À propos de l’œuvre
Hyde Park, Londres, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · A London walk around 1871 · RISD Museum
Hyde Park, London W164hand painted reproduction
Hyde Park stretches under a pearl gray sky, crossed by a yellow path that winds through the middle of the lawns. Walkers and seated groups punctuate the space; in the distance, a long urban facade and its chimneys close the horizon. Monet paints London without spectacular monuments, through the ordinary rhythm of a public park.
Look at the work
A clear path organizes the scattered crowds of Hyde Park
The path starts from the lower edge, curves around the large central tree then moves away to the left. Its yellow ocher color contrasts with the green lawns and gives an immediate direction to the eye. Small silhouettes placed along its route accentuate its depth.
To the right of the center, two women seen from behind form the most readable group. Elsewhere, visitors become simple touches of dark or blue. The still sparse trees reveal the city, whose facades and chimneys dissolve into a gray atmosphere.
The walk is not a story: the figures are distance markers which make the extent of the park noticeable.
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.
The path as an arabesque
Its yellow curve crosses three planes and connects walkers. It prevents the large format from dividing into simple horizontal bands.
A crowd without a portrait
Each figure is reduced to a few vertical accents. The nearby group is more colorful, the distant silhouettes colder and smaller.
The city melted into the sky
The background buildings share the same grays, blues and mauves as the atmosphere. Their chimneys can be read in small breaks on the horizon.
Reference image
Read this specific version
The unique reference comes from the public domain file documented by the RISD Museum. The 4000 px image was reduced to 3000 × 1621 px, without oversampling, and then converted to WebP.
A very stretched panorama
The ratio between 74 cm wide and 40.5 cm high gives the sky and lawns a deep breath.
A harmony of grays and greens
The gray-purple sky envelops the muted greens. Yellow paths and some red or blue clothing bring limited accents.
A firmer touch on the figures
The sky is set widely, the trees by branched gestures and the walkers by short signs which remain readable from a distance.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
The RISD Museum keeps this painting under inventory 42.218; it corresponds to number 164 of the Wildenstein catalog raisonné.
Signed lower left
The museum notes the signature "Claude Monet" in the lower left corner of the canvas.
Sold as Kensington Gardens
Provenance indicates that Monet sold the work to Durand-Ruel in May 1872 under this title. The current notice identifies it as Hyde Park, London.
Gift of Mrs Murray S. Danforth in 1942
After several collections and sales, the painting was offered to the RISD Museum on February 4, 1942 and received the number 42.218.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- Respect the curve and warm color of the main path.
- Vary the scale of walkers according to their distance.
- Keep buildings in a gray-blue mist without losing their chimneys.
- Maintaining the moderate contrast of a covered London day.
Work sheet
| Title | Hyde Park, London W164 |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | Around 1871 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 40.5 × 74 cm |
| Orientation | Panoramic |
| Conservation | Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, United States |
| Inventory | 42.218 · Wildenstein 164 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
Its wide panorama, its muted greens and its silver sky are suitable for a living room, an office or a dining room. A soft black, smoked oak or patinated silver setting accompanies the calm modernity of the park.
