During summer and fall 1891 Monet painted a series of views of poplars along the Epte River, at Giverny. Completion of the series was temporarily threatened when the village of Limetz, across the Epte from Giverny, decided to sell the trees at auction. Monet paid a local lumber merchant to ensure that the trees remained standing until he finished his work. He painted some of the pictures from the riverbank, and others, such as this one, from a boat specially outfitted with grooves to hold multiple canvases. Like the Haystacks, the Poplars were first exhibited as a series. Fifteen were shown in Paris in 1892.
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Artwork Details
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Title:The Four Trees
Artist:Claude Monet (French, Paris 1840–1926 Giverny)
Date:1891
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:32 1/4 x 32 1/8 in. (81.9 x 81.6 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929
Accession Number:29.100.110
Inscription: Signed and dated (lower left): Claude Monet 91
[Knoedler, New York, until 1893; stock no. 7287; their sale, American Art Association, New York, April 14, 1893, no. 362, as "The Four Trees (Poplar Series)," for $1,175 to Durand-Ruel]; [Durand-Ruel, New York, 1893–95; stock no. 1063; sold on January 12, 1895 to Havemeyer]; Mr. and Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, New York (1895–his d. 1907); Mrs. H. O. (Louisine W.) Havemeyer, New York (1907–d. 1929; cat., 1931, p. 160, ill., as "Landscape—Les Quatre arbres")
Paris. Durand-Ruel. "Exposition de Claude Monet: Série des peupliers des bords de l'Epte," February 29–March 10, 1892, no. 10 (as "Les 4 Arbres").
New York. Durand-Ruel. November 1894, no catalogue [see New York Times 1894].
New York. Durand-Ruel. "Monet," January 12–27, 1895, no. 14.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The H. O. Havemeyer Collection," March 10–November 2, 1930, no. 85 (as "The Poplars [Les Quatres (sic) Arbres]") [2nd ed., 1958, no. 175, as "Poplars"].
Newark Museum. "19th-Century French and American Paintings from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 9–May 15, 1946, no. 23.
Richmond. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. "Paintings by the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists," October 20–November 19, 1950, unnum. checklist (as "The Poplars").
City Art Museum of St. Louis. "Claude Monet," September 25–October 22, 1957, no. 75.
Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "Claude Monet," November 1–December 1, 1957, no. 75.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Claude Monet: Seasons and Moments," March 9–May 15, 1960, no. 57 (as "The Four Poplars").
Los Angeles County Museum. "Claude Monet: Seasons and Moments," June 14–August 7, 1960, no. 57.
Little Rock. Arkansas Arts Center. "Five Centuries of European Painting," May 16–October 26, 1963, unnumbered cat. (pp. 40–41).
Iowa City. University of Iowa Gallery of Art. "Impressionism and Its Roots," November 8–December 6, 1964, no. 34 (as "The Poplars").
Fort Worth Art Center. "Spectrum: A Cross Section from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," March 8–April 12, 1970, unnumbered cat. (as "The Poplars").
Buffalo. Albright-Knox Art Gallery. "Color and Field: 1890–1970," September 15–November 1, 1970, no. 15 (as "The Four Poplars").
Dayton Art Institute. "Color and Field: 1890–1970," November 20, 1970–January 10, 1971, no. 15.
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Color and Field: 1890–1970," February 4–March 28, 1971, no. 15.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Impressionist Epoch," December 12, 1974–February 10, 1975, not in catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Monet's Years at Giverny: Beyond Impressionism," April 19–July 9, 1978, no. 16.
Saint Louis Art Museum. "Monet's Years at Giverny: Beyond Impressionism," August 1–October 8, 1978, no. 16.
Madrid. Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo. "Claude Monet (1840–1926)," April 29–June 30, 1986, no. 72 (as "Les quatre arbres").
Leningrad [St. Petersburg]. State Hermitage Museum. "From Delacroix to Matisse," March 15–May 10, 1988, no. 29.
Moscow. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. "From Delacroix to Matisse," June 10–July 30, 1988, no. 29.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Monet in the 90s: The Series Paintings," February 7–April 29,1990, no. 41.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Monet in the 90s: The Series Paintings," May 19–August 24, 1990, no. 41.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection," March 27–June 20, 1993, no. A407.
Edinburgh. National Gallery of Scotland. "Monet to Matisse: Landscape Painting in France, 1874-1914," August 11–October 23, 1994, unnumbered cat.
Paris. Musée d'Orsay. "La collection Havemeyer: Quand l'Amérique découvrait l'impressionnisme...," October 20, 1997–January 18, 1998, no. 27.
THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT.
"Individualists at Durand-Ruel's." New York Times (November 3, 1894), p. 4.
"Havemeyer Collection at Metropolitan Museum: Havemeyers Paid Small Sums for Masterpieces." Art News 28 (March 15, 1930), p. 35.
Frank Jewett Mather Jr. "The Havemeyer Pictures." The Arts 16 (March 1930), p. 479.
Harry B. Wehle. "The Exhibition of the H. O. Havemeyer Collection." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 25 (March 1930), p. 56.
H. O. Havemeyer Collection: Catalogue of Paintings, Prints, Sculpture and Objects of Art. n.p., 1931, p. 160, ill.
Stephen Gwynn. Claude Monet and His Garden: The Story of an Artist's Paradise. New York, 1934, p. 168.
Lionello Venturi. Les Archives de l'impressionnisme. Paris, 1939, vol. 1, pp. 342–43, publishes two letters from Monet to Durand-Ruel about the poplar series, one of which (March 9, 1892) mentions "le cadre des quatre arbres".
Oscar Reuterswärd. Monet. Stockholm, 1948, p. 286.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 69.
William C. Seitz inClaude Monet. Exh. cat., City Art Museum of St. Louis. Minneapolis, 1957, pp. 29–30, no. 75, ill.
Denis Rouart inClaude Monet. [Lausanne], 1958, p. 85, ill. (color), states that "the linear stylization foreshadowing the decorative eccentricities of the 'art nouveau' of 1900, combined with the rippling mirror of the water, here attains an almost abstract degree of purity".
William C. Seitz. Claude Monet. New York, [1960], pp. 35, 140–41, ill. (color), compares the abstract design to later work by Mondrian and Klimt, and claims that Monet had adapted some of Seurat's principles of color and design.
William C. Seitz. Claude Monet: Seasons and Moments. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1960, pp. 26, 29, 61, no. 57, ill.
Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 3, XIX–XX Centuries. New York, 1967, pp. 136–37, ill.
Raymond Cogniat. Claude Monet. New York, 1969, ill. p. 39 (color).
William Seitz. "The Relevance of Impressionism." Art News 67 (January 1969), ill. p. 33.
Douglas Cooper. "The Monets in the Metropolitan Museum." Metropolitan Museum Journal 3 (1970), pp. 291, 297–99, 302, 304–5, fig. 24.
Jean Clay. L'Impressionnisme. [Paris], 1971, pp. 254–55, ill. (color).
Denis Rouart inMonet, Water-Lilies: Or the Mirror of Time. New York, 1974, p. 51, ill. [French ed., 1972].
Sabine Cotté. Monet. Paris, 1974, colorpl. 15.
Andrew Forge inMonet at Giverny. London, 1975, p. 11, uses it as an example of Monet's development of an "extreme frontality which seems to be capable of radiating endlessly beyond the boundaries of the canvas".
Joel Isaacson. Observation and Reflection: Claude Monet. Oxford, 1978, pp. 41, 222, pl. 105.
Roger Terry Dunn. "The Monet-Rodin Exhibition at the Galerie Georges Petit in 1889." PhD diss., Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., 1978, pp. iv, 133–34, fig. 10.
Meyer Schapiro. "Mondrian: Order and Randomness in Abstract Painting." Modern Art: 19th & 20th Centuries, Selected Papers. New York, 1978, p. 245, fig. 6, compares the composition to a painting by Mondrian called "Trees in Moonlight (Trees on a River Bank)" (Gemeentemuseum, The Hague).
Daniel Wildenstein. Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné. Vol. 3, 1887–1898: Peintures. Paris, 1979, pp. 42–3 n. 1051, p. 47 n. 1083, p. 66 n. 1278, p. 264 letter 1135, no. 1309, ill.
Robert Herbert. "Method and Meaning in Monet." Art in America 67 (September 1979), p. 108, as "Four Poplars".
Wim de Poorter et al. Impressionisme en Symbolisme. Nijmegen, 1979, pl. 3.
Klaus Berger. Japonismus in der westlichen Malerei: 1860–1920. Munich, 1980, pp. 92–93, fig. 68.
Grace Seiberling. Monet's Series. PhD diss., Yale University. New York, 1981, pp. 116–17, 365, no. 23.
Robert Gordon and Andrew Forge. Monet. New York, 1983, p. 293, ill. p. 197 (color).
Jacqueline Guillaud and Maurice Guillaud. Claude Monet au temps de Giverny. Exh. cat., Centre Culturel du Marais. Paris, 1983, figs. 49 and 50 (color, detail and overall).
