A Claude Monet painting rediscovered thanks to Google

Richard Thomson, professor of art history and at the University of Edinburgh, was able to find a painting by Claude Monet thanks to... Google! The painting in question is the "Effet de brouillard" (fog effect) and dates from 1872 and depicts the countryside of Argenteuil, near Paris, where Monet lived between 1871 and 1878.

There has been no trace of this painting since 1895, and Professor Thomson was made aware of its existence by a 1996 catalog and a volume titled "Monet at Argenteuil." Googling it, Thomson discovered that the painting was sold at an auction in New Orleans in 2007.
Since Thomson desperately wanted that painting to be displayed in the exhibition he curated, titled "Monet & Architecture," to be held at the National Gallery in London next April, the professor got in touch with the auction house that sold the work, which, in turn, put him in touch with the buyer, who accepted the proposal immediately because he was excited at the idea of seeing the work of art he had purchased displayed at the National Gallery.

Thomson told theObserver that the work was known only through a 1982 book by Paul Hayes Tucker, in black and white, in which the painting appeared in the size “of a postage stamp for a Christmas card.” He added wryly, “I spent most of my time between archives and libraries. But sometimes you also need to use other options.”

Previously, the painting had been acquired by Galerie Durand-Ruel in February 1873 and exhibited in 1895, also at Durand-Ruel Galleries in New York, before ending up in the hands of several private individuals. In 2007, according to further research by Thomson, the painting was sold in London in 2007 at Christie’ s for 412,000 pounds.

Image: Claude Monet, Effet de brouillard (1872; private collection)

A Claude Monet painting rediscovered thanks to Google

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