À propos de l’œuvre
Leicester Square, la nuit, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · 1901 · Granet Museum · Wildenstein 1615
Leicester Square, at nighthand painted reproduction
The square emerges from a mauve gray fog in clusters of white, red, yellow and green light. Seen from above, the crowd dissolves into a network of vertical lines; only a few signs and windows still allow us to locate the London night.
Look at the work
The nocturnal city becomes a luminous magma bordering on abstraction
The top of the canvas remains almost empty, occupied by a transparent bluish gray. On the left, white and green globes form a luminous vertical; further down, reds and oranges outline the edge of a theater or a sign without ever closing its shape.
The bottom half is much busier. The keys go down in red, purple, green, blue and yellow, as if the crowd and cars were extending each light source. The irregular border at the bottom leaves the painter's gesture visible and reinforces the impression of study captured in a hurry.
The more we look for buildings, the more they fade; the more we follow the lights, the more readable the place becomes as an experience of the modern night.
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 big gray sky that lets the scene breathe
The upper part should remain light and not very contrasty. Darkening it evenly would remove the atmospheric depth that advances the bottom lights.
Impasto luminous globes on the left
White, pale green and yellow are laid in small thick masses. Their edges remain vibrant and slightly mixed at the bottom, with no added digital halo.
A dense crowd without drawn characters
Vertical features suggest collective movement. Their variety of length and color must be preserved to avoid a repetitive decorative pattern.
Details and visual documents
Observe the material and the exact version
The additional images show the difficult-to-read passages in the full view and, where it exists, the actual appearance of the work at the museum.
The main frameless view measures 2920 × 3618 px and the detail 2250 × 1450 px. The exact photograph of the work in its frame reaches 3729 × 4502 px. No files have been enlarged; all three images are real WebPs.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
These facts concern this precise version and are verified from the notice of the institution which keeps it.
Inventory FJSP-998-116, Wildenstein catalog 1615
This 80.5 × 64.8 cm oil on canvas belongs to the Jean and Suzanne Planque Foundation and has been on deposit at the Granet Museum since 2010.
One of three views of Leicester Square from 1901
Monet observes the illuminated square from an overhanging window. The composition favors the vibration of night lighting to the point of making shapes and space deliberately difficult to fix.
A donation from Michel Monet to Jean Planque
Michel Monet offers the painting to the Swiss collector to thank him for showing him the importance of his father's late paintings. She then joined the ensemble bequeathed to the Planque Foundation.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- The Fondation Planque version FJSP-998-116, Wildenstein 1615
- The vast gray-purple passage kept light
- White and green globes held in impasto
- The low border and signature respected without invented cropping
Work sheet
| Title | Leicester Square, at night |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | 1901 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 80.5 × 64.8 cm |
| Orientation | Vertical |
| Conservation | Jean and Suzanne Planque Foundation, deposit at the Granet Museum, Aix-en-Provence, France |
| Inventory | FJSP-998-116 · Wildenstein 1615 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
This vertical reproduction combines mauve gray, orange, red and bright greens in a softer atmosphere than the W1616 version. It finds its place on a cream, taupe, bluish gray or dark burgundy wall.
