À propos de l’œuvre
Vétheuil, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · 1902 · Tokyo · P.1959-0157
Vétheuil, 1902hand painted reproduction
From the other bank of the Seine, Vétheuil unfolds in roses, yellows and greens under a purple sky. The church dominates the village without becoming an architectural design; in front of it, the lower half of the canvas is almost entirely devoted to the moving reflections of the river.
Look at the work
The village is built by the light that the Seine sends back towards it
The slightly off-center bell tower organizes the group of houses. The facades are made of creamy yellows, pinks and touches of red, while the hillside behind them alternates green, brown and purple. No firm outline separates the church from the neighboring buildings.
The Seine occupies more than a third of the composition. Its horizontal touches of blue, mauve, yellow and pink vary in length and density. They take up the village palette without producing an exact mirror, so that the water remains an autonomous and luminous space.
In Vétheuil, Monet does not describe two banks: he circulates the same roses, yellows and purples between the village, the sky and the river.
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 bright bell tower without architectural outline
The tower is born from the contrast between yellow, pink and blue-green. Too clear lines or reconstructed symmetry would remove its integration into the hillside.
A bank built by colorful plans
The light village advances in front of the dark slope, then the green strip of the bank separates it from the water. These three planes must remain distinct without hard edges.
Non-symmetrical horizontal reflections
The yellows and mauves of the river respond to houses and the sky, but never copy them. The variety of length of the keys produces the movement of the Seine.
Details and visual documents
Observe the material and the exact version
The additional images show the difficult-to-read passages in the full view and, where it exists, the actual appearance of the work at the museum.
The main view measures 2200 × 2135 px. Details of 1250 × 950 px and 1500 × 700 px are direct cropping of version P.1959-0157. No files have been enlarged; all are real controlled WebPs.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
These facts concern this precise version and are verified from the notice of the institution which keeps it.
Inventory P.1959-0157 of the Tokyo Museum
This oil on canvas of 90 × 93 cm is signed and dated "1902 Claude Monet" at the bottom right. It corresponds to Wildenstein number 1648.
One of about fifteen late views of Vétheuil
Monet took over the village where he had lived from 1878 to 1881 in 1901 -1902. The museum links this version to a set of around fifteen views dominated by the church.
A work that entered the museum in 1959
Acquired for Kôjiro Matsukata, the painting was sequestered in France in 1944 then transferred to the Japanese government in January 1959. It entered the museum in April of the same year.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- The bright bell tower integrated into the group of houses
- The flexible separation between hillside, village, bank and Seine
- The signature and date at the bottom right maintained without emphasis
- The yellow, blue and mauve reflections preserved in their irregular rhythm
Work sheet
| Title | Vétheuil, 1902 |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | 1902 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 90 × 93 cm |
| Orientation | Almost square |
| Conservation | National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Japan |
| Inventory | P.1959-0157 · Wildenstein 1648 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
This almost square reproduction combines the softness of mauve with luminous pinks and yellows. It is suitable above a console or in a living room with linen, pearl gray, light olive green or very pale pink walls.
