À propos de l’œuvre
Résultats, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · An incandescent sky above a dark meadow · Soumaya Museum
Setting sun P54hand painted reproduction
A huge sky is charged with blue, pink, yellow and purple above a narrow strip of green earth. On the right, a mass of brown trees closes the landscape; in the center, the clouds open onto an almost electric yellow light. This pastel, kept at the Soumaya Museum, condenses the sunset into rapid, superimposed lines.
Look at the work
The sunset light transforms the clouds into colorful ribbons
The earth occupies only a thin area at the bottom of the leaf. It alternates dark green, blue and brown, without precise topographical detail. This low line frees up almost the entire surface for the movement of the sky and accentuates the apparent height of the clouds.
Winding yellows highlight the edges of the pink and purple clouds. Light blue passages cross the center, while the group of trees on the right forms a very dense counterweight. The colors are not blended everywhere: their juxtaposition maintains the speed of observation.
In this small pastel, the landscape serves as an anchor; the real subject is the movement of light through clouds that change from second to second.
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 lowered horizon to give all the space to the sky
The dark meadow stabilizes the leaf without competing with the clouds. Its weak development transforms the format of 20 × 31.2 cm into a vast atmospheric study.
Yellow draws more than it illuminates
Fine hot lines follow the internal contours of the clouds and organize the gaze. They create luminous breakthroughs instead of directly representing the disk of the sun.
The pastel technique promotes speed
Dry lines, flat rubs and overlays allow Monet to immediately change a shade. Powdery material is suitable for a phenomenon whose color changes before the scene is even completed.
Reference image
Read this specific version
The visual corresponds to Sunset, pastel on 20 × 31.2 cm paper kept at the Soumaya Museum and listed Wildenstein P54. The unique WebP measures 1,084 × 691 px, definition of the selected public museum file, without artificial enlargement.
The mass of trees closes the composition on the right
Its deep brown contains purples, greens and blues. It must remain dense without becoming a uniform black.
The colors of the sky overlap without getting dirty
Blue, pink, yellow and purple keep distinct areas. A transition that is too smooth would remove the energy from the pastel lines.
The meadow retains a cold light
The green in the foreground is crossed by blue and gray bands. This cool contrast makes the warm light of the clouds more intense.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
This pastel on paper measures 20 × 31.2 cm. Preserved at the Soumaya Museum in Mexico, it is listed under number P54 of the Wildenstein catalog raisonné.
Setting sun, also presented as Paisaje
The Soumaya Museum documentation uses the Spanish title Paisaje, while the catalog raisonné identifies the work in French as Sunset. Number P54 fixes the exact version.
An original executed in pastel on paper
The support allows direct lines, friction and color recovery. The proposed reproduction remains an oil painting on canvas, interpreted by hand from this original on paper.
A work preserved in Mexico
The Soumaya Museum brings together this study of the sky with its ensembles devoted to European art. Its small size invites you to closely observe the pigment superpositions and the weft of the paper.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- Keeping horizon very low.
- Preserve the yellow lines at the edge of the clouds.
- Differentiate between purples, pinks and blues of the sky.
- Keep the trees on the right dense but colorful.
Work sheet
| Title | Setting sun P54 |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | 1890 - 1900 |
| Original technique | Pastel on paper |
| Dimensions | 20 × 31.2 cm |
| Orientation | Horizontal |
| Conservation | Soumaya Museum, Mexico City, Mexico |
| Inventory | Wildenstein P54 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
This sky study is suitable for a bedroom, office or small wall composition. A midnight blue, dark brown or matte gold frame accompanies the clouds; a cream, deep green or powder pink wall reveals its contrasts.
