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Lot Essay
The present canvas depicts a brightly colored profusion of red azalea flowers in two pots. Although Monet turned to still-life only intermittently during his long career, his achievement in the genre has been widely recognized. John House has written, "Monet's explorations of this subject include some of the most lavish still-lifes produced by the Impressionist group, and some of the most radical challenges to a long-standing still-life tradition" (Monet: Nature into Art, New Haven, 1986, p. 43). An avid gardener throughout his life, Monet was particularly drawn to floral compositions. Indeed, he once declared, "I perhaps owe it to flowers for having become a painter" (quoted in P. Tucker, Claude Monet: Life and Art, New Haven, 1995, p. 178). Robert Gordon and Andrew Forge have commented, "It is particularly in Monet's still-lifes that we recognize what it was that Van Gogh learned from him: not simply the powerful and expressive palette but also a quality of impassioned drawing that is much more apparent in the flower paintings—forms painted at the range of stereoscopic vision, therefore more tactile—than in most of his landscapes. In these sumptuous flower paintings, the drawing and color are carried along together with tremendous impetus. His love for flowers is unmistakable. The character, the quality of growth, the specific rhythm of each bouquet is given its due" (ibid., pp. 214-215).
The still-lifes that Monet produced between 1878 and 1882, while he was living first at Vétheuil and then at Poissy, represent the artist's most sustained exploration of the genre in his entire career. He had experimented with still-life on several occasions during the 1860s but abandoned it during the years that he spent at Argenteuil, concentrating instead on landscape. He returned to still-life in earnest following his move to Vétheuil, spurred at least in part by commercial interests. The years at Vétheuil and Poissy were marked by great financial hardship for the artist, and his still-life paintings, particularly the floral compositions, were readily saleable and yielded higher prices during this period than his landscapes. Several of the still-lifes sold for five hundred francs each, while at least two netted Monet as much as seven hundred, more than the yearly rent on his house at Vétheuil. Charles Stuckey has declared, "Financially speaking, landscape painter Monet was saved by his work in still-life" (Monet at Vétheuil: The Turning Point, exh. cat., University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, 1998, p. 56).
Following his move from Poissy to Giverny in 1883, Monet's interest in still-life again waned. His only major efforts in the genre after this were a set of thirty-six canvases commissioned by Paul Durand-Ruel in 1882-1885 to decorate the six double doors of his drawing-room (Wildenstein, nos. 919-954) and a group of four large paintings of chrysanthemums dated 1896-1897 (Wildenstein, nos. 1495-1498). The present work is one of the two large canvases which were painted for the decoration of "Door E." According to Daniel Wildenstein, the sixth door, "F," does not appear to have been completed. Monet continued to take inspiration from flowers throughout his career. One of his first concerns upon settling into his new home at Giverny was to get the gardens in order, and the water-lily pond that he built there became his principal subject for painting during the final two decades of his life.
Following a visit to Giverny, Gustave Geffroy explicitly mentioned the presence of flowers in Monet's garden there: "As soon as you push the little entrance gate, you think, in almost all seasons, that you are entering a paradise. It is the colorful and fragrant kingdom of flowers. Each month is adorned with its flowers, from the lilacs and irises to the chrysanthemums and nasturtiums" (quoted in P. Tucker, op. cit., p. 206).
The still-lifes that Monet produced between 1878 and 1882, while he was living first at Vétheuil and then at Poissy, represent the artist's most sustained exploration of the genre in his entire career. He had experimented with still-life on several occasions during the 1860s but abandoned it during the years that he spent at Argenteuil, concentrating instead on landscape. He returned to still-life in earnest following his move to Vétheuil, spurred at least in part by commercial interests. The years at Vétheuil and Poissy were marked by great financial hardship for the artist, and his still-life paintings, particularly the floral compositions, were readily saleable and yielded higher prices during this period than his landscapes. Several of the still-lifes sold for five hundred francs each, while at least two netted Monet as much as seven hundred, more than the yearly rent on his house at Vétheuil. Charles Stuckey has declared, "Financially speaking, landscape painter Monet was saved by his work in still-life" (Monet at Vétheuil: The Turning Point, exh. cat., University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, 1998, p. 56).
Following his move from Poissy to Giverny in 1883, Monet's interest in still-life again waned. His only major efforts in the genre after this were a set of thirty-six canvases commissioned by Paul Durand-Ruel in 1882-1885 to decorate the six double doors of his drawing-room (Wildenstein, nos. 919-954) and a group of four large paintings of chrysanthemums dated 1896-1897 (Wildenstein, nos. 1495-1498). The present work is one of the two large canvases which were painted for the decoration of "Door E." According to Daniel Wildenstein, the sixth door, "F," does not appear to have been completed. Monet continued to take inspiration from flowers throughout his career. One of his first concerns upon settling into his new home at Giverny was to get the gardens in order, and the water-lily pond that he built there became his principal subject for painting during the final two decades of his life.
Following a visit to Giverny, Gustave Geffroy explicitly mentioned the presence of flowers in Monet's garden there: "As soon as you push the little entrance gate, you think, in almost all seasons, that you are entering a paradise. It is the colorful and fragrant kingdom of flowers. Each month is adorned with its flowers, from the lilacs and irises to the chrysanthemums and nasturtiums" (quoted in P. Tucker, op. cit., p. 206).