Claude Monet – Jean Monet on His Hobby Horse

Jean Monet on His Hobby Horse is a hand-painted oil reproduction of a family motif by Monet: a child in a pale coat and a brown hat sits on a wooden horse on wheels, with a dense dark green hedge rising behind.

Jean Monet on His Hobby Horse – Claude Monet

What is on the canvas

The canvas is landscape. At the centre sits a child in a long cream-white coat
with a white collar and a brown hat with an upright feather; the child faces squarely out and
looks at the viewer. The seat is a toy: a wooden horse with a cream-white head,
red bridle and blue rosettes, mounted on a frame with three large dark blue spoked wheels. The two
rear wheels are broad and stand on sand, the front one is smaller. Behind the child a dense,
almost black-green wall of foliage rises through the upper two thirds; a bush of red
pelargoniums opens out of it at the right, and a few small white blossoms at the upper
right. The lower third is a pale sand path with light shadows. The canvas is signed at the lower
right.

A child who poses and a toy that does not

The scene is assembled from two very different ways of painting. The child is painted softly,
in rounded shapes with barely a visible stroke; the horse and the wheels are drawn sharply, almost
constructively, with hard edges and clear spokes. It makes the toy read as more substantial than
the figure riding it — unusual in a portrait, and exactly what makes it interesting. The
background offers no depth: the hedge is a dense dark shape with no perspective, so child and
horse stand in front of it as if cut out. This oil on canvas reproduction is therefore the
portrait of a moment rather than a garden scene.

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

The child and the table after the meal are in
The Luncheon. The
figure in the open under a large sky is
Woman with a Parasol,
the group version in a garden Women in the Garden.
The interior portrait of the same family is
Madame Monet in a Kimono.

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 5 : 4, and works best at eye level, because the
child looks straight out of the canvas and that look is most direct when it is at the same height.
60 x 50 cm suits a hallway or a child’s room. 74 x 61 cm is the closest to the
original and is therefore the most faithful choice. 80 x 65 cm and 90 x 70 cm are the
usual choices above a sideboard. 100 x 80 cm and 110 x 90 cm are balanced above a sofa, while
130 x 110 cm and 150 x 120 cm are meant for large walls, where the spokes can be told apart one by
one. Because the background is dark, hand-painted canvas art of this kind needs a light wall and
enough light, or the hedge closes into an even black.

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 coat and hedge come out equally smooth. Applied by hand the white coat is
painted in broad, soft shapes while the foliage is hundreds of short, thick touches standing above
the canvas. Light is returned differently by those two surfaces, so the foliage comes alive as you
walk past while the coat stays quiet — 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 wheels stay round and are not stretched. 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 is often hung in a child’s room or a hallway, where it is
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 child in a pale coat and brown hat on a wooden horse with three blue wheels, a dark hedge behind.
• Technique: oil on canvas; the coat in soft shapes, the foliage in hundreds of short thick touches.
• Sizes: landscape format 5 : 4, eight sizes from 60 x 50 cm to 150 x 120 cm; 74 x 61 cm is the closest to the original.
• Worth knowing: the toy is painted more sharply than the child — wheels and bridle are hard, the face is soft.