À propos de l’œuvre
Les Nymphéas : Les Deux Saules, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · 1914 -1926 · Orangery · INV 20104
The Two Willows, The Water Lilieshand painted reproduction
Seventeen meters long, two willow trunks frame a body of water without a bank or horizon. The water lilies disperse in a blue-purple mist, while the reflections and the curve of the wall make the painting a landscape to be explored physically.
Look at the work
The Orangery's largest decor transforms four panels into a continuous horizon
The two willows are placed near the ends, far from the center. Between them, Monet allows an almost focal pointless surface to develop, composed of gray blues, muffled greens and purples. The small, light leaves form a discontinuous line at the lower edge.
The composition follows the elliptical wall of the second room. The verticals of the trunks and their reflections prevent the immense horizontal from becoming uniform, but they remain spaced far enough apart so that the gaze slides from one panel to another without breaking.
In Les Deux Saules, scale not only adds grandeur: it forces the eye to move, as in front of the real surface of the Giverny pond.
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.
Four panels perceived as a single expanse
Color changes and reflections extend beyond the fittings. Faithful reproduction must maintain this continuity without erasing the material structure of the whole.
Two trunks thrown towards the edges
Willows do not form a symmetrical center. Their lateral position opens up a vast interval of light and maintains the impression of a landscape that continues out of frame.
Rare water lilies on a seventeen meter scale
The leaves and flowers are small punctuations, especially in the lower part. Enlarging them or repeating them regularly would make you lose breathing space in the decor.
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 Google Art Project scan measures 8,892 × 1,002 px and the detail 3,600 × 1,002 px. The official photograph of the room measures 850 × 636 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.
The INV 20104 inventory in four panels
Made between 1914 and 1926, the set brings together four oil panels on canvas mounted on the wall. It measures 200 cm high and 1,700 cm long.
The east end of the second Water Lilies room
The Musée de l'Orangerie presents Les Deux Saules on an elliptical wall. With its seventeen meters, it is the longest composition of the large decoration offered by Monet.
A work given to the State in 1922
The donation was approved in 1922. After an administrative visit to the Luxembourg Museum, the panels were installed at the Orangerie, where the whole opened to the public in 1927.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- The exact INV 20104 set in four panels
- The monumental ratio of 200 × 1,700 cm
- The two trunks held at the ends
- Fused fittings without standardizing the material
Work sheet
| Title | The Two Willows, The Water Lilies |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | 1914 - 1926 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 200 × 1,700 cm in total |
| Orientation | Four monumental panoramic panels |
| Conservation | Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, France |
| Inventory | INV 20104 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
This exceptionally panoramic composition is suitable for a large wall or for creation on several canvases. Its gray blues, deep greens and purples match the off-white, light stone, midnight blue or sage green walls.
