Baltimore Museum of Art offers a look at artists' views of the Thames

By MICHAEL KILIAN
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
With such a lovely city river of their own, one would think that France's leading Impressionist and Avant Garde artists of a century ago would have found small attraction in London's Thames.
But as a new exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art sublimely illustrates, beauty indeed lies in the eye of the beholder, and no less a sensitive master than Claude Monet found the English waterway a compelling subject, producing wonderfully compelling canvases.
"Monet's London: Artists' Reflection on the Thames," on view through Dec. 31 at the BMA, centers on 12 Thames paintings by Monet, including two masterpieces: "Charing Cross Bridge" and "Waterloo Bridge."
Other artists are featured as well, however, including Camille Pissarro, James Whistler and his Thames nocturnes, Andre Derain of the early 20th century's wild and crazy "Fauvists" (the term translates as wild beasts) and American Impressionist Childe Hassam.
The attraction of the Thames was the very smoke, haze and fog consequent to the heavy commercial traffic it bore and industry it encouraged. These elements, combined with London's frequent rains, created for the artist not repellent scenes, but visually soothing atmospherics enfolding their settings.
The Monets, Whistlers and Hassams are simply hypnotic.
Located just north of Baltimore's Inner Harbor, the BMA is in Wyman Park at Art Museum Drive and 31st Street; telephone (410) 396-6300; www.artbma.org.