À propos de l’œuvre
Entrée de Giverny en hiver, soleil couchant, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · Giverny · January 1885 · W966
Entrance to Giverny in winter, setting sun W966hand painted reproduction
A snowy road describes a wide curve towards the first houses of Giverny. On the left, a gnarled tree stands out against the sky; on the right, the red and purple branches close the path, while the setting sun colors the snow pink, orange and blue. Painted in 1885, this oil on canvas measuring 65.5 × 81.2 cm corresponds to Wildenstein 966 and is now in a private collection.
Look at the work
Curved road turns village entrance into light movement
The path starts from the lower edge, widens to the right then returns abruptly towards the center. Its two banks therefore do not follow a symmetrical perspective: they produce an arcuate trajectory which catches the eye as far as the houses and the narrow passage where the road disappears.
The pinkish-yellow sky reverberates directly onto the snow. Cold blues remain present in ruts, shadows and trunks, but muted reds roam the trees and the roadway. Evening light thus shifts a silent winter landscape towards warm harmony.
Monet does not paint snow as a white surface: he uses it as a screen that receives the latest color changes from the sky.
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 prominent tree as a foil
The left trunk, very close and partially cut, accentuates the rapid retreat of the path. Its dark silhouette gives measure to the tiny houses placed at the point where the road turns.
A perspective borrowing from Japanese printmaking
The ample curve, off-center shaft and lateral entrance of the gaze recall compositions by Hiroshige and Hokusai. Monet owned numerous prints and happily exploited their asymmetrical framing.
A sunset without a visible disk
The light source remains off-camera. Its existence can be read in the yellows of the sky, the roses of the road and the reds of the branches, opposed to the blue-gray shadows of the snow.
Reference image
Read this specific version
The only image is the high definition file distributed by Christie's for the Wildenstein 966 version. The visual of 3,200 × 2,544 px is limited to 3,000 × 2,385 px then encoded as a real WebP.
Keep the very wide curve of the path
She is the main driving force behind the composition. A road that is too straight or a reduced turn would make the entrance to Giverny static and remove the influence of Japanese framing.
Preserve roses and yolks in the snow
These colors are not decorative: they record the sunset. A uniform cool white would lose the precise moment to which W966 is attached.
Keeping half-melted houses in the atmosphere
The village forms a discreet anchor, not an architectural subject. The facades must remain suggested by touches of gray, blue and brown.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
The Christie's notice documents Entrance to Giverny in winter, setting sun, oil on canvas from 1885, 65.5 × 81.2 cm and Wildenstein catalog 966.
One of four views very close to the eastern road
In January 1885, Monet painted the entrance to Giverny several times. The versions go from gray weather to snow lit by the sunset then to clearer light.
Nine landscapes created during the cold of January
The average temperature in Giverny then drops to around −6 °C. Monet wrote to Durand-Ruel that he worked in the middle of the snow and feared above all a change in the weather.
A canvas completed the following winter
Sales documentation indicates that Monet left the work unfinished in January 1885 and then returned when snow fell again in December.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- The Wildenstein 966 version
- The snowy road in a big curve
- The gnarled tree placed on the left
- The pink and orange reflections of the setting sun
Work sheet
| Title | Entrance to Giverny in winter, setting sun W966 |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | 1885 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 65.5 × 81.2 cm |
| Orientation | Horizontal |
| Conservation | Private collection, location not communicated |
| Inventory | Wildenstein 966 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
This horizontal landscape brings warm light without losing the sweetness of winter. It is suitable for a living room, bedroom or office, on a gray pink, linen beige or slate blue wall, with a walnut or patinated gold frame.
