À propos de l’œuvre
Village de Sandviken, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · 1895 · private collection · W1398
Sandviken, Norway, snow effect W1398hand painted reproduction
Under a gray-white sky, the village of Sandviken stands between a dark iron bridge and the blue mass of Mount Kolsås. The snow-covered roofs, bell tower and bare trunks blend into a cold atmosphere, but a few reds and ochres warm the houses. Monet painted this canvas in early March 1895, directly facing the Norwegian motif.
Look at the work
The Løkke Bridge leads to a snowy village dominated by Mount Kolsås
The bridge arch crosses the foreground diagonally and opens a passage to the houses. The white building on the right advances slightly, while the bell tower brings together the central group. Behind, the mountain forms a large gray-blue screen which gently closes the depth.
Snow is never a uniform white surface. Monet mixes purple gray, muted green, pink and brown in roofs, embankments and roads. The vertical branches on the right interrupt the horizontals of the village and give the landscape its winter rhythm.
The bridge brings the gaze into Sandviken; the mountain and the snow envelop him in the same colorful silence.
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 pattern found near Christiania
Monet stayed two months in Norway at the beginning of 1895. Sandviken, today Sandvika, is about fifteen kilometers from Christiania, present-day Oslo, and offers accessible views despite the cold and the thickness of the snow.
The village, the bridge and the Kolsås combined
Christie's identifies in the composition the snow-covered roofs, the metal bridge of Løkke and the mountain in the distance. These three landmarks distinguish W1398 from other Norwegian landscapes, more bare or framed on the massif alone.
A construction nourished by Japanese prints
Monet compared Sandviken to a Japanese village and called Kolsås his "Fuji-yama". The stacking of shots, the oblique arch and the compact mountain recall the organization of certain snow scenes in Hiroshige.
Reference image
Read this specific version
The single reference image measures 3,200 × 2,492 px. It corresponds to Wildenstein 1398, comes from the Christie's folder and has been encoded as a real WebP without artificial enlargement.
A dark arch in the foreground
The bridge must remain legible without turning black. Its curve guides the eye towards the houses and balances the two large vertical trunks placed on the right.
Bluish gray, ivory snow and muted reds
The mountain contains purple and green, the roofs reflect the colors of the sky and some red-brown walls give depth. The contrasts remain dampened by the atmosphere.
A thick and layered material
Christie's describes a network of dense touches, heavily laden with paint. This material captures the weight of snow, the relief of roofs and humid air without resorting to rigid contours.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
This information concerns the private collector's canvas sold at Christie's in 2023, Wildenstein catalog 1398.
Private collection, W1398
The oil on canvas measures 73.2 × 92.2 cm. It is signed and dated "Claude Monet 95" at the bottom left and bears the number 1398 in the catalog raisonné.
Durand-Ruel, May 1895
Painted at the beginning of March, it was presented in Paris in May under the title "Village de Sandviken", number 30 of the exhibition dedicated to Monet.
From Monet to Paul Durand-Ruel
Monet offered the painting to his merchant in January 1900. It then passed through several American and Norwegian collections, then was loaned for a long time to the Nasjonalgalleriet in Oslo.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- The exact Wildenstein 1398 version, not the neighboring W1399 canvas
- The original horizontal ratio of 73.2 × 92.2 cm
- The arch of the Løkke Bridge, the bell tower and the silhouette of Kolsås
- The colored grays of the snow preserved without excessive bleaching
Work sheet
| Title | Sandviken, Norway, snow effect W1398 |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | 1895 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 73.2 × 92.2 cm |
| Orientation | Horizontal |
| Conservation | Private collection, Non-public location |
| Inventory | Christie's 2023, lot 61B · Wildenstein 1398 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
Pearl gray, slate blue, earth brown, snow white and muted red make up a sober and enveloping reproduction. This horizontal landscape naturally accompanies a living room with warm materials, an office or a room with mineral tones.
