Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926)
The Petite Creuse River
INV-8154
Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926)1889
The Petite Creuse River
Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926) →Impressionismnineteenth century19th centurypaintingpaint
Date
1889
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
65.9 × 93.1 cm (25 15/16 × 36 5/8 in.); Framed: 83.2 × 109.9 × 7.3 cm (32 3/4 × 43 1/4 × 2 7/8 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Potter Palmer Collection
Claude Monet began this canvas—one of three of the Petite Creuse—in April 1889 but only returned to it later that spring, by which time the landscape had changed considerably. The oak tree, for example, was sprouting leaves, obscuring the view he had already established. Rather than rework or restart the canvas to depict the current season, Monet hired workers to defoliate the tree so that he could re-create its earlier appearance.
Monet spent three months in the remote Creuse valley in central France beginning in early March 1889 after visiting the region for a few days with art critic Gustave Geffroy in February. Despite bouts of poor health and bad weather, he returned to Giverny having painted 24 canvases. These constituted the artist’s first planned and rigorously defined series of paintings.
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