À propos de l’œuvre
Deux femmes dans un jardin, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · A reading under the foliage around 1872 · LACMA
Two women in a garden, circa 1872hand painted reproduction
Two women read in the grass, protected by a vault of foliage. One, in a light dress and flowery hat, receives pink and white shards; the other lies down in a bright blue dress. Monet not only describes a rest in the garden: he observes how a moving light fragments fabrics, faces and vegetation.
Look at the work
The foliage transforms two readers into surfaces of light
The woman in the foreground occupies almost the entire lower diagonal. Her bluish gray dress spreads out in the grass like a large tablecloth, punctuated with touches of pink, white and green. Her hat, her sloping face and the book held close to her waist create a silent concentration.
Behind her, the second figure lies sideways in a blue dress. His sharper face looks towards the viewer while the leaves form an irregular ceiling. To the right, a light green opening suggests the lawn in full sun and measures the depth of the shadow where the two women have settled.
The shadow is never uniform: it becomes a mosaic of greens, blues, pinks and whites filtered by the leaves.
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.
Two interlocking silhouettes
The spreading dress in the foreground and the elongated body behind make up two close diagonals. Their overlap gives depth without separating the women of the garden.
Light placed in spots
White and pink accents pass through the fabrics like fragments of the sun. They do not always follow the folds: they first reflect the unstable passage of light.
A background constructed by densities
The dark branches close left and top, while the greens become lighter to the right. This graduation is enough to open the space around the figures.
Reference image
Read this specific version
The WebP reference comes from a high definition photograph of this version kept at LACMA. It makes visible the signature at the bottom right, the repetitions of the foliage and the pink and white spots described by the museum.
Close framing
The dresses are cut by the edges of the format and fill almost the entire field. This proximity gives rest an immediate presence.
A blue that organizes the scene
The second woman's dress forms the most frank mass. Its blues are reflected in grayer values in the dress in the foreground.
Keys adapted to each area
The faces are modeled by small transitions, the foliage by short gestures and the dresses by wider passages where the brush repetitions remain visible.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art documents this oil on canvas circa 1872 under inventory PG.2015.5.
Two women reading on the grass
LACMA documentation clearly identifies the activity of the two figures and emphasizes the gentleness of this reading in the garden.
The formal effects of light and color
The museum presents the painting as a milestone in Monet's decisive research: spring rays cross the network of leaves and dot women with pink and white light.
Gift of Wendy and Leonard Goldberg
The work was announced for LACMA's fiftieth anniversary as a gift from Wendy and Leonard Goldberg, bringing a major example of the 1870s Monet to the collection.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- Maintain the fullness of the light dress and its oblique foreground.
- Differentiate the luminous blue of the second coat from the bluish grays of the first.
- Distribute the pink and white flashes like filtered light, without repetitive pattern.
- Preserve the light green opening on the right so that the shadow maintains its depth.
Work sheet
| Title | Two women in a garden, circa 1872 |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | Around 1872 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 51.44 × 66.04 cm |
| Orientation | Horizontal |
| Conservation | Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, United States |
| Inventory | PG.2015.5 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
Soft blues, leafy greens and pink flashes create an intimate and fresh atmosphere. This scene is suitable for a bedroom, living room or reading space; a light oak, matte gold or deep green frame accompanies its light without cooling it.
