The Tuileries by Monet
From a very high window, Monet transforms the French garden into a modern scene: a monumental pavilion, geometric paths, tiny walkers and all of Paris stretched to the horizon.
Identify the subject
A single painting or a small series?
Monet painted four views of the Tuileries in 1876. The Marmottan Monet museum specifies that they are made from Victor Chocquet's apartment, on the fifth floor of the 198, rue de Rivoli. The height completely changes the subject: the painter is not among the walkers, he dominates the garden.
The most accomplished version is kept at the Marmottan Monet museum. Three other works complete the set in the catalog raisonné: The Tuileries Garden (W402), The Tuileries, sketch (W403, Musée d'Orsay) and View of the Tuileries, sketch (W404).
The historic garden thus becomes a modern painting laboratory. Monet combines the regular layout of the flowerbeds with a quick touch that dissolves the silhouettes, foliage and urban panorama.
The point of view
A window transforms the garden into a living map of Paris
The Marsan pavilion closes the left edge, the large basin rounds the foreground and the city unfolds in a light strip. Between the two, the paths organize the circulation of manholes and bodies.
The actual garden, seen from the west
The photograph shows the continuity between the pool, the planted perspectives and the buildings of the Louvre. Monet chooses a side and elevated view which compresses these distances.
The Marsan pavilion
Its vertical mass serves as an architectural edge and gives the scale of the panorama.
The flowerbeds
Their ordered lines guide the eye without becoming a rigid drawing.
The basin
Its dark, bluish curve stabilizes the bottom of the composition.
The walkers
Vertical touches are enough to convey the crowd and movement.
The Parisian skyline
The city is an atmospheric frieze, more felt than described.
The four versions
Same window, four painting decisions
The preserved images are not mere duplicates. They show how Monet changes the framing, tree density, sky position and degree of completion.
The garden becomes a mosaic
The massifs occupy more of the surface. The architecture and the city remain present, but the greens, blues and ochres first build a network of keys.
The sketch assumes its speed
The Musée d'Orsay describes an oil on canvas measuring 50 × 75.5 cm. The material remains light, the shapes open and the panorama almost foggy. The work bears an inscription dated 75, while the notice places it around 1876.
The framing tightens the city
This sketch favors the momentum of the brush. The verticals of the edge and the plant masses serve as landmarks, while walkers are reduced to colorful signs.
The most accomplished version
The pavilion, the pool and the horizon line find a particularly readable balance. The museum highlights its palette of blond ochres, greens, blues and pinks. The complete work is presented at the opening of the article.
Read modernity
Five choices make the Tuileries a modern landscape
The subject is neither a romantic ruin nor an idealized setting. It is a contemporary public space, observed with the tools of urban life: apartment, window, height and circulation.
The view from above
The gaze adopts an almost cartographic position, made possible by the modern building.
The anonymous crowd
Visitors are not portraits; they make up the mobile rhythm of the city.
The present time
Monet paints a real Parisian afternoon, without historical events or mythological stories.
The visible key
It vibrates the foliage and prevents the orderly garden from becoming frozen.
The possible series
Using the same pattern already allows you to compare states and solutions.
Actual enlargements
Four details reveal the city under the keys
These reframes come from the Marmottan museum version. They do not replace the complete work: they show how Monet summarizes an architecture, a pool, a crowd and a horizon.
The pavilion becomes a blue cliff
Monet does not detail each window. The purple shadows and light verticals give the mass of the building, which contrasts with the instability of the trees.
The pool organizes the foreground
Its blue curve responds to the light bands of the aisles. The contours are flexible, but the relationship between curves and lines holds the entire composition.
A crowd made of signs
A few touches of red, blue, black and white are enough to make visitors walk. Their smallness gives the scene its urban scale.
Paris dissolves into the air
Roofs, monuments and fireplaces are no longer isolated objects. They form a vibrant band where blue, ocher and gray bring the city closer to the sky.
The collector
Victor Chocquet lends his window to Monet
Victor Chocquet by Renoir, 1876
The portrait is contemporary with the views of the Tuileries. Chocquet also supported Cézanne and actively frequented the impressionist circle.
An apartment becomes a temporary workshop
Victor Chocquet is a customs official with limited means, but an early and passionate collector. The Marmottan Monet museum recalls that it regularly opened its door to artists and in 1876 made its apartment available to Monet.
