Claude Monet

The artist’s garden had developed into an important motif in Impressionism in the early 1880s. Not only did it offer the opportunity to work en plein air without strenuous or costly travel, it also represented a setting with which the painter was intimately familiar. At the same time, the domestic garden was also a place where nature could be transformed in accord with personal preferences and where the “backdrop” of each painting could be tailored through the selection of plants as well as the formal arrangement of terraces, garden paths, and decorative accessories.

Today, Monet’s affinity for horticulture is associated with the water garden he built in Giverny from 1893 on, inspired by Far Eastern models. Yet already in Vétheuil, the painter had pursued his hobby of gardening with enthusiasm and had depicted his garden in a number of ambitious compositions. This painting is one of a group of seven garden pictures he made in 1881 and is the only variation in the series executed in a horizontal format. The thick ground cover, closely cropped composition, and bright, glowing colors convey the impression of a carpet-like weave. The tree featured prominently in the left foreground as well as the broad expanse of branches and the garden poles function as disconcerting barriers to the viewer’s gaze. They are counteracted by the motif of the garden path, which leads the eye from the right foreground into the center of the composition. Almost exactly in the center of the painting, a horizontal row of six plant containers marks the first terrace level of the elaborately planted slope.

Monet also integrated the blue and white ceramic vessels into his 1881 painting The Artist’s Garden at Vétheuil (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C.), where they line the lower portion of the path as containers for red gladiolas; the comparison with this vertical image, with its open pictorial structure, makes the spatial arrangement of Monet’s garden more easily comprehensible. Even when the artist adopted a pictorial formula radically different from the classical rules of landscape composition, he rendered his motifs with topographical accuracy.

In the four-volume catalogue raisonné of Monet’s paintings compiled by Daniel Wildenstein, The Garden at Vétheuil is listed as no. 666 (vol. 2, p. 251). The picture was acquired in 1901 by the Berlin art dealer Paul Cassirer, who was one of the most ardent supporters of French Impressionism and who procured numerous important works for German museums and private collections in the early 20th century.

Daniel Zamani

Exposition de tableaux de Monet, Pissarro, Renoir et Sisley, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, April 1899, Nr. 13

Monet: A Retrospective, Bridgestone Museum of Art, Tokyo, 11/02–07/04/1994; City Art Museum, Nagoya, 16/04–12/06/1994; Museum of Art, Hiroshima, 18/06–31/07/1994, Nr. 32

Monet: I luoghi della pittura, Casa dei Carraresi, Treviso, 29/09/2001–10/02/2002

Impressionist Gardens, National Gallery, Edinburgh, 31/07–17/10/2010; Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 16/11/2010–14/02/2011, Nr. 30

Monet au Musée Marmottan et dans les collections suisses, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny, 17/06–20/11/2011, Nr. 23

Impressionism: The Art of Nature, Museum Barberini, Potsdam, 21/01–28/05/2017

Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature, Denver Art Museum, 20/10/2019–02/02/2020

Monet: Places, Museum Barberini, Potsdam, 22/02–19/07/2020, Nr. 54

Impressionism: The Hasso Plattner Collection, Museum Barberini, Potsdam, since 05/09/2020

April 1881, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, probably purchased from the artist as La Maison de campagne
February 1901, Galerie Paul Cassirer, Berlin, acquired from the above
n.d., Hugo Stahl, Berlin
n.d., Steinreich Collection, New York
by April 1945, Wildenstein, New York, acquired from the above
March 1946, Mrs. Robert Winthrop, New York, acquired from the above
May 15, 1990, Christie’s, New York, lot 10
ca. 1994, Private collection, Japan (Lake)
May 12, 1999, Christie’s, New York, lot 11
Private collection, acquired at the above sale
February 5, 2008, Sotheby’s, London, lot 69, unsold
n.d., Connaught Brown, London
2009, Private collection, Europe, acquired from the above
November 4, 2014, Sotheby’s, New York, lot 20, consigned by the above

Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné, vol. 1, Lausanne 1974, no. 666, ill. p. 401

Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné, vol. 5, Lausanne 1991, p. 36

Monet: A Retrospective, exh. cat. Bridgestone Museum of Art, Tokyo 1994, no. 32

Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue Raisonné. Werkverzeichnis, vol. 2, Cologne 1996, no. 666, p. 251, ill. p. 251

Monet: I luoghi della pittura, exh. cat. Casa dei Carraresi, Treviso 2001

David Joel, Monet at Vétheuil and on the Norman Coast 1878–1883, Woodbridge 2002, no. 126

Impressionist Gardens, exh. cat. National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh 2010, no. 30

Monet au Musée Marmottan et dans les Collections suisses, exh. cat. Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny 2011, p. 23

Impressionism: The Art of Landscape, exh. cat. Museum Barberini, Potsdam 2017, no. 59, p. 173/74, ill. p. 181

Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature, exh. cat. Denver Art Museum, Denver 2019, no. 54, p. 159, ill. p. 163

Monet: Orte, exh. cat. Museum Barberini, Potsdam 2020, no. 54, p. 159, ill. p. 163