Claude Monet – Women in the Garden

Women in the Garden is a hand-painted oil reproduction of Monet’s 1866 work: four figures in pale summer dresses stand and sit beneath a tree, against a dark wall of foliage.

Women in the Garden, 1866 – Claude Monet

What is on the canvas

The canvas stands upright and is very large. Four figures are in a garden in pale summer
dresses. On the left a woman stands in profile facing right, in a white dress with fine
grey-green stripes and a green trim; a white ribbon falls from her headpiece. Immediately behind
her a second figure in a cream dress holds up a large bouquet of red, white and yellow flowers —
the bouquet covers part of her face. In the foreground at the centre a woman sits, her
enormous white skirt opening into a nearly perfect circle that fills the lower third of
the canvas; its hem is embroidered with dark scrollwork, a yellow ribbon sits at her throat, and
she holds a small posy in her lap and looks down at it. A pale parasol lies behind her. On the
right a woman in a white dress with dark spots turns away and reaches up to a branch. A slender
tree grows through the middle; above and to the right dense dark green fills everything. A sandy
path winds from the bottom towards the right. The canvas is signed at the lower right.

White against dark

The work rests on a single contrast: the near-black mass of foliage above and four white
dresses below. That is exactly why the dresses look brighter than they would on their own — the
eye measures them against the darkness behind. The shadows on the skirts are not grey but
bluish and violet, unusual for a work of these years and what separates this oil on canvas
reproduction from the studio painting of its time. The stroke is still relatively closed and
smooth, without the breaking-up of later years; the colour sits in broad, quiet areas.

The motif in Monet’s work

The figure outdoors, measured against foliage and light, recurs in Monet. The single-figure
version of the same question is offered by
Woman with a Parasol and
Woman with a Parasol (Facing Left),
where the figure stands alone beneath the sky. The garden space without figures is shown by
Corner of the Garden at Montgeron,
and how far Monet later broke the stroke apart by
Impression, Sunrise.

Museum and record

The original is held by the Musée d’Orsay in Paris under accession number
RF 2773. The museum record lists it as oil on canvas measuring 205 x 255 cm and
gives the year as 1866. It is one of the largest canvases in Monet’s work, and
its size is not a detail but part of the conception — the figures are painted very nearly life
size.

How it behaves on a wall

The upright format, close to 4 : 5, carries a large size better than a small one: at reduced
sizes the four figures and the scrollwork on the skirt merge together. 80 x 100 cm and
90 x 110 cm are the smallest that still hold, and suit a place above a chest of drawers.
100 x 120 cm and 120 x 150 cm are usual above a sofa. 140 x 170 cm and 160 x 200 cm want a free
wall with no furniture beneath. 180 x 220 cm and 205 x 255 cm, exactly the size of the
original, are for tall rooms and stairwells. As wall decor it reads best on a light
wall that does not compete with the dark green.

Hand-painted, not a print

This hand-painted canvas art is made with a brush rather than a printer. A print lays colour
in an evenly thin film, so dark foliage and white skirts come out equally smooth. Applied by
hand the foliage is painted densely and in layers while the white skirts go on in broad, thinner
strokes, so light returns from them differently than from the ground behind. It is that
difference in thickness that gives the large white area depth instead of leaving it empty. Being
handwork, each copy differs a little, so a fine art reproduction of this kind stays a single
object.

Custom sizes, frame, ordering and lead time

If none of the eight sizes fits, we paint to the size you set, keeping the ratio of the sides.
A 3D application is available for the frame — it is for frame selection only and
does not place the work in your room; the separate visualisation service does that. The lead time
is 15 to 45 days, and for the largest sizes usually nearer the upper end, because
the work is painted to order. Before dispatch we send you a photograph of the finished piece for
approval. Further reproductions on canvas and famous paintings on canvas are in the
Claude Monet gallery.

• Subject: four figures in white summer dresses in a garden; the seated woman at the centre, her skirt opened into a circle.
• Technique: oil on canvas; foliage dense and layered, the skirts in broad thinner strokes.
• Sizes: upright format, eight sizes from 80 x 100 cm to 205 x 255 cm; the largest is the size of the original.
• Worth knowing: the shadows on the white skirts are not grey but blue and violet — measured against the dark foliage behind.