The Cradle - Camille with the Artist's Son Jean

1867

Claude Monet

Artist, French, 1840 - 1926

We look slightly down onto a baby tucked into an oval-shaped cradle with a woman sitting on the far side looking down at the child in this vertical painting. Both the woman and baby have light skin. The cradle is draped with a sky-blue, scallop-edged cloth decorated with pink flowers and green leaves. A curtain of the same material is tied above so it hangs down behind the head of the cradle from the top center of the composition. The baby’s dark eyes are wide open, and he seems to gaze ahead. His cheeks are flushed peach, and his coral-pink lips are pressed down in a crescent shape. The baby’s head is wrapped in a white hood with a royal-blue bow or decoration over the right ear, to our left. Two loosely painted, round, salmon-pink shapes on either side of the child suggest hands emerging from the under the white blanket. In his left fist, to our right, the baby holds a white drum on a pumpkin-orange stick, with red and white forms, possibly feathers, at the top. The dark green handle of a pinwheel lies across the baby’s legs in the cradle. Another green, vertical form overlapping the edge of the crib suggests that another toy is clipped or propped there. It is difficult to tell if the pinwheel in the crib has canary-yellow and mauve-pink blades or if there are two, overlapping toys. The woman sits with her back to us but is angled so we see her profile looking down at the baby. Her face is painted with broad strokes of sand brown and parchment white. Her dark hair is pulled back under a white cap, and she wears a charcoal-gray and black, vertically striped dress with a white collar. Her back rests against the slats of a wooden chair, which seems to dissolve into the loosely painted, fawn-brown area in the lower right corner. The cradle sits next to a bed, mostly cut off by the left edge of the painting, with a golden-brown blanket or cover. Eggshell-white cloth seems to hang around the bed and along the wall behind the woman. The scene is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 86

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

  • Dimensions

    overall: 116.2 x 88.8 cm (45 3/4 x 34 15/16 in.)
    framed: 150.5 x 122.6 cm (59 1/4 x 48 1/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1983.1.25

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Dr. Georges de Bellio [1828-1894], Paris; probably by inheritance to M and Mme [she née Victorine de Bellio,1863-1958] Ernest Donop de Monchy, Paris.[1] Sold 1907 for or by von Tschudi through (Boussod, Valadon et Cie., Paris).[2] (Galerie Caspari, Munich)in 1916.[3] Mrs. Meta Schütte, Bremen, by 1918 and probably in Schütte family collection until c. 1948;[4] by inheritance to her granddaughter and her husband, Dr. Friedrich Wilhelm and Mrs. Charlotte Oelze, Bremen.[5] (E.J. van Wisselingh and Co., Amsterdam); sold February 1951 to (Wildenstein and Co., London, New York, and Paris);[6] by whom sold December 1956 to Arnold Kirkeby, New York; (his sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 19 November 1958, no. 12); Mr. and Mrs. George Friedland, Merion, Pennsylvania; (their sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 13 December 1961, no. 80). (M. Knoedler & Co., London, New York and Paris); sold January 1965 to Mr. Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia; gift 1983 to NGA.
[1] No. 85 bis in inventory of de Bellio collection cited in Remus Niculescu, "Georges de Bellio, l'Ami des Impressionistes (I)," Paragone no. 247, September 1970, p. 52. See also letter from Niculescu to Paul Mellon, dated 12 April 1970, in NGA curatorial files.
[2] According to Wildenstein 1974, no. 101.
[3] According to 1961 Parke-Bernet sales catalogue.
[4] The painting was lent to a 1918 exhibition of works in Bremen private collections, and listed in the catalogue as lent by Frau Meta Schütte. It was also published by Emil Waldmann in "Bremer Privatsammlungen," Kunst und Künstler XVII, 1919, p. 176. Also published as Schütte collection in the listing of "Monet paintings in some well-known museums and private collections" included in Oscar Reuterswärd, Monet, En konstnärshistorik, Stockholm, 1948, p. 279.
[5] According to 1961 Friedland sales catalogue.
[6] See letter dated 18 June 1999 from Wildenstein & Co. regarding date of acquisition from Van Wissellingh and sale to Kirkeby (in NGA curatorial files).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1918

  • Austellung von Meisterwerken der modernen Malerei aus Bremischem Privatbesitz, Kunsthalle Bremen, 1918, no. 54.

1952

  • Claude Monet, Paris; Kunsthaus, Zurich; Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, 1952, no. 15 [Zurich], no. 13 [Paris, The Hague], repro.

1966

  • French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, no. 81, repro

1975

  • Paintings by Monet, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1975, no. 9, repro.

1986

  • Gifts to the Nation: Selected Acquisitions from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1986, unnumbered checklist

1992

  • From El Greco to Cézanne: Masterpieces of European Painting from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, National Gallery of Greece, Athens, 1992-1993, no. 46, repro.

1995

  • Claude Monet: 1840-1926, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1995, no. 14, repro., as Jean Monet in His Cradle.

1999

  • Around Impressionism: French Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1999, no cat.

  • Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art; Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 1999, no. 38, repro.

2007

  • Monet: L'art de Monet et sa postérité, The National Art Center, Tokyo, 2007, no. 3, repro.

2011

  • Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The National Art Center, Tokyo; Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, 2011, no. 28, repro.

2016

  • Monet: The Early Years, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth; California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 2016-2017, no. 10, repro.

Bibliography

1919

  • Waldmann, Emil. "Bremer Privatsammlungen." Kunst und Künstler XVII (1919):176-177, repro. 185.

1961

  • Rewald, John. The History of Impressionism. 3rd rev. ed., New York, 1961: repro. p. 184

1966

  • Goldwater, Robert. "The Glory that was France." Art News 65 (March 1966): 42.

  • Kuh, Katherine. "Golden Loans for a Silver Anniversary." Saturday Review (19 March 1966): 46.

1967

  • Rewald, John. "Notes sur deux tableaux de Claude Monet." Gazette des Beaux-Arts (October 1967):247

1970

  • Niculescu, Remus. "Georges de Bellio, l'Ami des Impressionistes (I)." Paragone 247 (September 1970):53, repro.

1974

  • Wildenstein, Daniel. Claude Monet: biographie et catalogue raisonné. 5 vols. Lausanne and Paris, 1974-1991: no. 101.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 483, no. 713, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 281, repro.

2004

  • Friedrich Wilhelm Oelze - Freund der Künste und Vertrauter Gottfried Benns. Exh. cat. Kunsthalle Bremen. Bremen, 2004: repro. 21, 22, 25 n. 42.

2005

  • Monet und Camille: Frauen portraits im Impresionismus. Exh. cat. Kunsthalle Bremen. Bremen, 2005: 261, repro.

  • Monet and Camille: portraits of women in impressionism: a short guide to the exhibition. Exh. cat. Kunsthalle Bremen. Bremen, 2005: 88.

2006

  • Søndergaard, Sidsel Maria. Women in Impressionism: From Mythical Feminine to Modern Woman. Exh. cat. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen. Milan, 2006: 276, 277 fig. 239, 278-281.

2022

  • Ventura, Gal. "The Cradle: Berthe Morisot and the Medicalization of Babies' Sleep." The Art Bulletin (June 2022): 99, 101, fig. 11.

Wikidata ID

Q20188693

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