The Artist's Garden at Vetheuil

Monet painted this garden in 1880, during his years at Vetheuil, a village on the Seine northwest of Paris. He was forty, struggling financially, and living in a rented house with his wife Camille, who was dying of uterine cancer, and his two sons. The garden at Vetheuil was his first serious experiment in gardening, the precursor to the famous garden he would create at Giverny ten years later. The painting shows a steep terraced garden leading up to the artist's house. Stone steps cut through the center of the garden, flanked by sunflowers and other plants. The sunflowers are tall, their heads turning toward the light. A figure, probably one of Monet's children, stands on the steps. The house is visible at the top of the garden, its white walls and blue shutters catching the sun. The sky is a pale blue, barely visible above the house. The composition is vertical, with the steps leading the eye upward through the garden. The sunflowers dominate the foreground, their yellow heads bright against the green foliage. The paint is thick, applied in short, visible strokes. Each stroke follows the form it describes: the sunflower petals are built in dabs of yellow, the leaves in strokes of green, the steps in broad strokes of grey and white. Monet lived at Vetheuil from 1878 to 1881. The house had a terraced garden that he planted with sunflowers, vegetables, and flowers. He painted the garden several times, from different angles and in different light. This version, at the National Gallery of Art, is one of the largest and most finished. Camille Monet died in September 1879, and the paintings of the garden from 1880 have a quality of stubborn vitality, as if Monet were painting life back into the world. Oil on canvas, 151 by 121 centimeters, roughly 59 by 48 inches. Monet used thick paint, building the sunflowers in layers of yellow and orange over a green ground. The steps are painted in broad, confident strokes. The house at the top is barely indicated, a few patches of white and blue. This print works in a kitchen or sunroom, where the garden subject and the yellow sunflowers suit the setting. The green and yellow palette pairs with white walls, wood furniture, and potted plants. The 16x20 framed version gives the sunflowers and the steps enough detail to read. The painting is in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.