Bazille and Camille (Study for "Déjeuner sur l'Herbe")

1865

Claude Monet

Artist, French, 1840 - 1926

A woman wearing a long, slate-gray gown walks with a man wearing a suit and cap in a woodland setting in this vertical painting. Both people have pale, peach-colored skin. The scene is loosely painted so many of the details are indistinct. The woman walks away from us, angled to our right so we see her right cheek and the tip of her straight nose. Her lips are parted, and her dark hair is pulled back into a bun under a silvery-gray hat that curves over her head. The long-sleeved bodice is embellished with swirling black lines across the back of the neck, down along the arms and backs of the shoulders, and around the bottom. Her full skirt has a short train that trails behind her along the dirt path. To our left, a man stands with his body angled toward the woman, and us. He has short, dark hair under a rounded, brimmed, gray cap. His long sideburns connect with his full beard and mustache. The eye we can see is a dab of pale blue paint, and he looks at the woman. He wears a navy-blue jacket over a white, collared shirt and white bowtie, and charcoal-gray pants. He reaches his left hand, farther from us, toward the woman, and he holds a short stick or staff in his other hand. Strokes of white on the dirt path suggest dappled sunlight filtering through the trees, which fill the rest of the composition. Leaves are created with swipes of celery and sage green, and trunks with lines of dark brown. A few touches of baby blue at the top center of the painting suggest a patch of sky through the dense canopies. The artist signed the lower right corner, “Claude Monet.”

Media Options

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Monet’s future wife Camille Doncieux, and his friend, painter Frédéric Bazille, posed for this painting. The artist recorded his observations of the scene in this preparatory study for a much larger work. He applied paint quickly with short, energetic strokes, roughly sketching out the landscape. The light streams through the tree branches overhead, dappling the ground. And Monet paid careful attention to the effects of sunlight on clothing. Although intended as a reference for his final composition, this sketch has a vitality all its own.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 82

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 93 x 68.9 cm (36 5/8 x 27 1/8 in.)
    framed: 121.9 x 98.4 x 10.7 cm (48 x 38 3/4 x 4 3/16 in.)

  • Accession

    1970.17.41

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Michel Monet [1877-1966], Giverny; [1] Capt. Edward H. Molyneux [1891-1974], Paris, by 1940;[2] sold 15 August 1955 to Ailsa Mellon Bruce [1901-1969], New York; bequest 1970 to NGA.
[1] Michel inherited his father's painting stock at the artist's death in 1926 and sold paintings individually for the next few decades. At his own death in 1966 those that remained were donated to the Musée Marmottan. This painting was lent by Michel Monet to the 1931 Paris exhibition.
[2] Annotated catalogue of the 1940 exhibition of Monet held at the Galerie André Weil in Paris indicates that the painting was lent by Molyneux. Molyneux is also acknowledged in the printed catalogue.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1931

  • Claude Monet: exposition rétrospective, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, 1931, no. 8, as Les Promeneurs.

1940

  • Centenaire de Claude Monet, Galerie Andre Weil, Paris, 1940, no. 1

1952

  • French Paintings from the Molyneux Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1952, unnumbered checklist, repro.

1959

  • Masterpieces of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959, unnumbered catalogue

1961

  • French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century from the Collection of Mrs. Mellon Bruce, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1961, no. 27, repro., frontispiece.

1965

  • Olympia's Progeny, Wildenstein, New York, 1965, no. 1, repro.

1966

  • French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, no. 80, repro

1980

  • Hommage a Claude Monet, Grand Palais, Paris, 1980, no. 7

1986

  • Monet, Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo, Madrid, 1986, no. 5, repro.

1990

  • Französische Impressionisten und ihre Wegbereiter aus der National Gallery of Art, Washington und dem Cincinnati Art Museum, Neue Pinakothek, Munich, 1990, no. 33, repro.

1992

  • Frédéric Bazille et Ses Amis Impressionnistes, Pavillon du musée Fabre, Montpelier, France; Brooklyn Museum; Dixon Gallery & Gardens, Memphis, 1992-1993, fig. 13, repro. (shown only in Montpelier).

  • From El Greco to Cézanne: Masterpieces of European Painting from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and The Metroplitan Museum of Art, New York, National Gallery of Greece, Athens, 1992-1993, no. 45, repro.

1994

  • Origins of Impressionism, Galeries nationales d'Exposition du Grand Palais, Paris; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1994-1995, no. 121, fig. 172, repro.

1996

  • Claude Monet, Österreichische Galerie, Vienna, 1996, no. 11, repro., as Study for Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (The Strollers).

1999

  • Around Impressionism: French Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1999, no cat. (substitute for painting returned early to NGA).

  • Monet & Bazille: A Collaboration, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 1999, no. 9, repro. and fig. 38, as The Strollers.

2000

  • Impression: Painting Quickly in France, 1860-1890, National Gallery, London; Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam; Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, 2000-2001, fig. 62.

2005

  • Monet und Camille: Frauenportraits im Impressionismus (Monet and Camille: Portraits of Women in Impressionism), Kunsthalle Bremen, 2005-2006, no. 9, repro.

2007

  • The Unknown Monet: Pastels and Drawings, Royal Academy of Arts, London; Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, 2007, no. 89, repro.

2008

  • In the Forest of Fontainebleau: Painters and Photographers from Corot to Monet, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2008, no. 94, repro.

  • In the Forest of Fontainebleau: Painters and Photographers from Corot to Monet, National Gallery of Art, Washington; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, 2008, no. 10.

2010

  • Claude Monet 1840-1926, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 2010-2011, no. 92, repro.

2012

  • Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity, Musée d'Orsay, Paris; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Art Institute of Chicago, 2012-2013, no. 35, repro.

2016

  • Frédéric Bazille (1841-1870) and The Birth of Impressionism, Musée Fabre, Montpelier; Musée d'Orsay, Paris; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2016-2017, no. 114, repro.

2019

  • Los impresionistas y la fotogrfía [The Impressionists and Photography], Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 2019 - 2020, no. 25, repro.

Bibliography

1961

  • Comstock, Helen. "The Connoisseur in America: An Intimate View of French Masters." The Connoisseur 148, no. 598 (December 1961): repro. 338.

1966

  • Goldwater, Robert. "The Glory that was France." Art News 65 (March 1966): 85.

  • Kuh, Katherine. "Golden Loans for a Silver Anniversary." Saturday Review (19 March 1966): repro. p. 45.

1974

  • Wildenstein, Daniel. Claude Monet: biographie et catalouge raisonné. 5 vols. Lausanne and Paris, 1974-1991: 1:no. 61.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 242, repro., as Bazille and Camille.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 484, no. 715, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 279, repro.

1990

  • Französische Impressionisten und ihre Wegbereiter aus der National Gallery of Art, Washington und dem Cincinnati Art Museum. Exh. cat. Neue Pinakothek, Munich, 1990: no. 33, repro.

1991

  • Coman, Florence E. Joie de Vivre: French Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1991: no. 15, repro.

1997

  • Kelder, Diane. The Great Book of French Impressionism, 1997, no. 164, repro.

1998

  • Pitman, Dianne W. Bazille: Purity, Pose, and Painting in the 1860s. The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998: 75-77, repro. no. 42.

Inscriptions

lower right: Claude Monet

Wikidata ID

Q20188658

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