1897
oil
canvas
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Branch of the Seine near Giverny (Mist) is a 1897 oil by Claude Monet, a Impressionism work, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
You see a hazy landscape of a river, with trees and mist in the background. The painting looks vague, but Monet made deliberate choices to create this effect. He used loose brushstrokes to blur the horizon line, which gives the painting a sense of depth. Check out the technique of glazing to learn more about how Monet achieved this soft, misty look.
This placid landscape is the result of an energetic creative process. For months Claude Monet rose before dawn to travel by rowboat to the same location on the river Seine, where he painted 14 canvases simultaneously, reworking them as the light shifted. Although this painting appears hazy and vague, Monet made deliberate technical decisions—for instance, blurring a once-distinct horizon line with vigorously blended brushstrokes that grow looser as they radiate outward. Monet custom-ordered the nearly square canvas, an unusual shape that contributes to the disorienting nature of the scene,…
Jos Hessel, Paris, by Oct. 26, 1916 [this and the following per Durand-Ruel, Paris, stock book for 1913–21 (no. 10908, as Matinée sur la Seine, 1897), as confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 5, 2013, curatorial object file; Wildenstein 1996 states this painting was sold by the artist to Durand-Ruel in 1913, which is not mentioned in the Durand-Ruel Archives]; sold to Durand-Ruel, Paris, Oct. 26, 1916, for 20,000 francs; sold to Durand-Ruel, New York, Nov. 6 or Dec. 4, 1916 [per Durand-Ruel, Paris, stock book…
Paris, Galerie George Petit, Exposition Claude Monet, June–July 1898. New York, Durand-Ruel, Paintings by Claude Monet, Dec. 9–23, 1916, cat. 10, as Matinée sur la Seine. Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art, Paintings by French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, Nov. 7–Dec. 12, 1937, cat. 15 (ill.). Akron (Ohio) Art Institute, Oct. 18, 1946–Nov. 10, 1947, no cat. Boston, Mass., Richard C. Morrison, Nov. 19, 1948–Dec. 26, 1950, no cat. Art Institute of Chicago, The Paintings of Claude Monet, Apr. 1–June 15, 1957, no cat. no. Art Institute of Chicago, The Artist Looks at the Landscape, June…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Oscar-Claude Monet was born in Paris on November 14, 1840, and raised from the age of five in Le Havre, where he began selling charcoal caricatures as a teenager.
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