ‘Monet and London: Views of the Thames’ – at the Courtauld Gallery in London. There was a layer of dirt on it, probably caused by cigar and fireplace smoke. Rebecca Hellena National Trust curator, says Art newspaperMartin Bailey says she restored the artwork “as it would have been left by Monet.”

The French impressionist began working on the piece around 1899 or 1900. During a series of extended visits to London, he stayed in the Savoy Hotelhe often painted the river from his window. He signed and dated the work in 1902, although he continued to make changes afterward.

Inspired by the haze that shrouded the city, Monet made the yellow reflections more prominent, according to the newspaper Art newspaper. He also changed the position of the Houses of Parliament, placing them in a more visible location closer to the center of the piece.

“Without the fog, London would not be a beautiful city,” Monet once told art dealer René Gimpel National trust. ‘It’s the mist that gives it a beautiful breadth. Those massive, regular blocks become grandiose within that mysterious cloak.”

Decades later, Churchill received the painting as a gift from the American literary agent Emery Reves. The politician was an ardent admirer of Monet – and an avid painter himself.

“Churchill’s love for Monet goes back to when he first studied painting in the 1920s,” Katherine Cartera curator at Chartwell, Churchill’s home in Kent, told the newspaper Observer‘S Vanessa Thorpe. ‘I think he had the most fun recreating the style of Monet and the other Impressionists. He once described the process as ‘a joyride in a paint box.’”

Reves bought the painting specifically for the former Prime Minister in 1949. He also sent a letter explaining the gift, according to the National Trust: ‘Knowing that Monet is your favorite painter, I have been looking for one of his good paintings for months. he wrote. “It is the purest impressionism, nothing but light and color without any design.”

Reves added that if the politician didn’t like the painting, he could “always give it to the Tate.”

Fortunately, Churchill was satisfied with the work. He took it to Chartwell and hung it in the cupboard salonwhere he sat with family and their guests – “usually with a cigar in hand,” according to the Art newspaper. At one point the Prime Minister is said to have smoked up to ten cigars a day. He also kept a collection of between 3,000 and 4,000 cigars in the house, so it’s no surprise that the painting needed a makeover.

For years, Churchill’s ownership of the Monet was a closely guarded secret. After his death in 1965, the National Trust acquired the family home and its contents, including the painting.

The restored version is now on display at the Courtauld exhibition, which will be on display until January 19. The exhibition shows approximately twenty paintings by Monet from London. It’s also the first time Charing Cross Bridge has left Chartwell since the British leader hung it in his house.