Sargent, John Singer (1856-1925)
Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of a Wood
1885
Oil on canvas, 54 x 64.8 cm
Tate Britain, London
Sargent painted two portraits of Claude Monet, one of which, showing the sitter in profile, was exhibited at the New Gallery, summer 1888 (211), and is described in a review published in the Art Journal, 1888, p.221. Sargent afterwards presented this portrait to the National Academy of Design as his Diploma work. The Tate picture, of the same date, was painted at Giverny in the spring of 1888 (Cooper, op. cit.), and Mme Monet (then still Mme Ernest Hoschedé) is shown to the right of the picture.
Sargent first met Monet some time between 1878 and 1882; at the time of this picture he had recently bought Monet‘s ‘Rock at Tréport’ and had written to Monet to express the warmest admiration for his work. This portrait of him was painted under his influence which was felt in much of Sargent‘s work during the years 1888–90. Comparable works are his two pictures of Paul Helleu and his wife, one showing Helleu sketching at Fladbury, the other with his wife and Emily Sargent in boats at Calcot Mill, both painted in 1889 and now in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum and Mr Houghton P. Metcalfe, Middleburg, Virginia, respectively.
Published in: Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, II. (Tate)
See also:
• Giverny (France) | Hoschedé Monet, Alice (1844-1911) | Monet, Claude (1840-1926)