About this artwork
Monet painted The Japanese Footbridge in 1899, in his garden at Giverny, 50 miles west of Paris. He was 59 years old and had been living at Giverny since 1883, when he rented a house with a barn and an orchard. Over the next sixteen years, he had transformed the property into one of the most ambitious gardens in France: a flower garden in front of the house, a kitchen garden beside it, and, across the road, a water garden with a pond, a Japanese-style bridge, and a dense planting of bamboo, willows, and water lilies.
The painting shows the Japanese footbridge that Monet built over his water garden in 1895. The bridge arches over the pond, painted in a band of blue that spans the upper third of the canvas. Below the bridge, the water is filled with water lilies, painted in thick strokes of pink, white, and yellow. The banks of the pond are covered in lush green foliage, painted in vertical strokes of green and blue. There is no sky in the painting: the bridge and the foliage fill the upper part of the canvas, and the viewer is immersed in the garden, looking down at the water and up at the bridge simultaneously.
Monet built the water garden in 1893, when he bought a piece of land across the road from his house and diverted a small tributary of the Epte to fill a pond. He planted water lilies, built the Japanese bridge, and surrounded the pond with bamboo and willows. The local authorities objected to the diversion of the river, but Monet won the argument by pointing out that his pond was a better use of the water than the swamp it had been before. By 1899, the garden was mature, and Monet was painting it almost exclusively.
The Japanese bridge was one of Monet's favorite subjects in the late 1890s. He painted at least 12 views of the bridge between 1895 and 1900, showing it from different angles and in different light conditions. This version, from 1899, is one of the most carefully composed: the bridge is centered, the water lilies are arranged in a pattern across the pond, and the foliage frames the view on both sides. The painting has a calm, enclosed quality, as if the viewer is standing inside the garden, surrounded by greenery.
Oil on canvas, 81 by 101 centimeters. Monet painted with short, vertical strokes, building the foliage in layers of green and blue. The bridge is painted in a band of blue, with the wood suggested by the direction of the brushwork. The water lilies are painted in thick, opaque strokes of pink, white, and yellow, which sit on the surface of the canvas like the lilies sit on the surface of the water. The water is painted in horizontal strokes of blue and green, with the reflections of the foliage visible beneath the lilies.
The horizontal format and cool palette make this print work well in a living room, bedroom, or any room with white walls. The greens, blues, and pinks pair with white walls, natural wood, and rooms with a calm, garden-like mood. The 18x24 size is the best choice, as the composition needs width to read. The painting has a lush, immersive quality that suits rooms with a relaxed or natural mood.
The painting entered the National Gallery of Art in Washington in 1972, gifted by Victoria Nebeker Coberly in memory of her son John.
This is a public domain artwork, from the National Gallery of Art, Washington. The image is released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0). We print it on archival matte paper at sizes from 8x10 to 18x24 inches, framed or unframed. The image is printed at full resolution with no cropping.
