À propos de l’œuvre
La Débâcle, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · Vétheuil · 1880 · W565
The Debacle or The Ice Cubes W565hand painted reproduction
The Seine narrows to the left between snow-capped hills, then widens towards the viewer under a line of bare trees. Plates of clear ice drift horizontally and intersect the vertical reflections of the trunks, creating an unstable pattern on the water. This oil on canvas measuring 60.33 × 99.70 cm, Wildenstein 565, is kept at the University of Michigan Museum of Art under number 1976/2.134.
Look at the work
Vertical reflections and horizontal ice cubes form a grid over the Seine
The river opens the depth to the left, between a dark bank and a pale hill. In the center, the curtain of trees partially closes the horizon; in the foreground, the surface takes over and divides into strips of water, ice and light.
Snowy hills combine white, mauve and blue gray. In the water, deep greens, browns and blues respond to the trunks, while the ice cubes receive cream and pink touches that separate them without hardening them.
This version holds two opposing readings together: a landscape that recedes towards the hills and an almost abstract surface where vertical and horizontal lines constantly bring the eye back towards the canvas.
Composition, touch and light
What Monet builds behind the impression of snapshot
Three precise elements allow us to understand this composition and the essential difficulties of faithful reproduction.
An open depth on the left
The Seine moves away in a narrow passage, but the central bank and its trees interrupt the escape. This construction maintains the distance without letting the eye leave the surface of the river.
The meeting of ice cubes and reflections
Horizontal plates cut through the dark columns of trees. Monet exploits this contradiction to render both the movement of water and the floating matter of ice.
Hills as a reserve of light
The snowy slopes behind the trees prevent the bank from becoming an opaque wall. Their mauves and blues make the cold passages in the foreground resonate.
Reference image
Read this specific version
The only reference photograph is preserved at its native definition of 2993 × 1869 px then encoded in real WebP, without artificial enlargement.
Keep the river opening to the left
It establishes the only deep recoil of the composition and distinguishes W565 from versions where the bank crosses the entire horizon.
Preserve the irregular grid of water
Vertical reflections should not erase horizontal plates; their superposition is precisely the visual heart of this canvas.
Keep snowy hills behind trees
These clear shapes remain discreet but give breathing deep and distribute the light beyond the ice cubes.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
The University of Michigan Museum of Art documents The Break-up of the Ice, also titled The Debacle or The Ice Cubes, oil on canvas from 1880, inventory 1976/2.134 and Wildenstein 565.
The sudden thaw of the Seine in January 1880
The winter of 1879-1880 was exceptionally harsh. When the ice breaks, the plates drift, damage the banks and give Monet a changing pattern that he follows for several weeks.
About twenty studies of the debacle
Monet varies the views, river widths and lighting effects. W565 can be recognized by its opening on the left, its clear hills and the central curtain of trees.
Entered the museum in 1976
The work was acquired thanks to the generosity of Russell B. Stearns and Andree B. Stearns; it bears the number 1976/2.134.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- The Wildenstein 565 version
- The Seine which moves back to the left
- The snowy hills behind the trees
- The grid of reflections and ice sheets
Work sheet
| Title | The Debacle or The Ice Cubes W565 |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | 1880 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 60.33 × 99.70 cm |
| Orientation | Horizontal |
| Conservation | University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, United States |
| Inventory | 1976/2.134 · Wildenstein 565 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
This panoramic landscape is suitable for a living room, dining room or office. A blue-gray, deep green or linen wall and a dark setting accompany the tension between light ice, trees and reflective water.
