| Description |
Femmes au jardin
Women in the Garden
Claude Monet - Circa 1866
Desciption of original painting: Oil on canvas
In 1866, Claude Monet started painting a large picture in the garden of the property he was renting in the Paris suburbs. He faced a twofold challenge: firstly, working in the open-air, which meant lowering the canvas into a trench by means of a pulley so he could work on the upper part without changing his viewpoint; and secondly, working on a large format usually used for historical compositions. But his real aim was elsewhere: finding how to fit figures into a landscape and give the impression that the air and light moved around them.
Monet found a solution by painting the shadows, coloured light, patches of sunshine filtering through the foliage, and pale reflections glowing in the gloom.
Emile Zola wrote in his report on the Salon: "The sun fell straight on to dazzling white skirts; the warm shadow of a tree cut out a large grey piece from the paths and the sunlit dresses. The strangest effect imaginable. One needs to be singularly in love with his time to dare to do such a thing, fabrics sliced in half by the shadow and the sun".
The faces are left vague and cannot be considered portraits. Camille, the artist's companion, posed for the three figures on the left. Monet has skilfully rendered the white of the dresses, anchoring them firmly in the structure of the composition – a symphony of greens and browns – provided by the central tree and the path.
Finished in the studio, the painting was refused by the jury of the 1867 Salon which, apart from the lack of subject and narrative, deplored the visible brushstrokes which it regarded as a sign of carelessness and incompleteness. One of the members of the jury declared: "Too many young people think of nothing but continuing in this abominable direction. It is high time to protect them and save art!"
History:
after 1867, in the collection Frederic Bazille (acquired from the artist in May)
from 1870 to 1876 in the collection Mr. and Mrs. Gaston Bazille, Frederic Bazille parents
in 1876, in the collection Edouard Manet (Bazille ceded in exchange for a portrait by Renoir of their son, RF 2448 Representative Camille in the Garden at Argenteuil)
from 1876 to 1921 in the collection Claude Monet (bank assigned by Manet in exchange for a painting by Manet)
from 1882 to 1887, filed by Monet at Durand-Ruel
1921, acquired by the State of Monet to the Musée du Luxembourg (03/02/1921 Committee and order dated 29.4.1921)
1921 to 1929, Musée du Luxembourg, Paris
1929, assigned to the Louvre, Paris
from 1929 to 1947, Musée du Louvre, Paris
from 1947 to 1986, the Louvre, the Jeu de Paume gallery in Paris
1986, assigned to the Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
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