Provenance

Michel Monet

French

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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.”
Claude Monet, Bazille and Camille (Study for "Déjeuner sur l'Herbe"), 1865, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.41

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

Claude Monet · 1865 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1970.17.41

We look slightly down onto a woman and a young boy, both with pale skin, sitting together on a grassy lawn with a chicken standing nearby in this horizontal painting. The scene is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes throughout. The woman sits with her body angled to our left, her legs stretched out in front of her. She turns her head to face us as she leans forward to rest her chin on one hand, with that elbow propped on her lap. She looks off to our left with dark eyes, and her coral-pink lips are parted. Her chestnut-brown hair is pulled up under a white bonnet, which is topped with a pink flower and a touch of black. A black ribbon tied around her neck hangs down her back. She wears a long-sleeved, full-skirted white dress, and swipes of yellow, blue, and brown could be shoes peeking out from the bottom hem. The unfolded fan she holds in her far hand is cream white along the center has rose pink to one side and indigo blue to the other. The boy leans against her torso, his legs coming toward us, and he looks out at us with dark eyes. His cheeks are flushed and his pink lips are closed. He has short blond hair with bangs under a short-brimmed, straw-yellow hat. His suit is baby blue with navy-blue swipes across the shoulders and a white streak at his neck, perhaps a neckerchief. There are dark bands at the cuffs and around his waist. The blue pants are rolled back over bare knees, and he wears gray socks and red and white shoes. A spindly tree trunk grows behind the woman’s back, and the grassy lawn nearly fills the painting. A bed of flowers with dark pink blossoms runs along the curving line of grass in the upper left corner. A chicken stands and looks at the pair, to our right. The bird has a vibrant red comb, buttercup-yellow, white, and dark brown feathers. Its feet are covered with white feathers.
Auguste Renoir, Madame Monet and Her Son, 1874, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.60

Madame Monet and Her Son

Auguste Renoir · 1874 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1970.17.60