The unknown artist: new National Gallery exhibition showcases Monet's passion for London landmarks

We all recognise French Impressionist Claude Monet’s water lilies, painted during 20 years at his house in Giverny, northern France.

But as a struggling young artist renting in various places, his tastes were different and a house he lived in for several years before Giverny has recently been rediscovered.

Monet was fascinated by architecture and engineering in London, France and Italy.

A new exhibition of 77 paintings starting next month at the National Gallery will show that this interest was as intense as his later passion for his Normandy garden. He painted repeated versions of the same buildings and structures.

These included London landmarks along the Thames: the Houses of Parliament, Charing Cross Bridge and Waterloo Bridge, all of which evidently held him spellbound on several visits.

Like many artists, Monet started out poor. In winter 2016, in a village just seven miles from Giverny, a French couple bought a terrace house where Monet had lived in his thirties.

The new owners say the sale details didn’t mention the link. For while Giverny is a site of pilgrimage for Monet lovers and the house there is a museum, the Vétheuil house was overlooked.

After restoring it and furnishing it with antiques, the couple opened it as a two-bedroom B&B. Touch the same stair rail and door handles, and it’s easy to imagine the artist living there.

Monet was born in 1840 in Paris and grew up in Le Havre in Normandy. During his 86 years, the world saw an industrial revolution, changing beyond recognition.

The artist’s work recorded the development of the railways that helped drive industry. He embraced progress and owned a car and a Kodak camera, and as an old man he lived through the First World War.

The speed at which he could paint his constant yet varied versions of buildings was remarkable.

After a spell in the army, young Monet rented in various places, then moved on. For the rest of his life, his work created a record of 19th- and early 20th-century France: from coastal resorts such as Trouville to cosmopolitan Paris to small rural settings.

With his first wife, Camille, and their two small boys, Jean and Michel, he rented in the north-west suburbs of Paris, at Argenteuil.

Next, they followed the Seine north-west to the pretty village of Vétheuil, and from 1878-1882, they rented the terrace house built around 1815. Vétheuil is dominated by its big golden 13th-century church, which Monet painted several times.

When Camille died, aged 32, Monet left Vétheuil and continued travelling and painting.

Eventually he settled at Giverny with Alice Hoschedé, whom he married when her husband died, and where, finally enjoying wealth and space, he painted the water lilies with which the world is so familiar.

The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Monet & Architecture is at the National Gallery from April 9-July 29. For full details of the exhibition, visit nationalgallery.org.uk.