À propos de l’œuvre
La Seine à Lavacourt, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · Lavacourt · 1880 · W540
View of the Seine at Lavacourt W540hand painted reproduction
The Seine rises almost to the edge of the village of Lavacourt and transforms bushes into islands of greenery. The light houses line up on the right bank, while a low meadow and a row of trees open the left. Signed and dated Claude Monet 80, this oil on canvas measuring 61 × 81.3 cm is kept at the Fogg Museum under number 1979.4 and corresponds to Wildenstein 540.
Look at the work
The water enlarges the landscape and dissolves the boundary between river and bank
The river fills the entire foreground. Two plant masses emerge in the center and give a measure to this extent. On the opposite bank, the line of houses remains low under an immense sky, while a group of vertical trees marks the entrance to the village.
Blue grays, turquoise and pale pinks circulate between the sky and their reflections. Small horizontal touches enliven the water; the facades receive firmer accents of cream, brown and slate.
The flood is not told as a spectacular event: it becomes a luminous surface where trees, houses and the sky change consistency.
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 horizon placed under the middle of the canvas
The bank remains low and leaves large areas of water to the sky and water. This construction gives the landscape its calm scale.
Islets that order depth
The emerging bushes in the center connect the nearby edge to the village. Their decreasing size and sharpness guide the eye without a traced perspective.
Reflections more mobile than objects
The houses and trees are relatively stable, but their color fragments in the water with short, clear, cold touches.
Reference image
Read this specific version
The only official image from Harvard Art Museums is preserved in its native definition of 1024 × 772 px then encoded in real WebP, without artificial enlargement.
Preserve the two plant islands
Their position and difference in scale are essential for building the distance in the middle of the Seine.
Preserve the irregular line of houses
Brown and gray roofs must remain distinct without becoming a succession of too sharp geometric shapes.
Keeping roses in the sky and water
These very gentle passages warm up the blues and unify the atmosphere; they should not be neutralized to gray.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
Harvard Art Museums documents View of the Seine, Lavacourt, oil on canvas from 1880, 61 × 81.3 cm, signed lower right Claude Monet 80, inventory 1979.4 and catalog Wildenstein 540.
The Wildenstein 540 canvas
This 61 × 81.3 cm view belongs to the Fogg Museum. Its number allows it to be distinguished from other views of the Seine and Lavacourt painted around 1879-1880.
A story passed through Durand-Ruel
The museum's provenance mentions the merchant Durand-Ruel in 1891, then Peter Chardon Brooks and the Saltonstall family before entering the Harvard collections.
An anonymous donation recorded in 1979
The 1979.4 inventory and the Anonymous Gift mention precisely place the arrival of the painting at the Fogg Museum.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- The Wildenstein 540 version
- Isolated bushes in water
- The line of Lavacourt houses
- The blue-pink reflections of the Seine
Work sheet
| Title | View of the Seine at Lavacourt W540 |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | 1880 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 61 × 81.3 cm |
| Orientation | Horizontal |
| Conservation | Harvard Art Museums /Fogg Museum, Cambridge, United States |
| Inventory | 1979.4 · Wildenstein 540 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
This horizontal landscape is suitable for a living room, bedroom or office. A gray blue, sage or cream green wall and a natural oak frame reinforce its serenity.
