Claude Monet

In his early work of the 1860s, Claude Monet not only pursued landscape painting but also devoted himself intensively to still life. More than any other genre, still life allowed him to experiment with composition, perspective, shadow, and light, as well as with the texture and coloration of individual objects. He returned to still life painting again during his three and a half years at Vétheuil from 1878 to 1881; most likely the considerable demand for such works and their easy marketability played a key role in his decision.

Still Life with a Honeydew Melon belongs to a group of three still lifes depicting fruit begun by Monet in the fall and winter of 1879. It is the only one of the three executed in a vertical format. The arrangement of apples and grapes in an overflowing wicker basket is complemented by additional fruits on a cream-colored tablecloth and a single melon to the right. The light falling on the left foreground of the image highlights the ripe fruit, while the cut melon, along with the optical appeal of the richly textured surfaces, stimulates the viewer’s sense of smell and taste—an approach characteristic of the Impressionists, who sought to elicit a sensual, participatory response in the viewer. Monet had pursued a similar strategy already in 1876 with his Still Life with Melon (Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon), painted in Argenteuil.

In the four-volume catalogue raisonné of Monet’s paintings compiled by Daniel Wildenstein, Still Life with a Honeydew Melon is listed as no. 544 (vol. 2, p. 213). The other two still lifes with fruit from this series are now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Daniel Zamani

Art français, Kaiserliche Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Künste, St. Petersburg, January 7–February 12, 1899 and Moscow, March 1–31, 1899 , no. 233

Exposition des peintres impressionnistes, La Libre Esthétique, Brussels, February 25–March 29, 1904, no. 96 (Fruits)

A Selection from the pictures by Boudin, Manet, Pissarro, Cézanne, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Morisot, Sisley, Grafton Galleries, London, January–February 1905, no. 132

Exposition de natures mortes par Monet, Cézanne, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, A. André, G. d’Espagnat, Lerolle, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, April/May 1908, no. 7

Œuvres d'art des XVIIIe, XIXe et XXe siècles, Chambre syndicale de la Curiosité et des Beaux-Arts, 18, rue de la Ville L'Évêque, Paris, April 25–May 15, 1923, no. 267 (Raison et melons)

Exposition Claude Monet organisée au profit des victimes de la catastrophe du Japon, Galeries Georges Petit, Paris, January 4–18, 1924, no. 53 (Nature morte: fruits)

Still Life: Loan Exhibition Arranged by Students, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, April 1931, no. 13 (Still Life)

Paintings by Monet, Pissarro, Sisley, Paul Rosenberg, New York, February 21–March 12, 1949, no. 3 (dated: 1880)

19th Century French Paintings, Paul Rosenberg, New York, October/November 1954, no. 11 (dated: 1878)

One Hundred Years of Impressionism: A Tribute to Durand-Ruel, a Loan Exhibition for the Benefit of the New York University Art Collection, Wildenstein, New York, April 2–May 9, 1970, no. 59 (Nature Morte, Fruits, 1880–1885)

Paintings by Monet, The Art Institute of Chicago, March 15–May 11, 1975, no. 47 (dated: 1880)

The Crisis of Impressionism, 1878–1882, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, November 2, 1979–January 6, 1980, no. 29

Theo van Gogh: Art Dealer, Collector and Brother of Vincent, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam and Musée d'Orsay, Paris, June 1999–January 2000, no. 117

Monet: The Seine and the Sea, 1878–1883, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, August 6–October 26, 2003, no. 21

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

probably December 1879, Theulier, Paris
n.d., Marsault, Paris
August 13, 1889, Boussod, Valadon, Paris, acquired from the above
August 13, 1889, Galerie Manzi, Paris, acquired from the above
n.d., Maître P. Chevallier
May 7, 1898, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, collection of Maître P. Chevallier, lot 42
May 7, 1898, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, acquired at the above sale
November 13, 1926, Duncan Phillips, Washington, D.C., acquired from the above
1934, Paul Rosenberg, Paris and Bordeaux, acquired from the above
September 1941, Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, confiscation, inv.-no. PR 150
September 14, 1941, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, from the above
April 10, 1942, Galerie Theodor Fischer, Luzern, exchange deal with Göring, through Hans Wendland
1964, Kunstmuseum, Bern
June 3, 1948, Paul Rosenberg, Paris, restituted by France
n.d., Otto Wertheimer, Paris, acquired from the above
June 19, 1967, Kimbell Art Foundation, Fort Worth, inv.-no. AP 67.5, acquired from the above
June 15, 1994, Collection of Frederick A. and Sharon L. Klingenstein, acquired from the above
June 3, 2019, Christie’s, New York, lot 26a, consigned by the above

René Gimpel, “At Giverny with Cl. Monet,” in Art in America (June 1927), no. 21, p. 170, ill. p. 170

Julius Meier-Graefe, Modern Art, vol. 1, New York 1908, p. 304, ill. p. 304

Octave Maus, Trente années de lutte pour l'art: 1884-1914, Brussels 1926, p. 323 (Fruits)

Oscar Reuterswärd, Monet: En konstnarhistorik, Stockholm 1948, p. 280

Répertoire des bien spoliés en France durant la guerre 1939–1945, Paris 1949, no. 5281, p. 236

L. Channing, Kimbell Art Museum: Catalogue of the Collection, coll. cat. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth 1972, p. 203–5, ill. p. 204

Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné, vol. 1, Lausanne 1974, no. 544, p. 350, 446, ill. p. 351

John Rewald, Studies in Impressionism, New York 1985, ill. p. 205

R. Wollheim, Painting as an Art, London 1987, p. 95, ill. p. 97

Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue Raisonné. Werkverzeichnis, vol. 2, Cologne 1996, no. 544, p. 213, ill. p. 212

T. Buomberger, Raubkunst-Kunstraub, Zurich 1998, no. 49, p. 462

Matthias Frehner, Das Geschäft mit der Raubkunst. Fakten, Thesen, Hintergründe, Zurich 1998, no. 49, p. 144

N.H. Yeide, Beyond the Dreams of Avarice: The Hermann Goering Collection, Dallas 2009, no. D76, p. 450, 463, ill. p. 450 (Still Life with Fruit Basket and Melon)