Past Exhibition

Monet’s The Artist’s Garden at Vétheuil

A small child stands facing us on a sun-dappled path that runs up the center of a garden dominated by towering yellow and burnt-orange sunflowers in this loosely painted, vertical scene. The light comes from our right so long, sea-green and plum-purple shadows cross the peach-colored path. The path is wide at the bottom center of the canvas and narrows as it reaches the steps of a house, beyond the garden. Close to us, four blue and white porcelain urns line the path, separating it from the grassy banks to either side. The urns are filled with tall stems with coral-pink and cardinal-red flowers. The child stands about halfway back along the path, where the garden transitions from grass to the banks of tall sunflowers. A few strokes in front of the child could be a small dog. Behind the child, a woman and another child stand on the steps. The woman wears a cornflower-blue and white dress, while both children have bare legs and wear white clothes and yellow hats. All three have indistinct facial features and peach-colored skin. The house spans with width of the composition. It has an amethyst-purple roofline with two chimneys, and the petal-pink walls have mango-yellow highlights. Windows are covered with blue latticework. Above the house, fluffy white clouds float against a vibrant blue sky. The artist signed and dated the painting at the lower right in dark blue, “Claude Monet 80.”
Claude Monet, The Artist's Garden at Vétheuil, 1881, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.45

Details

  • Dates

    -

  • Locations

    West Building, Main Floor - Gallery 85
A small child stands facing us on a sun-dappled path that runs up the center of a garden dominated by towering yellow and burnt-orange sunflowers in this loosely painted, vertical scene. The light comes from our right so long, sea-green and plum-purple shadows cross the peach-colored path. The path is wide at the bottom center of the canvas and narrows as it reaches the steps of a house, beyond the garden. Close to us, four blue and white porcelain urns line the path, separating it from the grassy banks to either side. The urns are filled with tall stems with coral-pink and cardinal-red flowers. The child stands about halfway back along the path, where the garden transitions from grass to the banks of tall sunflowers. A few strokes in front of the child could be a small dog. Behind the child, a woman and another child stand on the steps. The woman wears a cornflower-blue and white dress, while both children have bare legs and wear white clothes and yellow hats. All three have indistinct facial features and peach-colored skin. The house spans with width of the composition. It has an amethyst-purple roofline with two chimneys, and the petal-pink walls have mango-yellow highlights. Windows are covered with blue latticework. Above the house, fluffy white clouds float against a vibrant blue sky. The artist signed and dated the painting at the lower right in dark blue, “Claude Monet 80.”
Claude Monet, The Artist's Garden at Vétheuil, 1881, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.45

In September 1878, Claude Monet took up residence at Vétheuil, a village northwest of Paris. Although this period was marked by personal loss and financial hardship, it was also one of intense productivity. Over the course of the three years he spent there, Monet executed nearly three hundred paintings, and his art shifted away from scenes of modern life toward a more focused exploration of landscape and atmospheric effects.

In the summer of 1881, Monet began work on a group of four closely related canvases showing a private garden bursting with sunflowers. Of the four paintings, the work now in the Norton Simon collection is closest in palette and composition to the one in Washington, and they share distinct elements absent from the other two works, such as the clouds and the placement of shadows in the foreground. The Norton Simon canvas has long been thought to have been the model for the larger, more detailed Washington picture, but recent examinations have called this theory into question. At some later date, Monet repainted the foreground of the Washington painting, at which point he mistakenly added the erroneous date of 1880, further confusing the works’ chronology. Separated in 1882, these two paintings have been reunited for the first time in this special installation.

This extraordinary loan is part of an art exchange program between the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Inaugurated in 2007, its purpose is to allow select masterpieces from one collection to travel to the other institution to hang temporarily with its permanent collection. The Artist’s Garden at Vétheuil is the fourth painting to travel to Washington as part of this program.

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