Claude Monet · Montgeron · decorative commission
The Turkeys is more than an amusing scene with animals. It is one of Monet’s major decorative experiments: a monumental canvas painted at Montgeron for Ernest Hoschedé, in which outdoor painting already takes on the ambition of the future Water Lilies.
In the grounds of the Château de Rottembourg, Monet turns a lawn, a few turkeys and a distant façade into a vibrating surface. The work is now held at the Musée d’Orsay.
Reading guide
A journey to understand the subject, commission, decoration, composition and connection with Monet’s great decorative works.
Quick answer
What does The Turkeys by Monet depict?
The painting shows turkeys moving across the Château de Rottembourg’s large lawn at Montgeron. Monet paints from the lower grounds: animals animate the foreground, woodland encloses the space and the château façade appears in the distance.
A park scene turned into large-scale decoration
The work belongs to a group of four large paintings commissioned by Ernest Hoschedé for the Château de Rottembourg’s grand drawing room. Hoschedé’s bankruptcy, however, jeopardised the commission. The Turkeys entered painter Giuseppe de Nittis’s collection in 1878; the other panels followed separate paths. The ambition remains visible: Monet thinks in panels and decoration.
- Artist
- Claude Monet
- Place
- Montgeron / Château de Rottembourg
- Patron
- Ernest Hoschedé
- Museum
- Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Montgeron
Monet at Ernest Hoschedé’s estate, in the Rottembourg grounds
In 1876–1877, Monet worked at Montgeron on collector and patron Ernest Hoschedé’s estate. The commission was intended to decorate the Château de Rottembourg’s grand drawing room.
A patron, a château, an ambitious commission
Hoschedé did not ask Monet for a small easel landscape. He commissioned large canvases intended to be viewed together in a room. This context gives the Turkeys its true dimension: Monet observes outdoors, but already composes for an interior.
The park as studio
Monet worked from the château’s garden and lawn, following an outdoor painting approach.
The grand drawing room as destination
The large panels were intended to engage with one another in the residence, rather than remain isolated.
Bankruptcy as rupture
The Turkeys changed owners in 1878; Hoschedé’s bankruptcy prevented the decorative commission from proceeding as planned.
A decisive encounter
The Hoschedé circle would also have biographical significance in Monet’s life.
Decorative outdoor painting
Painted outside, conceived for inside
The distinctive quality of the Turkeys lies in this dual movement: Monet paints outdoor light in a decorative format. The canvas is neither merely a landscape nor merely a wall panel.
The living subject
Animals, grass and shadows require direct observation of the garden and its variations.
The large format
Monumental size turns a corner of a park into an enveloping, almost mural surface.
The cropped framing
One turkey is even cut off by the edge: the painting embraces lively, non-academic framing.
Analysis
How to read the composition of the Turkeys
The canvas seems open and spontaneous, yet is carefully constructed: a broad pale lawn, animals as moving signs, woodland closing the depth and the château façade in the background.
The lawn as a stage
Green is more than a background: it is a luminous surface carrying the entire composition.
Turkeys as punctuation
Their whites, greys and browns punctuate the canvas like scattered little notes.
Deliberately cropped framing
The turkey cut off at the edge gives the scene an immediate, almost photographic effect.
The woodland as a wall of vegetation
Trees reduce depth and return the eye to the painted surface.
The château as a reminder of the commission
The distant façade recalls that this painting belongs to Rottembourg’s world, rather than anonymous countryside.
Colour
Greens, whites, ochres: the palette of decorative outdoor painting
Monet avoids heavy narration. He organises the canvas through masses of colour: grass, foliage, plumage, warm strokes of earth and the pale façade.
The Montgeron cycle
The four large canvases for the Rottembourg drawing room
The Turkeys belongs to a larger decorative ensemble. The series included The Turkeys, Corner of the Garden at Montgeron, Pond at Montgeron and The Hunt. Dispersed after Hoschedé’s bankruptcy, these canvases illuminate Monet’s decorative ambition.
The Turkeys
The Château de Rottembourg’s lawn becomes a decorative scene animated by animals.
Wikimedia Commons image.
