Intérieur après diner (1868-1869)

Monet, Claude (1840-1926)

Intérieur après dîner (Interior, after Dinner)
18681869
Oil on canvas, 50.2 x 65.4 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington

In a darkened room, two women sit at a round table near a man who stands leaning against a fireplace mantle, all illuminated only by a soft, yellow light from a ceiling lamp hanging over the table in this nearly square painting. All the people are light skinned and have brown or dark hair. The brushwork throughout is loose and details are indistinct. The brightest object in the room, the light, has a flaring shade over a spherical body, and hangs from three curling, scrolling arms. Painted in butter and golden yellow, it seems to be made from brass. The table is bare except for a white teapot and two small, white teacups on saucers near the women who sit to our right. The women have turned their wooden chairs to face each other next to the table, so the one closer to us sits with her back to us. Both have brown hair pulled up in buns, and they look down at their hands. The woman farther away wears a pine-green dress with white trim at the cuffs, and the one facing away from us wears a slate-blue, high-necked dress with a white collar. The one who faces us wears holds something white in her hands, presumably needlework. A third chair at the table, closest to us, is turned toward the women, but is empty. The man stands in semi-darkness behind the two women next to a glowing fireplace. He has a full beard and wears a black suit. He leans on the mantel with his left arm, on our right, with his other hand on his hip. Though his eyes are deeply shaded, he seems to look down at the woman in the blue-gray dress. A large mirror over the fireplace reflects the heads of the man and the woman facing us, as well as the back of a blue-gray lidded vase on the mantel and a clock hanging on the opposite wall, out of our view. A curtain runs along the wall beyond the fireplace and is painted with the suggestion of a floral pattern in strokes of forest green, burnt orange, gray, and tan. The rest of the room is swallowed in shadowy areas of dusky browns, grays, and tans. The artist signed the work in red letters in the lower left corner: “Claude Monet.” (NGA)