Charles S. Moffett. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1985, pp. 10, 138–39, 252, ill. (color, overall and detail).
Charles F. Stuckey, ed. Monet: A Retrospective. New York, 1985, p. 184, colorpl. 81.
Shunsuke Kijima. Monet. Tokyo, 1985, unpaginated, fig. 39 (color).
Frances Weitzenhoffer. The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America. New York, 1986, pp. 100, 257, claims that the Havemeyers bought this work on January 12, the opening day of the 1895 exhibition in which it was included.
John House. Monet: Nature into Art. New Haven, 1986, pp. 25, 128, 178, 203, colorpl. 256.
Gary Tinterow et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 8, Modern Europe. New York, 1987, pp. 36–37, colorpl. 20.
Francesco Arcangeli. Monet. Bologna, 1989, p. 60, fig. 55.
Richard Kendall, ed. Monet by Himself. London, 1989, ill. p. 209 (color).
Rodolphe Rapetti inL'art du XIXe siècle, 1850–1905. Paris, 1990, p. 53, fig. 83 (color).
Roland Dorn inVincent van Gogh and the Modern Movement: 1890–1914. Exh. cat., Museum Folkwang, Essen. Freren, Germany, 1990, p. 189, no. 63, ill. (color).
Paul Hayes Tucker. Monet in the '90s: The Series Paintings. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston, 1990, pp. 111, 297, no. 41, colorpl. 35, ill. p. 115 (color detail).
Karin Sagner-Düchting. Claude Monet, 1840–1926: Ein Fest für die Augen. Cologne, 1990, pp. 161, 167, ill. p. 168 (color).
Susan Alyson Stein inSplendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 217.
Gary Tinterow inSplendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 33, colorpl. 35.
Chuji Ikegami. New History of World Art. Vol. 22, Period of Impressionism. Tokyo, 1993, p. 178, ill. p. 178 and colorpl. 117.
Marianne Alphant. Claude Monet: Une vie dans le paysage. [Paris], 1993, pp. 498, 500.
Gretchen Wold inSplendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, pp. 365–66, no. A407, ill.
Richard Thomson. Monet to Matisse: Landscape Painting in France, 1874–1914. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Scotland. Edinburgh, 1994, pp. 13, 144–45, 147, 187, 193, colorpls. 219, 225 (overall and detail).
Steven Z. Levine. Monet, Narcissus, and Self-Reflection: The Modernist Myth of the Self. Chicago, 1994, pp. 125, 147–48, 167, fig. 79.
Lynn Federle Orr. "Monet: An Introduction." Monet: Late Paintings of Giverny from the Musée Marmottan. Exh. cat., New Orleans Museum of Art. New Orleans, 1994, p. 25, fig. 11 (color), discusses Monet's use of abstraction, cutting off the tops of the trees and creating a grid of horizontals and verticals that cannot be read three-dimensionally.
Elia Espinosa. "El Poema como Instrumento de Percepción de la Pintura." Los Discursos Sobre el Arte. Ed. Juana Gutiérrez Haces. Mexico City, 1995, pp. 297–99, fig. 1, discusses the painting in relation to Octavio Paz's poem "Cuatro chopos", which was inspired by this picture.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 477, ill.
Daniel Wildenstein. Monet or the Triumph of Impressionism. Vol. 1, 2nd ed. Cologne, 1996, p. 280.
Daniel Wildenstein. Monet. Vol. 3, Catalogue raisonné–Werkverzeichnis: Nos. 969–1595. 2nd ed. Cologne, 1996, pp. 523–24, no. 1309, ill. pp. 517 and 522 (color, detail and overall).
Gary Tinterow inLa collection Havemeyer: Quand l'Amérique découvrait l'impressionnisme. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 1997, pp. 61, 63, 105, no. 27, ill. (color).
Susan Alyson Stein inLa collection Havemeyer: Quand l'Amérique découvrait l'impressionnisme. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 1997, p. 18.
Caroline Durand-Ruel. "Quand les Havemeyers aimaient la peinture française." Connaissance des arts no. 544 (November 1997), pp. 108–9, ill. (color).
Carla Rachman. Monet. London, 1997, p. 255, fig. 163 (color).
Sylvie Patin. "La collection Havemeyer." 48/14: La revue du Musée d'Orsay no. 5 (Fall 1997), p. 9.
John Goodman inThe Oxford History of Western Art. Ed. Martin Kemp. Oxford, 2000, p. 334, colorpl. 487.
