The Artist’s Garden at Vetheuil

I have a feeling that this painting takes what was a beautiful view and made it magical. This is why I love Monet’s work, he unabashedly makes something beautiful, regardless of the monotony of regular life.
The sky was unlikely that blue, the details of the flowers washed over to give you that feeling you would have if you were standing there looking at the scene. But if you took a photograph of that moment and saw it, you’d realize just how much he captures the feeling rather than the details. Flowers have a living to make and exist in various stages of that living, none of that is shown to evoke the feeling of that summer day when life is peaceful.
Simply amazing.
Facts
Monet planted gardens wherever he lived. When he rented this house at Vétheuil, he made arrangements with the owner to landscape the terraces, which lead down to the Seine. The boy with the wagon is Monet’s young son, and on the steps behind him are other members of his extended household.
On the path, the brilliant sunlight is dappled with shade that falls in blues, plums, and various greens. Figures and faces are defined —briefly— with color. The large flowerpots were Monet’s, and he took them with him each time he moved, using them in other gardens. They are “blue and white” only in our understanding: examined up close they are blue and green where they reflect the grass behind them, elsewhere tinged with gold or pink.
By the early 1880s, when this work was painted, Monet had become increasingly interested in the painted surface itself and less concerned with capturing a spontaneous effect of light and atmosphere. The very composition of this painting, with its high horizon, traps our eye in the canvas—even the path is blocked in the distance by the rising steps. We are forced back to the surface, where the paint is textured and heavily layered. At close range, these brushstrokes, though still inspired by nature, seem less descriptive than decorative.
National Gallery of Art Overview of the painting
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