Claude Monet

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

Victor Desfossés, Paris (sold: Hôtel Desfossés, Paris, April 26, 1899, lot 46)

Georges Kohn, Paris (acquired at the above sale)

Durand-Ruel, Paris (acquired from the above on December 4, 1919)

Durand-Ruel, New York (acquired from the above on February 28, 1920)

Henry T. Sloane, New York (acquired from the above on October 25, 1920)

Edward Klauber, New York (acquired circa 1937)

Acquired by inheritance from the above in 1954

New York, Durand-Ruel Gallery, Paintings by Modern French Masters, 1920, no. 18

Gustave Geffroy, Claude Monet, sa vie, son temps, son oeuvre, Paris, 1922, discussed p. 217

Camille Mauclair, Claude Monet, Paris & New York, 1924, illustrated pl. 31

Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet, Biographie et catalogue raisonné, Lausanne & Paris, 1979, no. 1003, illustrated p. 167

Daniel Wildenstein, Monet, Catalogue raisonné, vol. III, Cologne, 1996, no. 1003, illustrated p. 378

The canvas is unlined and there is no evidence of retouching under UV. This work is in excellent original condition. Colors: The colors in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Executed at the height of the Impressionist movement, the present work exemplifies the artist's life-long commitment to painting en plein air, exploring the effects of weather conditions and light at different times of the day on the surrounding landscape. It offers a vibrant contrast between the predominantly horizontal brushstrokes of the water and quick, diagonal dabs used for the hill and the sky to create a dynamic composition and evoke the rich atmosphere of a sunny day.

In the summer of 1885, Monet focused on the theme of Port-Villez and painted the present picture, along with a series of related landscapes (W. 1004-1008; figs. 1-3).  In these paintings, small islands dot the river and the Gibbet Hill rises in the distance.  Monet frequently painted scenes of trees beside water and returned again and again to the same stretches of the Seine and its tributaries, such as the Epte.  Frederick Hartt writes: "As early as 1873 Monet had set up a floating studio in a boat on the Seine, an idea he borrowed from the Barbizon painter Charles-François Daubigny.  If to Corot the art of painting consisted in knowing where to sit down, to Monet it lay in judging where to drop anchor.  The world passing before his eyes at any one spot formed a continuous stream of experience, from which he singled out moments, recorded in series" (F. Hartt, Art: A History of Painting. Sculpture. Architecture, vol. II, London, 1977, p. 361).

"I never had a studio, and I don't understand shutting oneself away in a room" Monet once said (quoted in John House, Monet: Nature into Art, New Haven, 1986, p. 140). He found no better location than Giverny and its surroundings to satisfy his methods than the numerous stretches of open water – ponds, rivers and oceans – that preoccupied him throughout his career.  This focus on painting directly from nature, without the mediating effect of first making on-the-spot drawings then returning to his studio to work up the sketches and complete the finished oil, allows a wonderful freshness of impact.  The vibrancy of palette and the vigor of brushstroke used by Monet allow him to capture here the rippling reflections of the hills, the grassy banks of the river and the gnarled trees in the water, with a great immediacy that epitomizes the Impressionist desire to render the fleeting effects of light on nature.

This work is one of the rare Impressionist pictures that has been in the United States since the early 20th century.  It was sold in 1920 by Durand-Ruel to the collector Henry T. Sloane (1846-1937), one of the founders of the luxury home furnishing firm W. & J. Sloane.    Sometime after the picture left Sloane's collection, it was acquired by Edward Klauber, who was the editor of the New York Times in the 1930s and eventually became a vice-president at CBS.  Doris Wechsler inherited the picture from her first husband Edward Klauber who died in 1954.