MONET, Claude
(b. 1840, Paris, d. 1926, Giverny)

Monet's Garden in Vétheuil

1881
Oil on canvas, 152 x 121 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington

This painting reflects the artist's interest in the depiction of gardens, particularly his own. In Argenteuil in the 1870s, in Vétheuil in the early 1880s, and most notably in Giverny — where he resided for the last forty years of his life — Monet took an active role in tending his own garden.

While at Vétheuil, Monet produced at least nine paintings of his garden, all in the same year. Four identical compositions (this work among them) are painted from the same vantage point, depicting the staircase and path at the centre, flanked by beds of sunflowers and blue and white ceramic vases filled with gladioli.




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