Jeff's Met Picks: Monet

The Houses of Parliament (Effect of Fog), 1903–4

Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926)

Oil on canvas

This moody, sensual painting always haunts me. Monet's short but swirling brushstrokes wrap the eye inward to the ghostly Houses of Parliament on a bleak but satisfying afternoon, the sun aching to break the fog, but more likely, the soot of an industrialized London.