The address matters as much as the model. From the fifth floor of 198 rue de Rivoli, the painter has a stable, sheltered and panoramic view. He can observe the same garden without working in the middle of the crowd.
This situation announces a process that Monet will develop elsewhere: choosing a specific position, keeping several canvases within range and confronting the pattern with variations in light or framing. But here the entire city is still contained in a single broad perspective.
Modernity is not only found in what Monet paints, but also in where he looks from.
Paris as a laboratory
Before and after the Tuileries, Monet painted the city in motion
The views from 1876 are between the urban panoramas of the 1860s and 1870s and the large countryside of Saint-Lazare station presented in 1877.
The Infanta Garden, 1867
Already seen from the Louvre, this garden combines architecture, green space and crowds. The bill is more constructed, but the principle of the high panorama is in place.
Quai du Louvre, 1867
Walkers, cars and the Seine give a first image of Parisian traffic.
Boulevard des Capucines, 1873-1874
The crowd becomes a vertical vibration captured from a high window.
Saint-Lazare station, 1877
Smoke, steam and framework reflect a more industrial modernity, exhibited the same year as the view of the Tuileries.
Rue Montorgueil, 1878
Flags and crowds further transform the city seen from above into a moving surface.
Same garden, other looks
Manet tells the story of the company; Pissarro studies the seasons
Comparing Monet to two contemporaries avoids reducing the Tuileries to a simple decorative motif. The garden can become a social theater, atmospheric panorama or rehearsal exercise.
Society at the forefront
Manet places the viewer among the elegant and identifies several figures from the cultural world. The garden space almost disappears behind the bodies.
The methodical return to the motive
From 204 rue de Rivoli, Pissarro paints several views depending on the season, time and time. Its whole is more systematic than that of Monet in 1876.
Find the landmarks without looking for an exact copy
The garden, its statues and the Louvre remain identifiable, but the plantations and uses have evolved. Monet's painting condenses a precise state of Paris in the 1870s.
See or reproduce
Find the Tuileries and Monet's Paris
The Tuileries - Monet
Discover the reproduction linked to the view of the garden and its Parisian panorama.
See the work →Tuileries Garden - Monet
Compare another interpretation of the pattern in the site selection.
Compare formats →Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois
Extend the view from above with another Parisian panorama from 1867.
See table →Claude Monet Collection
Gardens, stations, boulevards, Seine and large series of lights.
Explore Monet →Impressionist collection
Compare Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Morisot and their visions of modernity.
See the movement →French painting
Placing the Tuileries in a broader history of the urban landscape.
Discover the collection →Frequently asked questions
Monet's Tuileries in 10 answers
When did Monet paint the Tuileries?
In 1876, the notice from the Marmottan Monet museum dates its version from this year, while the Musée d'Orsay places its sketch around 1876 and indicates an inscription "Claude Monet 75".
Where does Monet paint the garden from?
From the fifth floor of Victor Chocquet's apartment, at 198 rue de Rivoli in Paris. This height explains the plunging perspective.
How many views of the Tuileries does Monet achieve?
Four paintings are attached to this campaign: W401, W402, W403 and W404 in the Wildenstein catalog raisonné.
Where is the main version?
At the Marmottan Monet museum in Paris, inventory number 4016. The museum describes it as the most accomplished version of the whole.
Does the Musée d'Orsay have a view of the Tuileries?
Yes, The Tuileries; sketch, RF 2705, oil on canvas of 50 × 75.5 cm. The instructions indicate that it is currently not on display.
What view is presented in 1877?
A work entitled The Tuileries Garden included in the catalog of the third impressionist exhibition. Orsay's version is also documented among the works exhibited in 1877.
Why are these paintings modern?
Because they show contemporary public space from an urban building, use a bird's eye view, and translate the crowd into quick touches rather than an academic narrative.
Who is Victor Chocquet?
A customs official and one of the first collectors of the Impressionists and Cézanne. He lent his apartment to Monet to work opposite the Tuileries.
Does Monet paint the Tuileries like Pissarro?
No. Pissarro returned to the motif in 1898-1899 from 204 rue de Rivoli and created a more systematic set according to the seasons and times. In 1876 Monet sought more varied solutions in a group of four views.
What do we see on the left in the Marmottan version?
The mass of the Marsan pavilion. It closes the composition and contrasts with the flowerbeds, the trees and the horizon extended to the right.
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