À propos de l’œuvre
La Vague verte, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · Navy on the high horizon and distant ships · Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Green Wave W73hand painted reproduction
An emerald green wave rises in the foreground, crossed by white foam and blue-black shadows. Above her, several sailboats advance under a clear sky, crowded near a very high horizon. Monet reduces almost the entire landscape to the moving material of the sea: depth and movement are born from large colored bands rather than a detailed drawing.
Look at the work
The high horizon delivers almost the entire canvas to the movement of the sea
The boats are reduced to small dark hulls, masts and cream sails arranged near the upper edge. Their distance gives the scale of the foreground. The blue-gray sky, covered with light clouds, forms only a narrow band above them.
The sea develops in green, turquoise, deep blue and brown strata. The main wave rises diagonally from the left, then its summit breaks into white touches. The thick, nervous markings describe less a single wave than an entire surface lifted by the wind.
The subject is not a particular ship, but the colorful force of the water: the boats give a distant measure to this almost tactile foreground.
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 deliberately very high horizon
By throwing skies and boats towards the upper edge, Monet eliminates any large atmospheric escape. The viewer is visually at the level of the waves, facing their mass and their movement.
Bands that are never parallel
The green, blue and white passages tilt and overlap. Their irregularity gives roll, while the shorter touches of foam mark the successive ridges.
A dialogue with the Manet marines
The Met brings together the framing and construction of views of American ships painted by Manet and exhibited in Paris. Monet transforms this echo into a personal study of color and rough seas.
Reference image
Read this specific version
The visual corresponds to The Green Wave, inventory 29.100.111 of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Wildenstein number 73. The image of 2,200 × 1,648 px is preserved at its native definition in a real WebP file.
The central green should remain bright but dense
It combines emerald, turquoise, olive and blue. A uniform pure green would remove the translucent volume of the wave and its shadow areas.
The ships remain tiny and distinct
A few light sails and dark masts are enough to separate them. Their enlargement would change the hierarchy and reduce the impressive scale of the sea.
Foam is discontinuous
The whites break into commas, dashes and small masses, mixed with gray and blue. This variety avoids the effect of a rigid border placed on each wave.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
Dated around 1866 -1867, this oil on canvas measures 48.6 × 64.8 cm. It is kept at the Metropolitan Museum of Art under inventory 29.100.111 and listed as Wildenstein 73.
A navy on the Normandy coast in 1866 -1867
The dating currently used by the Met corresponds to Monet's stays on the Normandy coast in 1866 and 1867. She places this research after her first successes at the Salon.
Presented with the Impressionists in 1879
The painting appears at the Impressionist exhibition of 1879. A critic then notices Manet's influence, particularly in the high horizon and the frankness of the touch.
The Havemeyer legacy at the Met in 1929
The work belongs to the HO Havemeyer collection. She entered the Metropolitan Museum of Art by bequest from Mrs. HO Havemeyer in 1929 and carries inventory 29,100,111.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- Keep the horizon very high and ships small.
- Build the wave with several greens and blues superimposed.
- Vary the shape and temperature of the foam keys.
- Maintain irregular diagonals that give roll.
Work sheet
| Title | The Green Wave W73 |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | around 1866 -1867 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 48.6 × 64.8 cm |
| Orientation | Horizontal |
| Conservation | Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States |
| Inventory | 29.100.111 · Wildenstein 73 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
This energetic navy is suitable for a living room, office or dining room. A midnight blue, soft black or smoked oak frame reinforces the sea; an ivory, gray green or light sand wall reveals foam.
