Artwork
Still Life with Bottle, Carafe, Bread, and Wine
Still Life with Bottle, Carafe, Bread, and Wine is an oil painting by the Impressionist artist Claude Monet. It dates from 1862 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Technique & Style
The medium of oil on canvas allows for the specific textural rendering characteristic of the artist's handling of light and form during this period.
Claude Monet executed Still Life with Bottle, Carafe, Bread, and Wine in 1862 using oil paint on a canvas support. The work measures 39.69 cm in height and 59.85 cm in width. Classified as a still life, the painting demonstrates Monet's early engagement with the genre, focusing on a domestic arrangement of a bottle, carafe, bread, and wine.
The medium of oil on canvas allows for the specific textural rendering characteristic of the artist's handling of light and form during this period.
History & Provenance
Claude Monet painted Still Life with Bottle, Carafe, Bread, and Wine in 1862, an oil on canvas work.
Monet gave the painting to his friend Eugène Boudin between 1894 and 1898, after which it passed to Edmond Maître and his wife, was sold to the dealer Paul Durand‑Ruel in 1899, entered the Lafon collection in 1912, and was later sold to Sam Salz in New York before being bought by the Block couple in 1958.
The Blocks sold it at Sotheby’s in New York on 20 May 1981, after which Paul Mellon acquired it, and in 1999 he bequeathed it to the National Gallery of Art, where it remains on view as part of the museum’s still‑life collection.
The painting is held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where it entered the collection in 1999 as part of the bequest of Paul Mellon, with a life estate retained by his wife, Rachel Lambert Mellon.
Its documented exhibition history includes the 1957 travelling show "Claude Monet," mounted in Edinburgh and London, to which the Durand-Ruel gallery lent the work while it was consigned from the Collection Lafon. The painting also appeared at Sotheby's in New York on 20 May 1981 as lot 317 in the sale of the Block collection, prior to its acquisition by Paul Mellon.
Overview
Claude Monet's Still Life with Bottle, Carafe, Bread, and Wine, created around 1862, is an oil on canvas painting. This early work by the artist explores the still life genre, presenting a collection of common household items. It offers a glimpse into Monet's foundational artistic approach before his later, more renowned contributions to Impressionism, demonstrating his initial engagement with depicting everyday subjects.
Subject & Meaning
The composition features a modest arrangement of domestic objects placed on a table draped with a white cloth. A plate holds bread and cheese, accompanied by a wine bottle, a carafe, a drinking glass, and a knife. This selection of everyday items, presented without elaborate staging, reflects a focus on the ordinary and a direct observation of common life, emphasizing simplicity over grand narrative.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Oscar-Claude Monet was a French painter and founder of Impressionism who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it.
