Claude Monet, 'Poplars on the Epte', 1891
About the work
Overview
Although dated 1890, this work was actually painted the following year. In the spring of 1891 Monet began work on a series of 23 paintings depicting the poplars which lined the left bank of the river Epte, near Limetz, south of Giverny. On 18 June the town decided to auction off the trees. Monet persuaded a wood merchant to buy them jointly with him, on the condition that they were left standing for a few more months to enable the artist to finish his series.
The works were painted from a flat-bottomed boat which Monet borrowed from fellow artist Gustave Caillebotte. From this low vantage-point the trees are viewed silhouetted against the sky and their formal qualities are stressed.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Poplars on the Epte
- Artist
- Claude Monet
- Artist dates
- 1840 - 1926
- Date made
- 1891
- Medium and support
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 92.4 × 73.7 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed; Dated
- Acquisition credit
- On loan from Tate: Presented by the Art Fund 1926
- Inventory number
- L717
- Location
- Not on display
- Image copyright
- On loan from Tate: Presented by the Art Fund 1926, © 2000 Tate
- Collection
- Main Collection
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
Images
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During the summer of 1869, Monet and Renoir painted together at La Grenouillère, a slightly raffish resort on the river Seine some 12 kilometres west of Paris. It had become a popular weekend retreat from the city during the 1860s.Monet made several oil sketches at the resort, including this pict...
Torrential rain in autumn 1896 caused extensive flooding near Monet’s home in Giverny. The river Epte, a tributary of the Seine, burst its banks and overflowed into the meadow next to Monet’s garden.Obliged to remain close to home, Monet painted the view of the waterlogged landscape that he saw i...
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Monet was in his early twenties when he painted this view across the breakwaters to the headland of La Hève, near Sainte-Adresse on the Normandy coast. He knew the area well, as he had spent his childhood in nearby Le Havre. The picture was probably made on the spot as a study for a larger studio...
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In 1871 Monet moved with his family to Argenteuil, a suburb north-west of Paris. During his six-year stay there he painted around 200 pictures of the town and its surroundings. This picture is one of 18 Argenteuil canvases that record the snowy winter of 1874/5. The figures trudging along the roa...
Monet’s earlier paintings of the Normandy coast had emphasised it as a working seascape, peopled with fishermen who had to contend with a cold climate, choppy seas and stormy skies. But this painting and the eight others he made in the summer of 1870 show it as a holiday destination, with wide sa...
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During the 1870s when he was living at Argenteuil, on the outskirts of Paris, Monet made several trips back to Le Havre, where he had grown up. The city was a thriving commercial and industrial centre, and France’s most important transatlantic port, with a series of harbours and busy docks. For...
In 1871 Monet settled in Argenteuil, a small suburban town on the Seine just nine kilometres and a fifteen-minute train journey from Paris. Already partially industrialised, Argenteuil was also famous as a centre for pleasure boating, and Monet was particularly attracted by its regattas and sail...
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Monet was captivated by London’s fog during his first stay in the capital from 1870 to 1871. Later in life he told the art dealer Rene Gimpel: ‘Without the fog, London would not be a beautiful city. It’s the fog that gives it its magnificent breadth.’ This misty composition is anchored by carefu...
In 1893 Monet bought a plot of land next to his house in Giverny. He had already planted a colourful flower garden, but now he wanted to create a water garden ‘both for the pleasure of the eye and for the purpose of having subjects to paint'. He enlarged the existing pond, filling it with exotic...
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In 1916 Monet had a new studio built at his home in Giverny in order to work on huge canvases of his water-lily pond, each of them more than two metres high. These monumental paintings were intended to form an entire decorative scheme, and he donated 22 of them to the French state after the Firs...
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During the final two decades of his life Monet devoted himself to painting the water garden he had created at his home in Giverny, producing around 250 innovative canvases. His paintings became increasingly experimental as he gradually abandoned depictions of the banks of the pond, its Japanese b...
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