Claude Monet Gallery
Pond at Montgeron
Oil on canvas. 173x194 cm
France. Circa 1876
Source of Entry:   State Museum of New Western Art, Moscow. 1931

This is one of four decorative panels commissioned by the financier Ernest Hoschede, amongst the first patrons of the Impressionists. Together with three other works by Monet ("Corner of the Garden at Montgeron", St Petersburg, Hermitage; "Turkeys", Paris, Louvre; "The Hunt", Paris, priv. coll.) it was intended to adorn the large salon of Hoschede's country chateau, Rottenburg, at Montgeron.

The works were created at the very height of Impressionism. Setting themselves the aim of conveying a brief moment in the changing existence of nature, the Impressionists filled their works with vibrant light and air. For these masters of plein-air painting, the symbol of the dynamism and changeability of nature was the broken, rippling, transient reflection in water, and this it is which forms the central theme of this landscape.

It is possible that the barely noticeable silhouette of a woman with a fishing-rod is Hoschede's wife Alice, later to become the second wife of the artist.

viewer


Bank of the Seine
Haystack at Giverny
Pond at Montgeron
Wheatstacks
Parliament
Water Lilies
Rouen Cathedrale
Chateau Antibes

Biography


Bulletin Board


Renowned Art
(home)
Claude Monet (1840-1926)
Monet was born in Paris, studied for one year at the Académie Suisse in Paris and completed a year’s military service in Algeria. He painted directly from nature and used quick brush stokes to record overall effect rather than detail. He and fellow artist, Renoir, did not use black or brown to describe shadows but instead contrasts of juxtapositioned colors.

In 1872 he painted Impression Sunrise, that led to the naming of the Impressionists In the winter of 1875 he painted snow scenes in Argenteuil. He spent 1877 painting the St-Lazare station. In the 1890s he worked hard on several series of paintings depicting haystacks, poplars on the Epte and the façade of Rouen Cathedral. In 1900, he embarked on his two most ambitious projects, the series depicting the Thames and the series depicting his beloved water garden at Giverny, which he continued to work on until his death.
female artists: by birth year | alphabetically
all artists, with thumbnails: by birth year | alphabetically
all artists: by birth year | alphabetically
artists born in the 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th 20th century