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Flower Beds at Vétheuil
Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926)
1881
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Unframed: 92.1 x 73.3 cm (36 1/4 x 28 7/8 in.)
Framed: 93 cm (36 5/8 in.)
Framed: 93 cm (36 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
The John Pickering Lyman Collection—Gift of Miss Theodora Lyman
Accession Number19.1313
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
In 1878 Monet went to live in the town of Vétheuil, west of Paris along the Seine. The town provided him with an escape from city life and an opportunity to cultivate the riverbank garden whose climbing nasturtiums he represented with swirls and splashes of orange in this composition. When a friend asked if he might visit Monet’s studio at Vétheuil, the artist retorted, "My studio! But I’ve never had one, and I don’t understand how anyone could shut themselves into a room—perhaps to draw but not to paint."
InscriptionsLower left: Claude Monet 81
Provenance1881 or 1891, sold by the artist to Durand-Ruel, Paris [see note 1]; 1913, sold by Durand-Ruel to John Pickering Lyman (b. 1847 – d. 1914), Portsmouth, NH; by descent to his sister, Theodora Lyman (b. 1852 – d. 1942), Portsmouth; 1919, gift of Theodora Lyman to the MFA. (Accession Date: September 18, 1919)
NOTES:
[1] According to Daniel Wildenstein, "Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné" (Paris, 1974), p. 410, cat. no. 693, Monet sold this painting to Durand-Ruel in December, 1881. Notes in the MFA curatorial file give the date as 1891.
NOTES:
[1] According to Daniel Wildenstein, "Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné" (Paris, 1974), p. 410, cat. no. 693, Monet sold this painting to Durand-Ruel in December, 1881. Notes in the MFA curatorial file give the date as 1891.