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Entrance to the Village of Vétheuil in Winter
Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926)
1879
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
60.6 x 81 cm (23 7/8 x 31 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Julia C. Prendergast in memory of her brother, James Maurice Prendergast
Accession Number21.7
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
In Vétheuil, a town farther down the Seine than Argenteuil and hence still untouched by signs of modernity, Monet painted no suburban gardens or sailboat regattas. A sweep of country road leading into the village, bordered by messy stretches of grasses and weeds sodden with melting snow, takes up the bottom half of the picture. The eye is not held by the colors and texture present in the foreground but rushes past, only to be stopped by the phalanx of houses constituting the village, their rectilinear forms hastily sketched in blue. Perspective here is exaggerated, with the point of view chosen so that the roadway covers what seems a disproportionate area of the canvas. Monet could have seen such a composition in nineteenth-century Japanese woodblock prints that were being imported in France in large numbers.
InscriptionsLower right: Claude Monet
ProvenanceFebruary 1880, sold by the artist to Charles Bonnemaison Bascle, Paris; May 3, 1890, Bonnemaison Bascle sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, lot 33, sold for fr. 1,020 to Boussod, Valadon et Cie., Paris and New York (stock no. 20705); April 11, 1891, sold by Boussod, Valadon et Cie. to Williams and Everett, Boston [see note 1]; 1891, sold by Williams and Everett to James M. Prendergast (b. 1851 - d. 1920), Boston [see note 2]; 1920, by inheritance to his sister, Julia Catherine Prendergast (b. 1859 - d. 1943), Boston; 1921, gift of Julia C. Prendergast to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 18, 1921)
NOTES:
[1] Getty Provenance Index, Goupil et Cie. records, GI Record no. G-30094 (stock book 12, no. 20705, p. 156), as "Effet de Neige."
[2] James Prendergast lent this painting to "A Loan Exhibition of Pictures by Claude Monet" (St. Botolph Club, Boston, February 6-23, 1899), cat. no. 7, as "Village Road (Winter)" and the "Loan Collection of Paintings by Claude Monet" (Copley Society of Boston, March 1905), cat. no. 91, as "Entree du Village de Vetheuil."
NOTES:
[1] Getty Provenance Index, Goupil et Cie. records, GI Record no. G-30094 (stock book 12, no. 20705, p. 156), as "Effet de Neige."
[2] James Prendergast lent this painting to "A Loan Exhibition of Pictures by Claude Monet" (St. Botolph Club, Boston, February 6-23, 1899), cat. no. 7, as "Village Road (Winter)" and the "Loan Collection of Paintings by Claude Monet" (Copley Society of Boston, March 1905), cat. no. 91, as "Entree du Village de Vetheuil."