Description

In summer 1901 Claude Monet rented a modest house in Lavacourt, a small hamlet across the Seine from Vétheuil and not far from his property at Giverny, which he was in the process of expanding. He began 15 paintings of Vétheuil from the balcony of this rented home, all of which feature the same restricted view of the riverbank and town—punctuated by the church—and document the changes in light throughout the day. The Art Institute holds two paintings from the series, one from midday and another from sunset. Painted on nearly square canvases, Monet divided each composition in half, separating the town from its reflection. Rather than replicating the area’s topography or creating a convincing illusion of space, Monet emphasized the decorative over the descriptive qualities of this riverscape. His loose brushwork and subtle color transitions blur the distinctions between the scene’s various forms, dissolving the borders, for example, between the water and the land and the land and the sky. The shapes of the different buildings along the shoreline emerge through changes in the direction of brushstrokes and slight shifts in hue.

Provenance

The artist (d. 1926); sold to Boussod, Valadon & Cie., Paris, Feb. 15, 1902, for 8,000 francs [per Wildenstein 1996; see also Boussod, Valadon & Cie, Paris, stock book 15, 1901–18 (as Vétheuil, effet rose), which includes a price code “INXZ,” decoded by the Getty Research Institute’s online database as 8000 francs]; sold to Rosenberg, Paris, May 26, 1903, for 10,000 francs [per Wildenstein 1996; see also Boussod, Valadon & Cie, Paris, stock book 15, 1901–18 (as Vétheuil, effet rose) and includes a price code “PNNXZ,” decoded by the Getty Research Institute’s online database as 10000 francs]. Alfred Savoir, Paris, by Mar. 22, 1922 [per Hôtel Drouot, sale cat., Mar. 22, 1922]; sold at the Alfred Savoir, Paris, sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Mar. 22, 1922, lot 16 (ill.), to Durand-Ruel, Paris, for 5,000 francs [Hôtel Drouot, sale cat., Mar. 22, 1922; see also Durand-Ruel, New York, deposit book for 1908–25 (no. 12664, as Vétheuil, 1901), 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]; on deposit with Durand-Ruel, New York, by Apr. 22, 1922 [per Durand-Ruel, New York, stock book for 1908–25 (no. 4742, as Vétheuil, 1901), 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; see also Durand-Ruel, New York, deposit book for 1908–25 (no. 12664, as Vétheuil, 1901)]; sold to Durand-Ruel, New York, Apr. 22, 1922 [this and the following per Durand-Ruel, New York, stock book for 1908–25 (no. 4742, as Vétheuil, 1901), 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]; sold to Annie Swan Coburn, Chicago, Sept. 29, 1926, for $10,000; bequeathed to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.