Richard Thomson Monet and Architecture London: National Gallery Company (distributed by Yale University Press), 2018, 248 pp., 180 illus. $40 (cloth), ISBN 9781857096170 “I cannot think of anything else but the cathedral,” Claude Monet (1840–1926) wrote to his wife in 1893, when he was obsessed with capturing in paint the constantly shifting light effects on the western facade of Rouen Cathedral (165).1 Monet produced thirty paintings of the church from 1892 through 1895. Six of these are reproduced in Richard Thomson's Monet and Architecture , the catalogue published to accompany the exhibition of the same title held at London's National Gallery in 2018. The catalogue is a vivid testimony to Monet's chromatic force in picturing the effects of architecture. His series of the Rouen Cathedral is well known, but this book features and analyzes many more of his paintings of buildings. By bringing them together in one publication, Thomson aims to account for different themes that occupied Monet's mind and through which he navigated: naturalism, modernity, tourism, and time. Thomson treats these themes when describing how Monet dealt with nature in all its moods; with his place as a painter seeking to depict a society in the midst of rapid cultural, economic, and technological change, including in the realm of travel; and with his urge to paint both old and new buildings, the passage of time, and specific moments. These topics are analyzed in the book's three parts: “The Village and the Picturesque,” “The City and the Modern,” and “The Monument and the Mysterious.” Architecture is thus investigated in landscape settings, in city scenes, and as an object in itself. Rather than “architecture,” one should read here “the built environment,” as Monet's paintings of landscapes, cities, and buildings feature cabins, bridges, churches, houses, palazzi, railway stations, and boulevards. Built structures do not necessarily play the main role for Monet; often they are hidden behind …