À propos de l’œuvre
Une inondation à Giverny, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · 1896 · Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek MIN 3632 · W1438
Flood in Giverny, Glyptotek W1438hand painted reproduction
In Giverny, a flood transforms the meadow into a mirror. A row of pruned willows crosses the canvas; their trunks and silhouettes extend into the almost still water. Monet reduces distances by fog and circulates gray mauves, pinks and blues between the sky, the trees and their reflection.
Look at the work
The willows seem to float between the misty sky and their double in the flood water
The tree line forms the only stable landmark. The thin trunks rise from a barely visible strip of land, while their irregular crowns punctuate the landscape. Their spacing gives rhythm to the composition and leads the gaze from one edge to the other.
In the lower half, each tree has a stretched and less precise reflection. Horizontal touches of the water cut off the verticals, suggesting a slow current. The sky and flooded meadow share almost the same colors, but the more fragmented material in the foreground distinguishes them.
The flood erases the path and the meadow; Monet reconstructs the place with a few trunks, their reflections and very small differences in color.
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 frieze of trees in the center of the canvas
The willows are not massed on one side like in a traditional landscape. They align almost frontally and divide the picture into two comparable areas: the atmosphere above, then the reflective water below.
The reflection slightly darker than the pattern
The inverted silhouettes take up the trees without copying them exactly. Their outline dissolves into the gray violets and blues of the water. This subtle difference is essential to avoid rigid symmetry.
A winter light built without pure white
The fog contains dull yellows, pink, mauve and blue gray. A convincing oil reproduction should preserve these neighboring temperatures, because the atmosphere disappears if the light part becomes uniformly white.
Reference image
Read this specific version
The only reference photograph was taken in front of the actual canvas à la Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. The frame was removed from the framing, then the image was encoded as a real WebP at 3035 × 2409 px, without artificial enlargement.
A low and almost erased horizon
The strip of land is located slightly below the center. It is interrupted by water and trees, so much so that the landscape appears wide open despite the presence of the row of willows.
Ash pink, mauve and pearl gray
The range remains very tight. The brown touches of the trunks and a few muted greens serve as support points, while the cold pink prevents the whole thing from becoming monochrome.
Light layers around the trunks
The trees are placed with firmer gestures than the bottom. Around them, the fine and melted passages create the damp veil. The material must therefore alternate between clean accents and breathable transitions.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
This information relates to the Flood at Giverny preserved at Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek under number MIN 3632.
Glyptotek MIN 3632, Wildenstein 1438
Painted in 1896, this oil on canvas measures 73 × 92 cm. Its inventory number and its W1438 referencing allow it to be identified among several flood views taken by Monet around Giverny.
The meadow near the garden transformed by the rains
Water temporarily covers the land and removes the usual boundaries between the path, meadow and river. Monet uses this exceptional situation to study a real landscape that has become almost abstracted by reflection.
Three views associated with the same episode
Monet worked several times in front of this pattern of willows and flooded terrain. The variants are distinguished above all by the height of the water, the density of the mist and the dominant color of the light.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- The exact version of Copenhagen, MIN 3632 and Wildenstein 1438
- The original horizontal ratio of 73 × 92 cm
- The alignment of the willows and the irregular length of their reflections
- The pink mauve and gray blue range preserved without brutal black contrast
Work sheet
| Title | Flood in Giverny, Glyptotek W1438 |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | 1896 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 73 × 92 cm |
| Orientation | Horizontal |
| Conservation | Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Inventory | MIN 3632 · Wildenstein 1438 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
Ash pink, pearl gray, mauve, soft brown and misty blue give this reproduction a discreet elegance. It goes well with light walls, natural wood, linen and spaces seeking a peaceful atmosphere rather than a spectacular color.