Corner of the Garden at Montgeron
A flowering garden, rosebush and pond: Monet turns vegetation into a carpet of colour.
Wikimedia Commons image.
Pond at Montgeron
Water and trees give the cycle a quieter, almost immersive dimension. The Hermitage catalogue states that this canvas was made in the studio from a study, rather than painted entirely outdoors.
Wikimedia Commons image.
Poppies
Compare it to understand how Monet animates a large green surface through points of colour.
Alpha Reproduction image.
Women in the Garden
Another major milestone: Monet had already sought to unite figures, light and a large canvas outdoors.
Alpha Reproduction image.Legacy
Montgeron and the Water Lilies : two decorative ambitions to compare
The Rottembourg cycle can be compared with Monet’s great late decorative works without establishing a direct lineage. Already at Montgeron, landscape was conceived on the scale of an interior and as part of an ensemble.
Thinking in decoration, rather than only images
At Montgeron, Monet shows that a landscape can function as a decorative panel. Nature becomes more than a subject: it is a surface intended to transform an interior.
The Turkeys therefore has a paradoxical charm: modest subject, immense ambition. This gap makes the canvas so powerful. Where one expects a farmyard scene, Monet offers a laboratory of modern decoration.
Shop
Reproduction and collections around the Turkeys
This work suits natural interiors: wood, olive green, linen, warm beige, cream walls or a dark library. Its square format and large lawn give it an immediate decorative presence.
The Turkeys
The large Montgeron scene, between outdoor painting and decorative panel.
View the reproductionClaude Monet
Discover the painter’s landscapes, gardens and outdoor scenes.
Explore the collectionImpressionist Landscapes
Lawns, fields, gardens and changing light.
View the landscapesFAQ
Frequently asked questions about The Turkeys
Quick answers about the museum, patron, Montgeron and the work’s place in Monet’s career.
Where is Monet’s The Turkeys?
The painting is held at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, under inventory number RF 1944 18.
When did Monet paint The Turkeys?
Monet painted the work in 1877 at Montgeron, in the Château de Rottembourg grounds.
What are its dimensions and medium?
This oil on canvas measures 174 × 172.5 cm without its frame.
What does the painting depict?
Turkeys move across the Château de Rottembourg’s lawn, with its façade appearing behind the trees in the background.
Who commissioned The Turkeys?
Collector Ernest Hoschedé commissioned Monet to create decoration for the grand drawing room of his Château de Rottembourg at Montgeron.
Why is it described as a decorative commission?
The Turkeys was conceived not as an isolated landscape, but as one of several large panels intended to decorate an interior.
Which paintings belonged to the Montgeron cycle?
The series comprised The Turkeys, Corner of the Garden at Montgeron, Pond at Montgeron and The Hunt.
Was the painting exhibited in 1877?
Yes. Monet presented it at the third Impressionist exhibition under the title The Turkeys (Unfinished Decoration), catalogue number 101.
What happened to the work after Ernest Hoschedé?
After 1878, it passed notably through the collections of Giuseppe de Nittis, Théodore Duret, François Depeaux and then Princess Edmond de Polignac.
What is its connection with the Water Lilies?
The comparison is interpretative: Montgeron and the Water Lilies demonstrate, at very different dates, Monet’s interest in large decorative ensembles.
Sources
Reference points used
Principal sources for dates, dimensions, location, the Hoschedé commission and Montgeron cycle.
Musée d’Orsay
Official entry: date, dimensions, inventory, depicted location, provenance and exhibitions.
ProvenanceMonet’s letter
The museum traces the Hoschedé commission, 1877 exhibition and successive owners.
Exhibition1877 catalogue
Official entry “The Turkeys (Unfinished Decoration)”, number 101.
CycleHermitage Museum
Official catalogue identifying the four panels of the Montgeron decorative series.
Museum Barberini
The four-panel commission and study of Roses, 1876: distinction between the study bought by Hoschedé and the final large painting.
Key takeaway
The Turkeys is a painting that seems humorous, but is deeply serious in its ambition.
Monet tests a crucial idea: turn an outdoor subject into monumental decoration. At Montgeron, amid lawn, animals and château, he experiments with painting conceived as decoration and space.
Discover the reproduction
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