Claude Monet

Paul Durand-Ruel, Paris (acquired from the artist in 1885)

Marie-Louise d'Alayer (by descent from the above and until circa 1950)

Max Gadala, Paris (by circa 1952)

Private Collection, France (by circa 1970)

Wildenstein Gallery, New York

Acquired from the above in November 1996

Tokyo, Magasin Tokyu; Osaka, Magasin Daimaru; Fukuoka, Magasin Iwakaya, Claude Monet, 1970, no. 10

Georges Lecomte, L'Art impressionniste, Paris, 1892, p. 197

Adolphe Tabarant, "Le congrès d'histoire de l'art chez Durand-Ruel," Le Bulletin de la vie artistique, Paris, October 15, 1921, illustrated p. 528

Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet, Biographie et catalogue raisonné, vol. II, Lausanne & Paris, 1979, no. 929, illustrated pp. 140 and 141

Daniel Wildenstein, Monet, catalogue raisonné, vol. II, Cologne, 1996, no. 929, illustrated p. 347

In 1882 the dealer Paul Durand-Ruel commissioned Monet to create a series of pictures to decorate the six doors of his grand salon at no. 35 rue de Rome in Paris.  Over the next three years the artist completed a total of 36 canvases, or 'panels,' as they were known, which could be moved easily and placed in the six recesses of each door.  Because of the high standards of Durand-Ruel and the large scope of the project, the commission proved to be more demanding than Monet had originally anticipated.  According to Daniel Wildenstein, "Since Monet's client was so impatient, the artist immediately set to work.  The task was to prove slower and more difficult that he had foreseen.  Only two small panels had been completed by December, 1882.  In the summer and autumn of 1883, after Monet had moved to Giverny, he worked relentlessly on the commission, urged on by Durand-Ruel who would send him vases for the bouquets of flowers" (Daniel Wildenstein,  Monet, catalogue raisonné, vol. II, Cologne, 1996, p. 345).   The last of the panels, including this picture, were completed and sent to Durand-Ruel in 1885.

The present work hung in the lower-left recess of door 'B' in Durand-Ruel's drawing room (see fig. 1).  All of these oils remained at the rue de Rome until they were moved to Georges Durand-Ruel's apartment in the rue Jouffroy around 1922.

Fig. 1, Photograph of the door in Paul Durand-Ruel's home on the rue de Rome, Paris.  The present work can be seen in the lower left corner.