杏吧原创

Claude Monet鈥檚 paintings could be hiding a dirty secret. Researchers who analysed a selection of the French artist鈥檚 work think that his paintings could be the first recordings of smog in Victorian London.

Monet visited London between 1899 and 1901 to paint his Houses of Parliament series. But nobody knew whether his depictions of the weather conditions were based on observations on the spot, or whether he used some artistic licence when finishing the paintings back in his studio in Giverny, France.

Jacob Baker and John Thornes of the University of Birmingham, UK, studied the position of the sun in nine of Monet鈥檚 paintings. By comparing the positions with data from the US Naval Observatory in Washington DC they worked out the date of each painting. These dates matched Monet鈥檚 own accounts of his work in letters to his wife (Proceedings of the Royal Society A, DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2006.1754).

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 in the studio.鈥�

The researchers hope that Monet鈥檚 faithfulness extended to his impressions of London鈥檚 smog. They think they could work out what particles made up the smog by looking at the colour in Monet鈥檚 paintings. 鈥淐ertain compounds absorb at certain wavelengths, affecting the perceived colour,鈥� says Baker.

鈥淎lthough we know that smog was a problem at that time, we don鈥檛 know much about it,鈥� he says. 鈥淣ow we can potentially get real air-quality information from a time when scientific instruments weren鈥檛 around.鈥