Claude Monet – Barque sur la Seine à Jeufosse 2

Barque sur la Seine à Jeufosse 2 is the second listing of the same Monet canvas here — the same work as the first, with four photographs of the finished piece from our workshop. The original was painted in the autumn of 1884, measures 73 x 60 cm, is oil on canvas, signed and dated lower left “Claude Monet 84”. The catalogue lists it under number 915 and places it in a private collection, not a museum. With us it is hand-painted in oil on canvas at 73 x 60 cm, the exact size of the original, or to your measurement.

Barque sur la Seine à Jeufosse 2 – Claude Monet

Why is this motif here twice?

Because this is one work in two listings, not two. The first is Barque sur la Seine à Jeufosse and stands without photographs; this second carries four photographs of a canvas already painted and framed here. Motif, size and price are the same. If you want to see the finished work before ordering, you are on the right page; if not, the first listing is equivalent.

What is on the canvas?

The river runs diagonally across the canvas, from upper left to lower right, narrow — an arm rather than a broad channel. On the left a grassy bank drops into the foreground in olive strokes, with small white and reddish flowers. Above the bank, at the upper left edge, a tall tree in rust and dark red. The right half is a dense mass of autumn foliage: orange, brick, almost red in places, with dark green and blue shadows and a few narrow dark tips. The mass continues in the water as a spilt reflection. On the water, right of centre, a dark rowing boat with two pale figures. The sky is grey-lilac in broad horizontal strokes; the signature is lower left, in the grass.

Where and when did the scene come about?

On the Seine at Jeufosse, in the autumn of 1884. The catalogue records that in early September that year Monet returned to Giverny and painted on the left bank of the Seine at Jeufosse, south-east of Port-Villez. From that stretch the catalogue lists ten canvases, numbers 909 to 917, with 912a between 912 and 913. All show the same river at a different hour and in different weather. At number 914 the catalogue describes what is being looked at: the painter faces downstream, the trees on the right are the Île de la Merville, the slope on the left the Jeufosse bank. Ours is the same view.

Why does this canvas matter?

Because of the boat. The catalogue attaches a short note — compare number 914 — adding that Monet painted the rowing boat he may have used for crossing the river. The remark is unusual: the painter puts on the canvas the thing that brought him to the motif. Number 914 shows the same view in clear weather, without the boat — same river, same island, same water. Side by side they show how Monet worked: first the motif, then the same in another light, once with the boat he used.

The scene stands on two contrasts. The first is colour: nearly all the warmth is on the right, in the foliage, while the bank and sky stay cool. The second is scale: the trees close and densely painted, the background only a pale surface. Between them runs the water, repeating both, and that is why the narrow arm reads deeper than a canvas this small should allow. The boat is the only dark, solid form and the only thing that moves; the eye finds it at once because everything else is painted softly.

The path of the work, as the catalogue records it

The record of owners is short and given as written, without supplement. The catalogue names three stations: Hermann Heilbuth, then Durand-Ruel in 1900, then a sale at Christie’s in London on 28 November 1994, the canvas as lot 12. Who bought it then, and where it is today, is not recorded. It also names a 1910 exhibition at Elberfeld, Art français moderne at the museum there, number 40, and a publication in 1904 in W. Dewhurst, Impressionist Painting, page 46. How the canvas passed to Heilbuth the catalogue does not say: neighbouring works carry the line that Durand-Ruel bought them in November 1884; here it is absent, and we do not add it. The volume is publicly available in digitised form.

This motif among the Jeufosse canvases and with us

From the same group, Automne à Jeufosse is on show at the Museum Barberini in Potsdam; it measures the same as ours, 73 x 60 cm in the catalogue, was painted in the same year and is signed lower left — Jeufosse can be seen in the original. Related river motifs are in three works: The Seine at Bougival, The Promenade near Argenteuil and A Row of Poplars, where autumn trees return in an upright format.

How is our hand-painted version made?

This is a painting on canvas made with brush and oil colours, not a printer; the photographs here show such a finished work. In the first photograph the canvas stands framed on an easel in the workshop, head-on: a dark wooden frame with a narrow gold slip, shelves of other works behind it and a window. In the second photograph the same work is taken at an angle from the left, the frame running into depth, so you see how high the paint stands — thickest in the foliage, thin in the sky. In the third photograph it is taken from the right, before a wall of frame-moulding samples, so canvas and frame are seen together in a real room. In the fourth photograph the upper left corner is close up: the mitred joint of the frame and beside it the orange-brown crown, with single strokes and ridges of paint. The order matters: sky and background first, then the water, last the foliage, which carries the thickest paint. Because this is handwork, every copy differs a little.

Because the same motif is listed here twice. The figure separates this listing, with photographs, from the first without.

Every canvas is painted in oils to order; the brushstrokes can be seen and felt, as the fourth photograph shows.

Which size for which wall?

Briefly: 73 x 60 cm, the only regular size and the exact size of the original. The canvas is horizontal and not large, so it belongs where it is seen close to — above a hallway chest of drawers, beside a desk, on a narrow bedroom wall, in an alcove by the stairs. Above a sofa or dining table it is lost; better to order larger, made to measure. The colours are warm and dark, so this motif sits well on a white or light grey wall; on a dark one the foliage merges into the ground.

How high to hang the painting: the centre of the canvas 145 to 150 cm from the floor, above a chest of drawers 15 to 25 cm above it.

Made to measure, stretcher and frame

If 73 x 60 cm does not suit, we paint it in the size you set: send the width and height and we will tell you the price and the time. A reproduction to measure is ordinary with us. We recommend keeping the proportion: stretched too far in width, the narrow arm becomes a broad channel. The canvas is stretched on a wooden stretcher and the edges painted, so it does not look unfinished even without a frame. The frame in the photographs is one of many; a 3D application helps choose it — for that only, and it does not show the work in your room.

Delivery and guarantee

The work is made to order in our studio, so the making time is 15 to 45 days, nearer the upper limit at larger sizes. We send it stretched, in protective film and firm packaging, framed if you chose a frame. Before dispatch you receive a photograph of the finished work for approval: if something is not right, we correct it while it is with us. Our returns policy applies to every order. Other motifs by Monet are in the Claude Monet gallery; we write about the painter and choosing a motif on our blog.

If the painting is a gift and you are unsure of the size, there is a gift voucher: the recipient chooses the size and the subject.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the original?

Not in a museum. The catalogue records it in a private collection, last publicly recorded at the Christie’s sale in London, 28 November 1994.

Are the photographs of this copy or of the original?

Of our copy. All four show a canvas painted and framed in our workshop; the original is in private hands.

Who are the figures in the boat?

The sources do not name them. Only two small pale figures with oars; the catalogue says nothing, and neither do we.

Is “Ruderboot auf der Seine bei Jeufosse” the same work?

It is. That is what the German part of the catalogue calls this canvas; the Slovene listing calls it Čoln na Seni pri Jeufosse. One canvas, three names.

• Motif. A narrow arm of the Seine among autumn trees, a dark rowing boat with two figures on the water.
• Original. Oil on canvas, 73 x 60 cm, 1884, signed lower left, private collection, catalogue no. 915.
• Ours. Hand-painted oil on canvas at 73 x 60 cm, one to one with the original, or to your measurement.
• Photographs. Four shots of the finished work from our workshop — head-on, at an angle from both sides, and the corner close up.