Anthea Callen. "Technique and Gender: Landscape, Ideology and the Art of Monet in the 1890s." Gendering Landscape Art. Ed. Steven Adams and Anna Gruetzner Robins. New Brunswick, N.J., 2001, p. 37, suggests that Monet bought canvases for his Poplars series in groups by size; notes that this painting is the most abstract composition of the series.
Horst Keller. Monets Jahre in Giverny, Ein Garten wird Malerei. Cologne, 2001, p. 67, ill. p. 64 (color).
Ann Gibson inMonet and Modernism. Ed. Karin Sagner-Düchting. Exh. cat., Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung. Munich, 2001, pp. 116–17, ill. (color).
Michael Diener. Das Ambivalente in der Kunst Leonardos, Monets und Mondrians. PhD diss., Universität Saarbrücken. St. Ingbert, 2002, pp. 196, 200 n. 532, p. 212.
Sylvie Patin. "Un tableau de la série des 'Peupliers' de Monet entre par dation au musée d'Orsay." Revue des musées de France: Revue du Louvre 53 (April 2003), p. 24, fig. 3.
Christofer Conrad in Christian von Holst and Christofer Conrad. Claude Monet: Fields in Spring. Exh. cat., Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. Stuttgart, 2006, p. 108, fig. 83 (color).
Christian von Holst in Christian von Holst and Christofer Conrad. Claude Monet: Fields in Spring. Exh. cat., Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. Stuttgart, 2006, p. 50, fig. 25 (color).
Eric M. Zafran inClaude Monet (1840–1926): A Tribute to Daniel Wildenstein and Katia Granoff. Exh. cat., Wildenstein & Co., Inc. New York, 2007, p. 84.
Joseph Baillio and Cora Michael inClaude Monet (1840–1926): A Tribute to Daniel Wildenstein and Katia Granoff. Exh. cat., Wildenstein & Co., Inc. New York, 2007, pp. 167, 204.
Paul Hayes Tucker inClaude Monet (1840–1926): A Tribute to Daniel Wildenstein and Katia Granoff. Exh. cat., Wildenstein & Co., Inc. New York, 2007, pp. 76–77, fig. 17 (color).
Masterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 142, 283–84, no. 131, ill. (color and black and white).
Marie-Claude Coudert inEblouissants reflets: Cent chefs-d'œuvre impressionnistes. Ed. Sylvain Amic et al. Exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen. Paris, 2013, p. 299 n. 6, fig. 69 (color).
Sylvie Patry inInventing Impressionism: Paul Durand-Ruel and the Modern Art Market. Ed. Sylvie Patry. Exh. cat., Musée du Luxembourg, Paris. London, 2015, p. 257 [French ed., "Paul Durand-Ruel: le Pari de l'Impressionnisme," Paris, 2014, pp. 178–79], discusses the 1892 exhibition of Monet's "Poplars" series at the Durand-Ruel Gallery as a key turning point in his work, career, and reception.
Christoph Heinrich inImpressionism: The Art of Landscape. Ed. Ortrud Westheider and Michael Philipp. Exh. cat., Museum Barberini, Potsdam. Munich, 2017, p. 83, fig. 6 (color).
Julia Knöschke inImpressionism: The Art of Landscape. Ed. Ortrud Westheider and Michael Philipp. Exh. cat., Museum Barberini, Potsdam. Munich, 2017, p. 158, notes the influence of the Japanese woodcut prints Monet was collecting on the bold compositional choices in this and other paintings in the series.
Heinz Widauer inClaude Monet: A Floating World. Ed. Heinz Widauer and Dieter Buchhart. Exh. cat., Albertina Museum. Vienna, 2018, p. 156, fig. 8 (color), as "The Four Poplars".
Marianne Mathieu inMonet: The Late Years. Exh. cat., Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Fort Worth, 2019, pp. 82, 205 n. 32.
George T. M. Shackelford. Monet: The Late Years. Exh. cat., Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Fort Worth, 2019, p. 110.
Daniel Zamani inClaude Monet: The Truth of Nature. Ed. Angelica Daneo et al. Exh. cat., Denver Art Museum. Munich, 2019, p. 177, fig. 1 (color).
Laura D. Corey and Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen. "Visions of Collecting." Making The Met, 1870–2020. Ed. Andrea Bayer with Laura D. Corey. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2020, pp. 139, 265 n. 50.
Katharine Baetjer inEuropean Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Exh. cat., Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. South Brisbane, 2021, ill. p. 31 (color installation view).
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