Claude Monet

Estate of the artist

Michel Monet, Paris (inherited from the above)

Durand-Ruel, Paris (received on consignment from the above on May 27, 1931)

M Marie, Paris (acquired from the above on December 23, 1958)

Edward Gilbert, New York (by 1960)

Wildenstein Gallery, Paris

Private Collection, Switzerland (1971)

Private Collection (acquired circa 1971 and sold: Sotheby's, London, December 7, 1998, lot 17)

Acquired at the above sale

New York, The Museum of Modern Art & Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Claude Monet, Season and Moments, 1961, no. 44 (titled Flowers and as dating from 1890)

Luigina Rossi Bortolatto, Tout L'Oeuvre peint de Monet, Paris, 1981, no. 313, illustrated p. 108

Daniel Wildenstein, Gli Impressionisti: Claude Monet, Milan, 1971, illustrated in color p. 55

Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet, Biographie et Catalogue raisonné, vol. III, Paris, 1979, no. 1145, illustrated p. 95; illustrated in color p. 15

Daniel Wildenstein, Monet, Catalogue raisonné, vol. III, Cologne, 1996, no. 1145, illustrated p. 433; vol. I, illustrated in color p. 235

The painting is in very good condition. The canvas has been lined with a glue adhesive. The paint layer is clean and fresh. Under ultraviolet light, there are no retouches visible.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Painted in Monet's garden at Giverny in the summer of 1887, Clématites belongs to a series of paintings in which flowers dominate the picture space to the exclusion of any sort of landscape or contextualizing background.  This conception of a painting as a 'vertical flowerbed' may relate to Monet's friendship with Gustave Caillebotte.  Caillebotte, another ardent gardener, planned a decoration for his own dining room comprising a suite of canvases of nothing but flowers.  Perhaps this was an emulation of the example of the present work, and those compositions that Monet painted for Durand-Ruel's apartment on the rue du Rome.

Monet had moved his family to the house at Giverny in the summer of 1883.  Four years later, when Clématites was painted, the design of the garden was still in planning, but Monet's passion for flowers was already in full bloom.  Jean-Pierre Hoschedé records that Monet was particularly interested in clematis, for which he created special structures in his garden, east of the central pathway.  Another painting of this subject in vertical format from the same date is in the Musée Marmottan, Paris (Wildenstein no. 1144).

In its scale and focus, the present painting prefigures the artist's later fascination with waterlilies. The single-minded concentration on leaf and petal spread out across the picture plane provides a precedent for the waterlily compositions, leading ultimately to that dissolution of form by light and color which took Monet close to the invention of abstract art.  In fact, the artist hung this painting in his studio while working on his waterlilies, evidencing its direct influence on those later canvases (fig. 2).