À propos de l’œuvre
La vie morte avec bouteille, carafe, pain et vin, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · A simple meal studied by glass, bread and light · National Gallery of Art
Still life with bottle, carafe, bread and wine W13hand painted reproduction
A green bottle, a carafe of water, a glass, a plate and a long loaf are placed on a white tablecloth. The black knife starts from the lower corner and leads towards objects, while an amber bottle is cut from the left edge. Around 1862 -1863, Monet painted this table unprepped with free material and a range of silver grays.
Look at the work
The transparent glass and the clear tablecloth liven up a deliberately ordinary meal
The table forms a narrow diagonal from the left towards the right wall. The pot-bellied carafe, the stemmed glass and the bottles establish a succession of verticals of different heights. The bread, placed at the bottom, lengthens the composition horizontally.
The white tablecloth is crumpled and shaped by cold grays. The plate receives a few yellow pieces, perhaps bread or butter, while the knife directs its handle towards the viewer. The wall combines brown and gray panels without providing precise decoration.
The transparency of the water, the opacity of the wine, the crust of the bread and the folds of the tablecloth become four painting problems combined on a table.
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 composition guided by the knife and the table edge
The black handle catches the eye from the foreground, then the blade leads to the plate and glass. The oblique table extends this movement towards the bottle and the bread.
The glass is rendered by the bottom which passes through it
The carafe and glass do not have continuous contours. White, gray and black reflections are enough to indicate their walls, while the tones of the wall and the tablecloth remain visible through them.
A free invoice from the first years
The NGA describes several objects as deliberately indistinct. Visible brushstrokes give more importance to the relationships of matter and light than to an illusionist finish.
Reference image
Read this specific version
The visual corresponds to Still Life with Bottle, Carafe, Bread, and Wine, circa 1862 -1863, National Gallery of Art inventory 2014.18.32 and Wildenstein catalog 13. The unique WebP measures 3,000 × 1,975 px, derived from the 4,000 px open image without artificial enlargement.
The white tablecloth is a network of grays
Silver, blue, beige and a few more frank whites describe the folds. Uniform white would cause the direction of the table to lose direction.
The green bottle remains transparent in places
Yellow and gray reflections follow its shoulder and collar, while dark wine occupies the bottom. The wall should still appear around its contours.
Bread is made from a warm, matte material
Ochres, browns and small cream lights give the crust. Its broken end must remain distinct without becoming too clear a detail.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
Painted around 1862 -1863, this oil on canvas measures 39.69 × 59.85 cm. It is kept at the National Gallery of Art under the 2014.18.32 inventory and bears the number Wildenstein 13.
A still life from Monet's beginnings
Issue W13 places the work at the very beginning of the catalog raisonné, before the large open-air landscapes and figure scenes of the 1860s.
A work formerly given to Eugène Boudin
The provenance published by the NGA brings the painting back to Eugène Boudin, Monet's Norman mentor. It then goes through Edmond Maître and Durand-Ruel.
Paul Mellon's legacy completed in 2014
Paul Mellon acquired the painting after the sale of the Block collection in 1981. His legacy, with the right of life use to Rachel Lambert Mellon, definitively joined the NGA in 2014.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- Keep the diagonal of the knife and the table.
- Make lenses without rigid contours.
- Vary the grays of the tablecloth.
- Keep the bread warm and matte against shiny objects.
Work sheet
| Title | Still life with bottle, carafe, bread and wine W13 |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | around 1862 -1863 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 39.69 × 59.85 cm |
| Orientation | Horizontal |
| Conservation | National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, United States |
| Inventory | 2014.18.32 · Wildenstein 13 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
This sober still life is suitable for a kitchen, dining room or office. A black, walnut or silver gray frame accompanies the carafe; a warm white, pearl gray or bottle green wall reveals the objects.
