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The Poppy Field near Argenteuil

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The Poppy Field near Argenteuil
ArtistClaude Monet
Year1873
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions50 cm × 65 cm (20 in × 26 in)
LocationMusée d'Orsay, Paris

The Poppy Field near Argenteuil (French: Coquelicots) is an oil-on-canvas landscape painting by the French Impressionist Claude Monet, completed in 1873.

Following its donation to the French state in 1906 by Étienne Moreau-Nélaton, it was housed successively in the Louvre, Musée des Arts Décoratifs and the Jeu de Paume. It has been exhibited at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris since 1986.

Background

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Claude Monet, then aged 33, lived in Argenteuil (Val-d'Oise) when he completed this painting in 1873.[1]

Titled in French Les Coquelicots, Coquelicots, or Coquelicots, la promenade, this painting was presented the following year at the First Impressionist Exhibition.[1] It brings together some characteristics of impressionist works: an outdoor painting, light shades and sketched details.[2]

Acquired by the art merchant Paul Durand-Ruel, it then passed into the property of the painter Ernest Duez, the singer and collector Jean-Baptiste Faure, and the painter and collector Étienne Moreau-Nélaton.[3] It became property of the French state by the donation of Moreau-Nélaton in 1906.[4] First held by the Département des Peintures of the Louvre Museum, it is currently assigned to the Musée d'Orsay.[3]

Composition

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This painting, probably painted in the vicinity of Argenteuil, then a rural area, depicts a large field, with poppies dominating the left-hand side.[2] In the foreground is a woman with a parasol and straw hat, accompanied by a child. In the middle ground, we see a couple similar to the first. The background, at the far end of the field, consists of a row of trees, with a house visible.

The two mother-child couples mark out an oblique structuring the painting.[1][2] The left half is dominated by red and the right by a blue-green. The woman in the foreground is probably Camille Doncieux, the artist's wife, accompanied by a young Jean Monet, who, born in 1867, would be six years old in this scene.[1]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d Musée d'Orsay, Coquelicots Retrieved 2024-09-17
  2. ^ a b c Brocvielle, Vincent (2017). "Les Coquelicots. Monet". Pourquoi c’est connu? Le fabuleux destin des icônes du XIXe siècle (in French). Réunion des musées nationaux-Grand Palais. pp. 66–67. ISBN 9782711864331.
  3. ^ a b "Les Coquelicots", Base Joconde: Reference no. 000PE003955, French Ministry of Culture. (in French).
  4. ^ Musée d'Orsay, hommage à Étienne Moreau-Nélaton (in French).