Description
| Original size: | 64.8 cm x 48.6 cm |
| Painting style: | Impressionism |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
The Green Wave is a hand-painted oil reproduction of a sea motif by Monet: a dark green wave rises across almost the whole canvas, and a fishing boat with a pale sail heels over on its crest.
The Green Wave – Claude Monet
What is on the canvas
The canvas is landscape and the sea takes almost all of it: the sky is pressed into a narrow
pale grey-violet band along the top edge. A large dark green wave rises from the left
and breaks across the middle into white foam, laid on in thick, almost kneaded strokes. A fishing
boat heels over on the crest: the hull is black with a thin yellow line along the gunwale, the sail
large and pale grey with a mark painted on it in brown. A smaller sail stands forward of it, and
the ropes pull in an arc from the bow; a small figure is indicated at the stern. Right of centre,
further off and lower, a second boat runs under two grey sails, half hidden by the swell. At the
upper left the dark silhouette of a larger ship stands on the horizon. The water is painted in
broad, slanting strokes of green, deep blue and near black; the lower third is the darkest. The
canvas is signed at the lower right.
Everything is wave
What is unusual in this scene is the proportion: the sky gets a sixth, everything else is water.
The viewer is therefore left without a horizon to settle on, and the boat does not sit on the sea
but in it. The wave is not drawn as a shape but built from the direction of the strokes — they all
run diagonally up to the right, and that is what gives the movement. The white foam is the only
light accent and is the thickest paint on the canvas, so the light comes back from it differently
than from the smooth green ground. This oil on canvas reproduction is therefore a study of the
weight of water rather than a sea piece: what interests it is how heavy the green mass under the
white edge is.
The subject among Monet’s works — and what is not established about this original
The same boats on a calm sea are in
Fishing Boats at Sea,
hauled onto sand in
Fishing Boats on the Beach at Étretat.
When the sea throws itself against rock the result is
Storm on the Belle-Île Coast;
the best known morning harbour is
Impression, Sunrise.
What we deliberately do not state here: Monet painted this motif in more than
one version, so which of them is the original behind this particular reproduction is not
established. You will therefore find no year of execution, no collection name and no accession
number on this page. We say what is visible on the canvas and nothing beyond it.
How it works on the wall
The format is landscape, in a ratio of about 4 : 3. Because the subject is dark and heavy at the
bottom, it works better at eye level or a little above, so the dark lower third does not fall below
the line of sight. 50 x 40 cm and 70 x 55 cm suit a hallway or a smaller wall. 65 x 49 cm
is the closest to the original and is therefore the most faithful choice. 80 x 60 cm and
90 x 70 cm are the usual choices above a sideboard or a desk. 100 x 75 cm is balanced above a sofa,
while 120 x 90 cm and 150 x 110 cm are meant for large walls, where the wave is given its true
length. Because the range of colour is dark and cool, hand-painted canvas art of this kind needs a
light wall and enough light; in a dark corner it closes up.
Hand-painted, not printed
This fine art reproduction is made with a brush, not a printer. A print lays the colour in an
evenly thin film, so foam and deep water come out equally smooth. Applied by hand, the foam is put
on thickly and stands above the canvas, while the green mass is dragged thin and wide. Light is
returned differently by those two surfaces, so the foam catches it first as you walk past — a print
cannot do that, because there everything is the same thickness. Because it is handwork, every copy
differs a little.
Custom sizes, frame, and the view on your own wall
If none of the eight sizes suits your room, we paint to the size you set yourself, keeping the
ratio of the sides so the wave keeps its slant. A 3D application is available for the frame —
it is for frame selection only and does not place the work in your room. If you
want to see how it will look on your own wall, that is the separate visualisation service. The two
do not overlap, so we do not mix them.
Ordering, lead time and approval before dispatch
The work is painted to order, so the lead time is 15 to 45 days, depending on
the size chosen and how busy the studio is. Before anything is sent we send you a photograph of the
finished piece for approval; only once you confirm do we stretch the canvas on a wooden frame and
prepare it for hanging. As wall decor it belongs where the light comes from the side, because that
is when the foam reads best. The whole range, including further reproductions on canvas and famous
paintings on canvas, is in the
Claude Monet gallery.
- Subject: a large dark green wave with white foam, a fishing boat on the crest, a second boat to the right and a ship on the horizon.
- Technique: oil on canvas; the foam in thick kneaded strokes, the water in broad slanting strokes.
- Sizes: landscape format 4 : 3, eight sizes from 50 x 40 cm to 150 x 110 cm; 65 x 49 cm is the closest to the original.
- Worth knowing: the sky gets only a sixth — with no horizon for the eye to settle on, the boat sits not on the sea but in it.
