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Lot Essay
*This lot may be exempt from sales tax as set forth in the Sales Tax Notice in the back of the catalogue.
Vase de chrysanthèmes is part of a group of over forty canvases that Monet executed in 1882-1885 to decorate the apartment of his dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, on the rue de Rome in Paris. The scholar Paul Hayes Tucker has described the commission as "one of the artist's major preoccupations between 1882 and 1885" and the paintings as "charming, lusciously painted, and often quite novel" (Claude Monet: Life and Art, New Haven, 1995, p. 122). Thirty-six of the paintings, including twenty-nine flower still-lifes and seven images of fruit, were hung in 1885 on six double doors in Durand-Ruel's large drawing-room. The present example, which features a green vase of pink and red chrysanthemums on an obliquely angled table-top, was installed at the bottom left of "Door E" as one of six panels, one with vines of purple cobea blossoms and three with red, white, or pink azaleas. Its pendant was an image of a potted white azalea, whose lower left to upper right table top mirrors the opposite diagonal of the present work. The unique spatial effect created by these opposing panels reflects Monet's attention to the site-specific nature of this project.
One of the most striking features of the present painting is Monet's thick and energetic brushwork in the chrysanthemum petals and the raked background. Commenting on the variety of brushwork in this work, Richard Shone has written that it is "recognizable from the skies and seas of his landscapes and marines. Such works anticipate van Gogh's flower pieces of 1887-88, though it is doubtful that the younger artist (1853-1890) would have seen this particular example in Durand-Ruel's salon" (op. cit., p. 66). Monet's virtuosic demonstration of painterly handling in the present chrysanthemum blossoms anticipates his later display of colored brushwork in the other major still life project from the final forty years of his career, a group of four large paintings of chrysanthemums dated 1896-1897. John House has described the latter works as "some of the most lavish still-lifes produced by the Impressionist group and some of the most radical challenges to a long-standing still-life tradition" (in Monet: Nature into Art, New Haven, 1986, p. 43).
Monet moved to Giverny in April 1883, during the middle of his ambitious decorative project for Durand-Ruel. One of the artist's first concerns upon settling in his new home had been to get the garden in order. An avid gardener throughout his life, Monet declared, "What I need most of all are flowers, always, always" (quoted in R. Gordon and A. Forge, Monet, New York, 1983, p. 199). Monet devoted enormous time and resources to the grounds at Giverny, employing as many as six gardeners, importing rare plants and seeds from around the world. Although still-life was an intermittent theme for Monet, he took inspiration from flowers throughout his long career. Indeed, Monet once said, "I perhaps owe it to flowers for having become a painter" (quoted in P.H. Tucker, op. cit., p. 178).
Vase de chrysanthèmes is part of a group of over forty canvases that Monet executed in 1882-1885 to decorate the apartment of his dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, on the rue de Rome in Paris. The scholar Paul Hayes Tucker has described the commission as "one of the artist's major preoccupations between 1882 and 1885" and the paintings as "charming, lusciously painted, and often quite novel" (Claude Monet: Life and Art, New Haven, 1995, p. 122). Thirty-six of the paintings, including twenty-nine flower still-lifes and seven images of fruit, were hung in 1885 on six double doors in Durand-Ruel's large drawing-room. The present example, which features a green vase of pink and red chrysanthemums on an obliquely angled table-top, was installed at the bottom left of "Door E" as one of six panels, one with vines of purple cobea blossoms and three with red, white, or pink azaleas. Its pendant was an image of a potted white azalea, whose lower left to upper right table top mirrors the opposite diagonal of the present work. The unique spatial effect created by these opposing panels reflects Monet's attention to the site-specific nature of this project.
One of the most striking features of the present painting is Monet's thick and energetic brushwork in the chrysanthemum petals and the raked background. Commenting on the variety of brushwork in this work, Richard Shone has written that it is "recognizable from the skies and seas of his landscapes and marines. Such works anticipate van Gogh's flower pieces of 1887-88, though it is doubtful that the younger artist (1853-1890) would have seen this particular example in Durand-Ruel's salon" (op. cit., p. 66). Monet's virtuosic demonstration of painterly handling in the present chrysanthemum blossoms anticipates his later display of colored brushwork in the other major still life project from the final forty years of his career, a group of four large paintings of chrysanthemums dated 1896-1897. John House has described the latter works as "some of the most lavish still-lifes produced by the Impressionist group and some of the most radical challenges to a long-standing still-life tradition" (in Monet: Nature into Art, New Haven, 1986, p. 43).
Monet moved to Giverny in April 1883, during the middle of his ambitious decorative project for Durand-Ruel. One of the artist's first concerns upon settling in his new home had been to get the garden in order. An avid gardener throughout his life, Monet declared, "What I need most of all are flowers, always, always" (quoted in R. Gordon and A. Forge, Monet, New York, 1983, p. 199). Monet devoted enormous time and resources to the grounds at Giverny, employing as many as six gardeners, importing rare plants and seeds from around the world. Although still-life was an intermittent theme for Monet, he took inspiration from flowers throughout his long career. Indeed, Monet once said, "I perhaps owe it to flowers for having become a painter" (quoted in P.H. Tucker, op. cit., p. 178).