À propos de l’œuvre
L'entrée de Giverny en hiver, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · Giverny · winter 1885 · W967
The Entrance to Giverny in winter W967hand painted reproduction
A snowy road curves down towards the first houses of Giverny. On the left, a bare tree stands almost to the full height; its dark, twisted trunk responds to the blue, pink and white bend of the roadway. Painted and signed in 1885, this oil on canvas measuring 65 × 81 cm is kept at the Museum Barberini under the number MB-Mon-19 and corresponds to Wildenstein 967.
Look at the work
The curve of the road brings the eye into a village enveloped by evening
The foreground is not still snow. Monet superimposes thick touches of white, cobalt blue, pale pink and cold green which follow the ruts, then tighten their rhythm at the level of the houses. The steep curve of the road thus builds depth without rigid geometric perspective.
The central facades are deliberately basic: a light gable, a few bluish roofs and chimneys are enough to locate the entrance to the village. Behind them, the hill dissolves into purple and pearl gray bands which take on the nuances of the late day sky.
The large tree does not only serve as a foil: its trunk with blue, red and black flashes stabilizes the composition, while the slippery road takes the entire landscape towards the houses.
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 road painted as a movement
The long oblique touches of the foreground become shorter near the village. This variation in scale makes you feel the slope, the depth and the traces left in the snow.
A monumental tree placed outside the center
Its trunk is located in the left third and almost cuts the sky. Its thin branches extend towards the village, giving a calm scene a very clear graphic tension.
A twilight made of reflected colors
The pink of the sky reappears on the roofs and in the snow; the blues of the ground rise up the trunk and the hill. Monet thus connects each area with colorful echoes rather than contours.
Reference image
Read this specific version
The only image from Museum Barberini is kept at 3,000 × 2,396 px then encoded in real WebP, without artificial enlargement.
Respect the strong white curve of the foreground
The roadway should remain wide at the lower edge and then tighten towards the houses. A curve that is too straight would eliminate the essential movement of W967.
Maintain colors in the snow
The soil contains many blues, pinks, greens and mauves. Reducing it to a neutral white would remove evening reflections and rut material.
Keep houses partially veiled
The village should not become a precise architectural view. The facades remain caught in the winter atmosphere and serve as an outcome for the road.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
The Museum Barberini documents The Entrance to Giverny in Winter, oil on canvas signed from 1885, 65 × 81 cm, MB-Mon-19 inventory and Wildenstein 967 catalog.
A pattern adopted shortly after Monet's installation
The artist rented a house in Giverny in 1883. Before concentrating his work on the garden, he painted the paths, orchards and surroundings of the village under varied lights and seasons.
The muffled tones of a late day sky
The museum notice highlights the relationship between the delicately colored sky and its reflections on the snowy road, rendered by a full and confident touch.
A work long known by other titles
The painting was notably published as Neige around Paris before being precisely attached to Giverny and listed under the number Wildenstein 967.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- The Wildenstein 967 version
- The large dark tree of the third left
- The snowy road in turns
- The pink and blue reflections of the evening
Work sheet
| Title | The Entrance to Giverny in winter W967 |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | 1885 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 65 × 81 cm |
| Orientation | Horizontal |
| Conservation | Museum Barberini, Potsdam, Germany |
| Inventory | MB-Mon-19 · Wildenstein 967 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
This horizontal landscape is suitable for a living room, bedroom or office. A blue gray, powder pink or warm white wall and a dark wooden frame prolong the winter softness while bringing out the trunk.
