Woman in the Garden

The painting was begun in 1866 and completed in 1867 by Monet at Sainte-Adresse, where he stayed in the summer of 1867. The scene was painted en plein air in the garden of his cousin Paul-Eugène Lecadre, depicting his cousin’s wife Jeanne-Marguerite Lecadre.

It was first shown at the fourth Impressionist exhibition in 1879. By that time it belonged to the Lecadre family. In 1899 Durand-Ruel sold the work to Russian collector Sergei Shchukin. After the Russian Revolution, the painting entered the collection of the Hermitage Museum, where it has remained since 1930.

The painting is held in the collection of the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and measures 82 × 101 cm. It was also shown at the Hermitage Amsterdam for the 2012–2013 exhibition “Impressionisme: Sensatie en inspiratie. Favorieten uit de Hermitage.”

Painted in 1867, Woman in the Garden represents a transitional moment in Claude Monet's career, bridging his early academic training with his emerging Impressionist style. Although executed en plein air, the work retains a composed, detailed structure that contrasts with the looser brushwork of his later masterpieces. X-ray analysis reveals the painting was created over a previous composition that originally included a male figure, indicating a shift in focus from narrative storytelling to the study of light and color relationships.

The subject, Jeanne-Marguerite Lecadre, serves primarily as a chromatic element rather than a psychological portrait, allowing Monet to explore the interaction of the white dress against the red flowers and green foliage.

The work was exhibited at the fourth Impressionist exhibition in 1879, where critics praised its unpretentious quality and refined texture. Its influence extended beyond France, inspiring Adolph Menzel's Walk in the Garden upon its return to Paris. The painting's trajectory from private family ownership to the collection of Russian industrialist Sergei Shchukin, and subsequently to the Hermitage Museum following the Russian Revolution, underscores its enduring significance within the Impressionist canon.

Woman in the Garden has been credited with anticipating Monet's lifelong devotion to painting gardens and flowers in natural light, a subject he pursued throughout his later career. The work was shown at the 4th Impressionist Exhibition in 1879, where the periodical La petite République Française praised it as a "masterpiece of unaffected simplicity" possessing an unusually rounded texture. It also inspired Adolph Menzel's Promenade im Park after Monet brought the canvas back to Paris at the end of 1867.

After passing through several French collections, the painting was acquired in 1899 by the dealer Durand-Ruel for the Russian textile baron Sergei Shchukin; following the Russian Revolution it became state property and entered the Hermitage, where it has been held since 1930.

Claude Monet commenced Woman in the Garden (also known as Femme au jardin) in 1866, at the age of 26. This oil on canvas painting, measuring 82 by 101 centimeters, depicts a figure within a lush outdoor setting. It was created en plein air and is now part of the collection at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, representing an early work in the artist's developing career.