Claude Monet - The Garden 1876

The Garden 1876
The Garden
1876 75x100cm Oil on canvas
State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia

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From the State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia:
This painting depicts the garden of Monet's second home in Argenteuil. The ten paintings executed in the summer of 1876 can be divided into two groups, according to the perspective chosen: in some canvases, the house is visible; others are painted looking away from the house. In either case, the garden's untended growth expressed the spontaneous force of nature. A woman, usually recognized as Monet's wife, Camille, appears in all the landscapes of the second group, depicted always comme il faut, as one was expected to appear in public - in a hat, and sometimes with a parasol. In The Garden the woman merges with the vegetation, whereas in some other paintings, for instance, in Woman in the Garden at Sainte-Adresse (The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg), the woman seems to contrast with it.