À propos de l’œuvre
The Japanese, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · 1876 · Camille, Japonism and large format painting
The Japanese - Madame Monet in Japanese costumehand painted reproduction
A monumental red kimono, a raised fan and a wall covered in uchiha: Monet transforms Camille into a theatrical appearance while commenting on the Parisian fashion of Japonism.
Look at the work
Camille plays a role under the gaze of a circle of fans
Camille Doncieux, wife of the painter, stands life-size in a richly embroidered red kimono. She pivots towards the viewer and raises a fan in the colors of the French flag. Around her, the Japanese fans arranged on the wall form a constellation of faces, birds and landscapes.
The blonde wig does not seek to conceal the Western identity of the model: the Museum of Fine Arts emphasizes that on the contrary it accentuates this contrast. The pose, costume and decor are a Parisian staging of Japan, rather than an ethnographic portrait.
The strength of the painting comes from this assumed contradiction: the fabric seems sumptuously real, while the stage openly asserts its spectacle character.
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.
Red as architecture
The kimono occupies almost the entire height and organizes the composition. Its reds vary from vermilion to dark lacquer, separated by the blues, gold and whites of the embroidery.
A spiral movement
The rotation of the bust, the curve of the fan and the train spread on the ground lead the gaze from the face to the embroidered samurai, then towards the circle of fans.
Depth versus surface
The tiles build a sharp perspective, but the blue wall and fans flatten the background. Monet thus brings Western volume and Japanese decor into dialogue.
Details and visual documents
Observe the material and the exact version
The complementary images are chosen to show difficult-to-read passages in the full view and, where available, the actual appearance of the work at the museum.
The reference view comes from a faithful reproduction of a work in the public domain. Both enlargements are cropping without oversampling: the maximum resolution available is 1440 × 2370 px.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
The facts below concern this specific version and are verified from the notice of the institution which keeps it.
An event in 1876
Monet presented the work at the second Impressionist exhibition, where this very large figure attracted considerable attention.
Camille under a blonde wig
The model is Camille Monet. The light wig deliberately emphasizes its Western identity amid Japanese costume and accessories.
Presented as Japonerie
The museum's conservation documentation indicates that Monet exhibited the painting under the title Japonerie, a then recent term for Western creations inspired by Japan.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- The different families of red without blending them into a single tone
- Camille's face and the transparency of blonde locks
- Samurai embroidery adapted to the folds of the kimono
- The rhythm of the fans without hardening the blue wall
Work sheet
| Title | The Japanese - Madame Monet in Japanese costume |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | 1876 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 231.8 × 142.3 cm |
| Orientation | Vertical |
| Conservation | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston · gallery 255 |
| Inventory | 56.147 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
With its original height of 231.8 cm, the composition was designed as a life-size presence. In reproduction, a generous vertical format preserves the theatrical effect and reading of the kimono.
