Claude Monet

One of Monet’s first patrons was the textile magnate Ernest Hoschedé, who assembled one of the most important collections of Impressionism in the 1870s. In the summer of 1876, he and his wife, Alice, commissioned Monet to paint four views of the grounds surrounding their residence, the Château de Rottembourg in Montgeron. The series was conceived as an ensemble to decorate the living spaces of the château and was comprised of the paintings The Turkeys (Musée d’Orsay, Paris), Corner of the Garden at Montgeron (State Hermitage, St. Petersburg), Pond at Montgeron (State Hermitage, St. Petersburg), and The Hunt (private collection).

The work shown here is the only documented study for Corner of the Garden at Montgeron. The final painting, measuring 172 by 193 centimeters, was unusually large for Monet at the time and was more than twice the size of the preliminary study. The composition of the later painting is already closely prefigured in the earlier study, as is the subtle interplay of light and shadow and the fine texture of the luxuriant rosebushes in the foreground, screening the view of the pond behind them. Ernest Hoschedé acquired the study in December 1876, but when he was forced to declare bankruptcy the following year, the piece was auctioned off along with the rest of his Impressionist collection in 1878. Already in 1877, he had been unable to purchase the finished version of the large decorative painting due to lack of funds. After the death of Monet’s first wife, Camille, the artist formed a liaison with Ernest Hoschedé’s wife, Alice, whom he married after her husband’s death in 1892.

In the four-volume catalogue raisonné of Monet’s paintings compiled by Daniel Wildenstein, The Rose Bushes in the Garden at Montgeron is listed as no. 417 (vol. 2, p. 170).

Daniel Zamani

3e Exposition de Peinture, 6, rue Le Peletier, Paris, April 4–30, 1877, no. 93 (Les Dahlias, Montgeron)

Impressionism: The Art of Landscape, Museum Barberini, Potsdam, January 21–May 28, 2017

Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature, Denver Art Museum, October 20, 2019–February 2, 2020

Monet: Orte, Museum Barberini, Potsdam, February 22–July 19, 2020, no. 20

Impressionism: The Hasso Plattner Collection, Museum Barberini, Potsdam, from September 5, 2020

December 1876, Ernest Hoschedé, purchased from the artist as Les Dahlias, Montgeron
June 5–6, 1878, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Hoschedé Collection, lot 58, Dahlias au bord d’une pièce d’eau
Jean-Baptiste Faure, Paris, acquired at the above sale
ca. 1924, Mme Faure, Paris
n.d., Galerie Georges Petit, Paris
1930, Mercedes Santamarina, Buenos Aires
September 25–27, 1946, Buenos Aires, Santamarina Collection, lot 37
n.d., Maria Menendez de Campos, Buenos Aires
n.d., Wildenstein New York or London
ca. 1970, Bette and Neison Harris, Chicago
November 1, 2005, Christie’s, New York, Bette and Neison Harris estate, lot 14, unsold
April 2010, purchased from a private collection

Jacques, “Menus propos,” in L'Homme libre (April 11, 1877), p. 2

F. Chevalier, “Les impressionnistes,” in L'Artiste (May 1877), p. 332

Georges Rivière, “L'Exposition des impressionnistes,” in L'Impressionniste 1 (April 6, 1877)

Lionello Venturi, Les Archives de l’Impressionnisme, Paris/New York 1939, p. 312

M. Rostand, Quelques amateurs de l'époque impressionniste, Paris (École du Louvre, PhD Diss., unpublished) 1955, p. 44

Lionello Venturi, Les archives de l'impressionnisme: Lettres de Renoir, Monet, Pissarro, Sisley et autres; mémoires de Paul Durand-Ruel, New York 1968

Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné, vol. 1, Lausanne 1974, p. 294, ill. p. 295

Ruth Berson, The New Painting: Impressionism 1874–1886. Documentation, vol. 2, San Francisco/Seattle 1996, no. III-93 (Les Dalhias (Montgeron)), p. 75, ill. p. 93

Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue Raisonné. Werkverzeichnis, vol. 2, Cologne 1996, no. 417, p. 170, ill. p. 171

Impressionism: The Art of Landscape, exh. cat. Museum Barberini, Potsdam 2017, no. 58, p. 18, 172–74, ill. p. 180

Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature, exh. cat. Denver Art Museum, Denver 2019, no. 20, p. 47, 58, ill. p. 108

Monet: Orte, exh. cat. Museum Barberini, Potsdam 2020, no. 20, p. 46, ill. p. 108/9