À propos de l’œuvre
Vetheuil, Prairie inondée, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · Vétheuil · 1881 · W639
Vétheuil, flooded meadow W639hand painted reproduction
Flood water covers the meadow and transforms Vétheuil into a strip of houses, trees and roofs placed between two light surfaces. The church and its bell tower appear in the center, behind bare trunks whose reflections descend into the flood. Painted in 1881, this oil on canvas measuring 61.7 × 74 cm is kept at the Kasama Nichido Museum of Art and corresponds to Wildenstein 639.
Look at the work
A meadow that has become a mirror in front of the village
The water occupies the entire foreground and leaves only a few strips of land or vegetation remaining. The village forms a horizontal line halfway up; the central bell tower, bare trees and a large dark mass on the right provide vertical landmarks.
Blue gray, pale green, beige and purple respond to each other between sky and flood. The houses receive touches of pink, cream and ocher. In water, these colors are not copied identically: they stretch and fragment according to the movement of the surface.
The flood abolishes the meadow without erasing the place: Vétheuil remains recognizable by its bell tower, its roofs and the flexible line of its reflections.
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 village line placed in the middle of the canvas
This inhabited strip separates two comparable expanses, the sky and the water. It gives a stable structure to a landscape made temporary by flooding.
Trees that connect reality to its reflection
The trunks rise in front of the houses then extend downwards in the form of more blurred touches. This repetition creates depth without insistent architectural perspective.
A cold light animated by the roofs
The bluish grays dominate, but the ochres, pinks and reds of the village prevent the whole thing from becoming monochrome.
Reference image
Read this specific version
Only one exact image of W639 is used in the listing and as the sole Shopify media. The real WebP measures 1020 × 827 px and retains the native definition available without artificial enlargement.
Keep the bell tower in the center of the village
It constitutes the essential topographical landmark and must remain readable without too clear an outline.
Preserve the difference between trees and their reflections
The upper trunks are firmer; their extensions in the water should remain broken and slightly offset.
Keep the cold shades of the flooded meadow
Blues, greens and grays must circulate in the foreground in order to render the thickness and movement of the water.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
The Kasama Nichido Museum of Art documents Vétheuil, a meadow flooded like an oil on canvas by Claude Monet dated 1881 and measuring 61.7 × 74 cm; the Wildenstein catalog records it under number 639.
The floods of the Seine become a motif in Vétheuil
Monet observes the rapid transformations of the shore, snow and ice around the village. The flood gives it a larger reflective surface than the ordinary course of the river.
The village remains identifiable behind the trees
The bell tower, the grouped houses and the slope of Vétheuil give a precise location to this study of atmosphere, despite the leveling of the foreground by water.
A work preserved by the Nichido Museum in Kasama
The official gallery of the museum publishes the bilingual title Vétheuil, Flooded Meadow, the date 1881, the technique and dimensions of the canvas.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- The Wildenstein 639 version
- The Vétheuil bell tower in the center
- The meadow completely flooded
- Bare trees and their vertical reflections
Work sheet
| Title | Vétheuil, flooded meadow W639 |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | 1881 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 61.7 × 74 cm |
| Orientation | Horizontal |
| Conservation | Kasama Nichido Museum of Art, Kasama, Japan |
| Inventory | Wildenstein 639 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
This horizontal stage is suitable for a bedroom, quiet living room or office. A gray blue, sage green or linen wall and a natural wood frame extend its damp light.
