
Read the visual description
We look across a strip of tall grass and flowers at a river that winds into the distance in this loosely painted, horizontal landscape. The lower half of the composition is a mass of tall wildflowers created with daubs of lemon yellow and white among vertical strokes of moss, laurel, and pine green. The river beyond is painted with horizontal dashes of arctic, denim, and cobalt blue. The horizon comes about two-thirds of the way up the composition and is lined with tall, narrow trees, trees with rounded canopies, and a blanket of green growth loosely painted and shaded with touches of blue. The sky above is painted with blended strokes of slate blue and cream white. The sky is paler to the right, suggesting sunlight breaking through some of the clouds. The artist signed and dated the painting with red in the lower right corner: “Claude Monet 80.”
National Gallery of Art · Painting
Banks of the Seine, Vétheuil
Claude Monet
- Date
- 1880
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- overall: 73.4 x 100.5 cm (28 7/8 x 39 9/16 in.) framed: 100.3 x 127.6 x 9.5 cm (39 1/2 x 50 1/4 x 3 3/4 in.)
- Classification
- Painting
- Accession number
- 1963.10.177
- Credit line
- Chester Dale Collection
- Time span
- 1876 to 1900
- Department
- CF
Subjects and terms
- painted surface
- French
- France
- landscape
- Impressionist
- French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century. Part II: Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
- Waterway
- Vetheuil
Provenance
From the artist to James F. Sutton [d. 1915], New York; by inheritance to his wife; (Sutton sale, American Art Association, New York, 26 October 1933, no. 48); purchased by Chester Dale [1882-1962], New York; bequest 1963 to NGA.
Inscription
lower right: Claude Monet 80
NGA object ID 46652. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.