Lot 22
  • 22

Claude Monet

Estimate
2,000,000 - 3,000,000 USD
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Description

  • Claude Monet
  • Automne à Jeufosse
  • Signed Claude Monet and dated 84 (lower left)
  • Oil on canvas
  • 23 5/8 by 28 3/4 in.
  • 60 by 73 cm

Provenance

Durand-Ruel, Paris (acquired in 1888, presumably from the artist)

Durand-Ruel, New York (acquired from the above on April 6, 1888)

Erwin Davis, New York (acquired from the above)

Durand-Ruel, New York (acquired from the above on March 16, 1893)

Jean d’Alayer, Paris (acquired from the above in 1949)

Sale: Galerie Charpentier, Paris, June 16, 1953, lot 43

Private Collection, Paris

Private Collection, United States

Acquired from the above

Exhibited

Saint Louis, Exposition & Music Hall Association, Eleventh Annual Exhibition, 1894, no. 279

New York, Durand-Ruel, Exposition of Forty Paintings by Claude Monet, 1895, no. 2

Literature

Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet, Biographie et catalogue raisonné, vol. II, Lausanne & Paris, 1979, no. 916, illustrated p. 137

Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, vol. II, no. 916, illustrated p. 341

Condition

Good condition. Original canvas. Under UV light, there are several horizontal lines of retouching at the lower right corner.
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.

Catalogue Note

Executed at the height of the Impressionist movement in 1884, the present view of the Seine from Jeufosse, Giverny, 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.  According to Daniel Wildenstein, the view here depicts a downstream view of the river, with the hill of Jeufosse on the left sloping towards the Coteau du Gibet at Port-Villez.

Monet frequently painted scenes of trees beside water and returned again and again to the same stretches of the Seine and its tributaries (figs. 1, 2).  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" (Frederick 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 with 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 allow Monet 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.

The first owner of this picture was Erwin Davis, who made his fortune as a land speculator, gold and silver miner and banker in California.  Davis spent the last years of his life in New York, where he became one of America's foremost collectors of late nineteenth century European Art.  Many of Davis' paintings, including Manet's renowned Jeune femme, were gifted to the Metropolitan Museum of Art or sold at his single-owner sale in New York in March 1889.