À propos de l’œuvre
Les Dindons, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · A decorative panel from Montgeron · Musée d'Orsay
The Turkey W416hand painted reproduction
A troop of turkeys advance through the shaded grass, their white and pink plumages capturing the shards of the sun. Behind them, the park opens towards the castle of Rottembourg. Monet gives this familiar subject the dimensions and scale of a monumental setting.
Look at the work
The group's movement enlivens the entire lawn
The birds occupy the foreground in a curve that goes up from left to right. Their bodies overlap, alternating large white masses, gray wings and small red heads. No turkey is treated as an isolated portrait: it is the troop that builds the rhythm.
The trees form a dark screen on the sides and open up a perspective towards the light facade of the castle. Sunspots run through the grass and plumages. Blue, pink and green touches modulate the whites instead of leaving them uniform.
Monet elevates a barnyard scene to the rank of a grand setting by circulating light from one plumage to another.
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 in-depth procession
The larger birds enter from below, while the following ones decrease towards the castle. Their overlaps give a continuous depth to the square.
Whites full of color
Pink, blue, gray and cream make up the illuminated plumages. The red of the heads acts as repeated punctuation.
The castle seen through the park
The facade is not the main subject. Its clear geometry, placed at the bottom, measures the extent of the lawn and the height of the trees.
Reference image
Read this specific version
The unique reference corresponds to the Wildenstein 416 panel, RF inventory 1944 18 from the Musée d'Orsay. The file of 1,212 × 1,238 px retained its native resolution, without enlargement, then was encoded in WebP.
Bodies overlap without merging
Each silhouette retains its own direction and value. Gray transitions separate neighboring plumages.
The red heads punctuate the scene
These accents are small but essential: they lead the eye through the group to the background.
Light passes through green shadow
Yellow and light blue touches appear on the lawn and birds. They must remain fragmented like the light filtered by trees.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
Painted in 1877, this oil on canvas measuring 174 × 172.5 cm is kept at the Musée d'Orsay under the inventory RF 1944 18 and classified Wildenstein 416.
The salon of Rottembourg Castle
Ernest Hoschedé invited Monet to Montgeron and commissioned large decorative paintings for him for the living room of his castle. The Dindons belong to this group.
Presented in 1877
The painting appears in the third impressionist exhibition in the spring of 1877 under the title Les Dindons, with the mention of unfinished decoration.
From Winnaretta Singer to the national collections
After Hoschedé, Giuseppe de Nittis, Théodore Duret and François Depeaux, the work belonged to Princess Edmond de Polignac. His legacy to the National Museums was accepted in 1947.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- Maintain the curve and overlaps of the troop.
- Paint the white plumages with colored pinks, blues and grays.
- Maintain the little red heads as measured accents.
- Preserve the opening to the castle between the masses of trees.
Work sheet
| Title | The Turkey W416 |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | 1877 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 174 × 172.5 cm |
| Orientation | Horizontal |
| Conservation | Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France |
| Inventory | RF 1944 18 · Wildenstein 416 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
This large, bright square is suitable for a dining room, living room or country interior. An oak, English green or matte gold frame takes over the park and gives presence to the light plumages.
