À propos de l’œuvre
Peupliers au bord de l'Epte, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · 1891 · Les Peupliers · W1305
The Three Trees, summer W1305hand painted reproduction
Three slender poplars cut a blue sky crossed by white clouds, while their reflections plunge into Epte. This oil on canvas measuring 93 × 73.5 cm, kept in Tokyo under number P.1959-0152, is Wildenstein 1305.
Look at the work
Three trunks connect the sky, the shore and its reflection
The poplars in the foreground rise beyond the upper edge, as if their height could not fit into the canvas. The bank forms a very low green band; below, the water takes up the verticals of the trunks and opens a second space. The bold cutting of the peaks transforms a river landscape into an almost abstract composition.
The sky combines light blue, mauve and pink clouds. The foliage alternates green-yellow and touches of coral, while the trunks receive lilac, blue and orange passages. In Epte, these colors fragment into short bands which suggest the current without producing a frozen mirror.
W1305 holds together with a double movement: the trees rise out of the frame and their reflections immediately bring the eye back towards the water.
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 framing of the Tokyo version
Three large barrels dominate the foreground, with a fourth trunk cut at the left edge. The museum precisely highlights this construction and the vivid impression created by the blue of the sky, the white of the clouds and the greens and pinks of the trees.
A pattern observed on the Epte
In the spring and summer of 1891, Monet painted the row of poplars on the left bank near Giverny. The repetition of the pattern allows him to modify light, season, distance and rhythm of the trunks from one canvas to another.
The Matsukata Collection
Kôjiro Matsukata bought the work in 1921. Sequestered in France in 1944, it was transferred to the Japanese government in 1959 then integrated into the new National Museum of Western Art.
Reference image
Read this specific version
Only one image is used: the documented public reproduction of W1305, converted to a true WebP of 2,354 × 3,000 px from a source of 2,824 × 3,599 px, without artificial enlargement.
A vertical that remains aerial
The trunks are fine, irregular and crossed with color. Thickening or surrounding them would transform them into barriers; you have to let the sky and the foliage breathe around them.
A luminous blue, never uniform
The sky mixes several blues with lilac grays and pinkish whites. The green and coral foliage gains shine thanks to these cold variations.
Reflections freer than trees
In the water, the barrels break into vertical passages and the foliage becomes floating spots. The material must suggest the mobility of the surface, not copy the landscape identically.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
The Tokyo Museum documents an oil on canvas signed and dated 1891, 93 × 73.5 cm, inventory P.1959-0152, Wildenstein 1305 and Matsukata M777.
The Three Trees, summer
The current notice employs Poplars in the Sun; the 1994 Matsukata retrospective exhibition lists the same work under the French title The Three Trees, Summer.
Claude Monet 91
The signature and date are at the bottom right. They directly connect the canvas to the Poplars' campaign carried out during the year 1891.
W1305 and M777
The two references connect the painting to Monet's catalog raisonné and the Matsukata collection. They avoid confusion with the other compositions of three trees.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- The exact version P.1959-0152, W1305 and M777
- The original vertical format of 93 × 73.5 cm
- The colored trunks that extend beyond the upper frame
- Greens and roses repeated in the reflections of Epte
Work sheet
| Title | The Three Trees, summer W1305 |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | 1891 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 93 × 73.5 cm |
| Orientation | Vertical |
| Conservation | National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Japan |
| Inventory | P.1959-0152 · W1305 · M777 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
Its vertical format enlivens an entrance, a wall between two windows or a reading corner. Powder blue, light wood and sage green highlight the sky without competing with the rhythm of the trunks.
