À propos de l’œuvre
Environs de Honfleur, neige, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · The road to the Saint-Siméon farm in winter · Louvre Museum
Surroundings of Honfleur, snow W79hand painted reproduction
A snowy road descends between a dark embankment and a secluded farm near Honfleur. Bare trees follow a slope that slopes to the right, while a gray-purple sky absorbs the horizon. Monet paints the snow with blues, pinks, whites and traces of earth: far from being uniform, the winter landscape becomes a study of values and diffused light.
Look at the work
The white road descends towards the farm under an inclined horizon of trees
The rocky and wooded embankment occupies the left edge. Its blacks, grays and touches of snow form a counterweight to the vast clear path which widens in front of the viewer. Lean trees stand out against the sky and mark the slope.
On the right, a small farm with a white roof closes the bend in the road. Behind it, the trees and the terrain blend into the mist. The trace of the passage over the snow, slightly grayer, leads from the foreground to the building without forming a rigid line.
Snow does not eliminate the landscape: it reveals its slopes, brings values together and makes each trace a shade of light.
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.
A composition based on a great descent
The line of trees goes high to the left then plunges towards the farm. This inclination gives the scene its main dynamic and makes you feel the relief around the Saint-Siméon road.
White as a compound color
Blues, lilacs, pinks and grays shape the path and roofs. Warmer passages signal earth or reflected light; they prevent snow from becoming an empty surface.
An almost erased horizon
The distant ones approach the sky through their values. Monet retains some silhouettes of trees but reduces their contrast so that the winter atmosphere unifies the depth.
Reference image
Read this specific version
The image corresponds to the Louvre Museum's RF 1961 60 inventory and Wildenstein number 79. Its native definition of 1,474 × 1,200 px was retained during WebP conversion.
The dark embankment still contains snow
Clear touches cling to branches and stones. Their irregular rhythm describes how the terrain retains snow without transforming the entire slope into a white mass.
The road changes value with distance
More contrasted and bluish in the foreground, it becomes thin and gray near the farm. This modulation is enough to give depth when the contours are few in number.
The farm remains small and bright
Its roof and gable form the main architectural accent. We must preserve its distant scale and avoid hardening its contours in the atmosphere.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
Dated 1867 and signed Claude Monet lower left, this oil on canvas measures 81.5 × 102 cm. It belongs to the Louvre Paintings department under the inventory RF 1961 60 and bears the number Wildenstein 79.
The road in front of the Saint-Siméon farm
The landscape is located near Honfleur, where Monet had worked with Eugène Boudin and Johan Barthold Jongkind. The Saint-Siméon farm was an important meeting place for painters from the Normandy coast.
A distinct variation of the Orsay Museum Cart
Monet created several snowy roads near Honfleur in 1867. This painting from the Louvre can be recognized by its large format, the farm on the right and the absence of a cart in the center of the path.
Donation Hélène and Victor Lyon
After a sale in Drouot in 1900 and the purchase of André Schoeller in 1932, the work entered the Lyon collection. Given with reservation of usufruct in 1961, it joined the Louvre in 1977 and was exhibited in room 903.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- Keep the descent from the horizon towards the farm.
- Vary the whites with blues, pinks and grays.
- Keep distant trees in the mist.
- Keep the farm small but clearly legible.
Work sheet
| Title | Surroundings of Honfleur, snow W79 |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | 1867 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 81.5 × 102 cm |
| Orientation | Horizontal |
| Conservation | Louvre Museum, Paris, France |
| Inventory | RF 1961 60 · Wildenstein 79 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
This large winter landscape is suitable for a quiet living room, bedroom or office. A dark wood, pearl gray or off-white frame highlights shades of snow; side lighting avoids flattening the lightest passages.
