Claude Monet – Fruit Trees

Fruit Trees is a hand-painted oil reproduction of a small study by Monet: a low fruit tree with a wide-drawn crown and dark red fruit stands before a bank of dense foliage, with a band of light green grass below.

Fruit Trees – Claude Monet

What is on the canvas

The canvas is landscape and small. A low fruit tree stands at the centre with a
pale, almost white trunk that forks near the top; the crown spreads wide in yellow-green and dark
green strokes with dark red fruit set among them. Behind the tree and to the right
a bank of dense foliage rises in olive, ochre and rust, closing off the upper right corner. To the
left the same bank falls away and brown-red earth shows beneath it. A few more pale trunks are
visible in the foliage at the right. The lower fifth is a band of light green grass with darker
shadows. At the upper left there is a wedge of blue sky with a pale grey band of cloud. The
brushwork is very free, in places thin and dry, so the ground shows through the colour.

A study, not a scene

This is not a finished landscape but quick work in front of the subject: the paint is laid
sparsely, the forms are indicated with a few strokes, and that is exactly what is interesting. The
tree is not drawn but assembled out of the direction of the foliage; the fruit are only dots, yet
the eye reads them at once as fruit because they are the single warm colour in the green mass. This
oil on canvas reproduction shows how little Monet needed for a scene to hold. Because the paint is
thin, the weave of the canvas shows through and becomes part of the surface — it stays that way in
the larger sizes of our version, because we keep the strokes just as free.

The subject among Monet’s works — and what is not established about this original

The garden as a closed scene is
Corner of the Garden at Montgeron,
the open meadow Meadow at Giverny.
Trees as verticals in a row stand in
Poplars and in
A Row of Poplars, where the
stroke is quieter and the forms more definite.

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. Twelve sizes are offered, more than for any
other subject in this series. 29 x 22 cm is exactly the size of the original and is
offered — it is the smallest size we paint at all, and for a small wall, a shelf or a desk it is
the most faithful of them. 40 x 30 cm and 50 x 40 cm suit a hallway or a kitchen. 60 x 40 cm,
60 x 50 cm, 70 x 50 cm and 70 x 55 cm are the usual choices above a sideboard. 80 x 60 cm,
90 x 70 cm and 100 x 80 cm work above a sofa, while 120 x 90 cm and 150 x 110 cm suit a large wall,
where the free stroke becomes the subject in itself. Because the work is light and green,
hand-painted canvas art of this kind freshens even a narrow space.

Hand-painted, not printed

This fine art reproduction is made with a brush, not a printer, and in a study this free the
difference is greater still. A print lays the colour in an evenly thin film, so exactly what
carries the work here disappears: the difference between the sparse, almost dry paint of the
background and the denser strokes of the crown. Applied by hand that difference stays visible, and
with it the weave of the canvas. Because it is handwork, every copy differs a little.

Custom sizes, frame, and the view on your own wall

If none of the twelve sizes suits your room, we paint to the size you set yourself, keeping the
ratio of the sides so the crown stays wide and is not squeezed. 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; in the smallest sizes it is often shorter. 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, in the
smallest size it belongs where it will be looked at from close up. The whole range, including
further reproductions on canvas and famous paintings on canvas, is in the
Claude Monet gallery.

• Subject: a low fruit tree with dark red fruit before a bank of foliage, a band of light grass below.
• Technique: oil on canvas; the paint sparse and in places dry, the crown in denser strokes.
• Sizes: landscape format 4 : 3, twelve sizes from 29 x 22 cm to 150 x 110 cm; the smallest is exactly the size of the original.
• Worth knowing: the fruit are only red dots, and the eye still reads them as fruit — the single warm colour in the green mass.