Monet could have been an early pollution monitor, recording Victorian smog levels in his paintings. At least that is the hope of environmental scientists who have analysed a selection of the artist鈥檚 work.
Monet visited London between 1899 and 1901 to paint his Houses of Parliament series. However, nobody knew whether he created faithful depictions of the weather conditions based on his on-the-spot observations or whether he used some artistic license when putting the finishing touches on his work back in his studio in Giverny, France.
To address this, Jacob Baker and John Thornes at the University of Birmingham, UK, analysed the position of the Sun in nine of Monet鈥檚 paintings. By comparing the result with data from the US Naval Observatory they worked out the date that the paintings were made.
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These dates matched Monet鈥檚 accounts in letters to his wife. 鈥淢onet did truthfully paint the Sun as he observed it at the time,鈥� says Baker. 鈥淗e didn鈥檛 modify it later.鈥�
Baker and Thornes hope that Monet鈥檚 faithfulness extended to his representations of London鈥檚 smog. They believe that it may be possible to work out what particles made up the smog, by looking at the colour in Monet鈥檚 paintings.
鈥淎lthough we know that smog was a problem at that time, we don鈥檛 know much about it,鈥� says Baker. 鈥淣ow we can potentially get real air quality information from a time when scientific instruments weren鈥檛 around.鈥�
Journal reference: Proceedings of the Royal Society A (DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2006.1754)
