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Meadow with Poplars
Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926)
about 1875
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
54.6 x 65.4 cm (21 1/2 x 25 3/4 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of David P. Kimball in memory of his wife Clara Bertram Kimball
Accession Number23.505
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
This painting is an early representation of grainstacks and poplars, subjects to which Monet would return in his series paintings of the 1890s. But this landscape reflects his primary concern in the 1870s: rendering air and depth through color. Contrasting highlights (red and green, purple and yellow), picked out in bright impasto, seem to bring the foreground closer to the viewer, while cool tones of more fluidly applied paint suggest the background’s recession to a hazy distance.
InscriptionsLower right: Claude Monet
Provenance1878, sold by the artist to M. Du Fresnay [see note 1]; 1894, sold by Du Fresnay to Durand-Ruel, Paris (stock no. 3060); from Durand-Ruel, Paris to Durand-Ruel, New York (stock no. 1234); 1897, sold by Durand-Ruel, New York, to J. Eastman Chase Gallery, Boston, for Clara Bertram Kimball (b. 1838 - d. 1920), Boston [see note 2]; by inheritance to her husband, David P. Kimball (b. 1833 - d. 1923), Boston; 1923, bequest of David P. Kimball to the MFA [see note 3]. (Accession Date: November 1, 1923)
NOTES:
[1] See Daniel Wildenstein, "Monet: catalogue raisonné" (1996), vol. 2, p. 155, cat. no. 378.
[2] The information about Durand-Ruel's transactions comes from a letter from Durand-Ruel, Paris, to the MFA (April 18, 1962; in MFA curatorial file).
[3] In 1923 David P. Kimball bequeathed forty paintings to the MFA in memory of his wife, Clara Bertram Kimball. He noted in his will that these were "from the collection made by her and bequeathed to me."
NOTES:
[1] See Daniel Wildenstein, "Monet: catalogue raisonné" (1996), vol. 2, p. 155, cat. no. 378.
[2] The information about Durand-Ruel's transactions comes from a letter from Durand-Ruel, Paris, to the MFA (April 18, 1962; in MFA curatorial file).
[3] In 1923 David P. Kimball bequeathed forty paintings to the MFA in memory of his wife, Clara Bertram Kimball. He noted in his will that these were "from the collection made by her and bequeathed to me."