Title: Paysage de Norvège, Sandviken
Artist: Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926)
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 73 x 92 cm
Date Created: 1895
Description
Painted during Claude Monet’s 1895 journey to Norway, Paysage de Norvège, Sandviken emerged from his quest for enduring winter light. Frustrated by fleeting conditions at Giverny, he traveled north to where snow lingered, seeking sustained study of atmospheric effects. After finding Christiania (Oslo) unsatisfactory, he settled near Sandviken at Bjørnegaard, an artists’ farm, joining a community of writers and painters. He explored the area, repeatedly painting Mount Kolsaas and this view of Sandviken.
This work forms part of a series depicting the village with the Løkke bridge. Compared to a sharper, contrasting version in Chicago, here a scumbled, soft light suggests falling snow. Colors achieve a closer harmony, with nuanced variations of pink and blue lending a crepuscular tone. Monet’s lifelong fascination with Japanese art found a resonance in Norway; he wrote that this corner of Sandviken “resembles a Japanese village.” The composition subtly echoes the ukiyo-e prints of Hiroshige, such as Evening Snow at Kambara, integrating an Eastern sensibility into the Nordic landscape.
Image Download
Image Dimensions: 3200 x 2532 pixels
Image Size: 451 KB
Image Format: JPG
Print Resolution: 300 dpi
Download Format: ZIP Archive
License: Public Domain, Free for Commercial Use
