À propos de l’œuvre
Les pommes et les raisins, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · Vétheuil · 1880 · W546
Apples and grapes W546hand painted reproduction
On a crumpled white tablecloth, a shallow basket brings together green and red apples, black grapes and blond bunches. Other fruits roll towards the edges of the table, as if the order of still life had just been undone. Monet signs and dates the canvas at the top left, but mainly treats the fabric, fruits and background as a landscape of light. This oil on canvas measuring 66.5 × 82.5 cm is kept at the Art Institute of Chicago under number 1933.1152. It corresponds to Wildenstein 546.
Look at the work
An inclined table becomes a ground of light where the fruits seem to slide out of the basket and disperse into space
The table is seen from quite a height. Its edge crosses the foreground diagonally and the tablecloth unfolds like a large light surface, covered with blues, pinks and grays. The basket occupies the upper half; its compressed ellipse confirms the dive, while the isolated apples at the bottom and right bring the pattern closer to the viewer.
The fruits are not filled with a single local color. Lemon yellows, cold greens, orange-reds, purples and white highlights overlap in small thick touches. The brown background remains thinner and more open. This difference in material advances the bunches and apples without resorting to a continuous academic outline.
The Art Institute of Chicago points out that the small, colorful horizontal lines of the tablecloth recall the way Monet painted the water's wrinkles in his landscapes. Even indoors, he therefore circulates light with the vocabulary of outdoor impressionism.
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.
Diving undermines the balance of still life
The sharp tilt of the table gives the scattered fruits the appearance of objects ready to roll towards the edge. The composition remains cleverly constructed, but it avoids the frontal stability of a traditional still life.
The white tablecloth contains an entire range of colors
Blues, mauves, pinks and yellows describe the folds as much as the light. Horizontal and discontinuous touches unify this large surface without transforming it into a neutral flat surface.
Paint thickness varies by area
Apples and grapes are shaped by superimposed impasto; the bottom receives much thinner brown washes. This contrast of material reinforces the tactile presence of the fruits.
Reference image
Read this specific version
The single image represents exactly inventory 1933.1152. The official Art Institute of Chicago file is limited to 3,000 × 2,398 px for the store, without artificial enlargement, then encoded as a real WebP.
Preserve the table seen from above
The very flattened ellipse of the basket and the diagonal of the edge must remain consistent. A straightened perspective would remove the feeling of movement specific to W546.
Store the bruises in the tablecloth
The fabric is not uniform white. Its blue-gray and lilac shadows respond to the cold contours of apples and separate light fruits from their support.
Distinguish between impasto and thin passages
The highlights of the fruits must keep a denser material than the brown background. Smoothing the entire canvas in the same way would erase essential data revealed by the museum's technical study.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
The Art Institute of Chicago documents Apples and Grapes, oil on canvas from 1880, 66.5 × 82.5 cm, inventory 1933.1152 and catalog Wildenstein 546.
The concentrated group of still lifes painted in 1879 -1880
Monet painted fruit throughout his career, but these two years constituted his most sustained effort in the genre. The paintings then sold more easily than certain landscapes, without reducing their search for color and light.
A charcoal drawing and covers on dry paint
The museum's examination spotted charcoal at the edges of the table, basket and several fruits. Monet first places numerous passages wet on wet, then returns to the dry canvas to reinforce the lights and add an apple to the right.
Possibly exhibited at La Vie moderne in June 1880
The painting could correspond to the Fruit Basket shown during Monet's personal exhibition. After several visits to Durand-Ruel, Martin A. Ryerson bought it in 1915 and bequeathed it to the museum in 1933.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- Wildenstein version 546 and inventory 1933.1152
- The signature and date Claude Monet 1880 top left
- The tablecloth animated with touches of blue, pink and gray
- The difference in material between pasted fruits and light brown background
Work sheet
| Title | Apples and grapes W546 |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | 1880 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 66.5 × 82.5 cm |
| Orientation | Horizontal |
| Conservation | Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, United States |
| Inventory | 1933.1152 · Wildenstein 546 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
This horizontal still life is suitable for a dining room, open kitchen or living room. An ivory, gray blue or pinkish brown wall and a walnut frame bring out the sour greens, the purples of the grapes and the freshness of the tablecloth.
