Title: La rivière de l’Epte à Giverny, l’été
Artist: Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926)
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 60 x 73 cm
Date Created: 1884
Description
Monet painted this vibrant view of the Epte River during his second summer in Giverny. In late April 1883, he moved with his family to this village of 279 inhabitants, where the Epte and Ru streams meet before flowing into the Seine. He rented a two-acre property, converting one of its barns into a studio. The light in Giverny suited him better than in Poissy, and the landscape offered richer motifs—rolling hills, meadows bordered by poplars, and waterways dotted with inlets and islands. He often navigated these in rowboats or his floating studio, building a boathouse soon after arrival. He planted a garden for vegetables and “flowers to pick for rainy days.” As he wrote to his dealer Durand-Ruel, “Once settled, I hope to produce masterpieces… It takes a while to know a new landscape.”
His first Giverny canvases from summer 1883 depict islands in the Seine near neighboring communes. After a Mediterranean trip with Renoir late that year and a visit to Cézanne, Monet traveled to Bordighera, Italy, in January 1884. He painted its celebrated villas and palm gardens, this “fairytale-like country” possibly inspiring his future gardens at Giverny. In many Bordighera works, he employed a close-up view, immersing himself in lush foliage.
Image Download
Image Dimensions: 2216 x 1852 pixels
Image Size: 1.96 MB
Image Format: JPG
Print Resolution: 300 dpi
Download Format: ZIP Archive
License: Public Domain, Free for Commercial Use
