Monet painted six views of the Parc Monceau: three in 1876 and three in 1878. In this canvas, the disposition of light and shade in the foreground, the patterns of the leaves, and the broad contours beginning to develop in areas of strong contrast suggest that Monet had already begun to experiment with the boldly two-dimensional motifs that would characterize his work of the 1880s and 1890s.
This painting was seized by the Nazis from Alfred Lindenbaum, later Lindon (1867–1948), in Paris in 1940 and was restituted to the Lindon family by the Commission de Récupération Artistique in 1946.
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Artwork Details
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Title:The Parc Monceau
Artist:Claude Monet (French, Paris 1840–1926 Giverny)
Date:1878
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:28 5/8 × 21 3/8 in. (72.7 × 54.3 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:The Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ittleson Jr. Purchase Fund, 1959
Accession Number:59.142
Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right): Claude Monet 78·
?Collot, Paris (from 1878, bought from the artist June 2, as "Une allée au parc Monçeau"); ?Georges de Bellio, Paris (1879–after 1889); [Durand-Ruel, Paris]; [Georges Bernheim, until about 1930]; Alfred Lindenbaum, later Lindon, Paris (by 1931-d. 1948; deposited with Durand-Ruel 1935; held in Paris for Lindenbaum/Lindon, no. LI 45, at Chase Bank, Paris, from which seized by the Nazis in 1940, no. 30; taken from the Jeu de Paume, no. 66, November 25, 1942 by Hermann Goering, no. RM1278, who exchanged it with art dealer Commandatore Eugenio Ventura of Florence on December 6, 1942, or February 18 or March 8, 1943, no. 6, through intermediaries, with Hofer acting for Goering and Morandotti for Ventura; NARA claim, February 20, 1945, lists picture; seized by the Commission de Récupération Artistique on November 28, 1946, no. 30, in Rome and returned to France, according to docket no. 457-08-36 of the Ministry of Education, Paris, December 4, 1946, when it was restituted to the Lindon family); his wife, Mme Lindon, Paris (1948–59); her son, Jacques Lindon, New York (1959; sold to The Met)
Paris. 28, avenue de l'Opéra. "4me exposition de peinture [4th Impressionist exhibition]," April 10–May 11, 1879, no. 152 (as "Parc Monceaux [sic]," lent by M. de Bellio, possibly this picture).
Paris. Galerie Georges Petit. "Claude Monet, A. Rodin," June 21–August ?, 1889, no. 36 (as "Parc Monceau," lent by M. de Bellio, possibly this picture).
Paris. Musée de l'Orangerie. "Claude Monet: Exposition rétrospective," 1931, no. 47 (as "Le Parc Monceau," lent by M. Lindon).
Paris. Durand-Ruel. "Claude Monet de 1865 à 1888," 1935, no. 26 (as "Le Parc Monceau," lent by M. Alfred Lindon).
Paris. Galerie Charpentier. "Plaisir de France," 1951, no. 134 (as "Le parc Monceau").
Paris. Durand-Ruel. "Exposition Claude Monet: 1840-1926," May 22–September 30, 1959, no. 21 (as "Une allée au Parc Monceau").
Paris. Grand Palais. "Centenaire de l'impressionnisme," September 21–November 24, 1974, no. 31 (as "Parisiens au Parc Monceau").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Impressionist Epoch," December 12, 1974–February 10, 1975, no. 31.
Bordeaux. Galerie des Beaux-Arts. "Profil du Metropolitan Museum of Art de New York: de Ramsès à Picasso," May 15–September 1, 1981, no. 120 (as "Parisiens au Parc Monceau").
Fort Lauderdale. Museum of Art. "Corot to Cézanne: 19th Century French Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," December 22, 1992–April 11, 1993, no catalogue.
Copenhagen. Ordrupgaard. "Impressionists in Town," September 6–December 1, 1996, no. 45 (as "Parisians Enjoying the Parc Monceau").
Edinburgh. National Gallery of Scotland. "Impressionist Gardens," July 31–October 17, 2010, no. 50.
Madrid. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. "Impressionist Gardens," November 16, 2010–February 13, 2011, no. 50.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Public Parks, Private Gardens: Paris to Provence," March 12–July 29, 2018, unnumbered cat.
Denver Art Museum. "Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature," October 21, 2019–February 2, 2020, no. 22.
Potsdam. Museum Barberini. "Monet: Places," February 22–July 19, 2020, no. 22.
Georges de Bellio. Letter to Claude Monet. [about 1884] [published in Ref. Niculuscu, 1964, pp. 257–58], lists a work titled "Le Parc Monceau" among pictures that will never leave his collection, possibly this picture.
Gustave Geffroy. Claude Monet: Sa vie, son temps, son œuvre. Paris, 1922, p. 98, lists a "Parc Monceau," possibly this picture, as having been included in the fourth Impressionist exhibition of 1879, but adds no further identification.
Maurice Malingue. Claude Monet. Monaco, 1943, pl. 89, as in the collection of M. Lindon.
Oscar Reuterswärd. Monet. Stockholm, 1948, pp. 115, 281, pl. 53, states that it was included in the fourth Impressionist exhibition of 1879, and was purchased there by Georges de Bellio.
Remus Niculescu. "Georges de Bellio, l'ami des impressionnistes." Revue Roumaine d'Histoire de l'Art 1, no. 2 (1964), pp. 217, 220, 241, 258 [see also Niculescu 1970].
Luigina Rossi Bortolatto. L'opera completa di Claude Monet, 1870–1889. Milan, 1966, p. 99, no. 157, 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, p. 129, ill.
Douglas Cooper. "The Monets in the Metropolitan Museum." Metropolitan Museum Journal 3 (1970), pp. 288–90, 305, fig. 9, calls it "richer and more striking" than the earlier painting of the Parc Monceau also at The Met (59.206; W398); compares the composition with Renoir's outdoor scenes of the same period; believes that it was the other Met version of the subject that was included in the fourth Impressionist exhibition in 1879.
Remus Niculescu. "Georges de Bellio, l'ami des impressionnistes (I)." Paragone 21 (September 1970), pp. 37, 53, pl. 33, states that Georges de Bellio owned it (along with two other versions of the subject, including The Met 59.206) and that he lent it to the fourth Impressionist exhibition in 1879 at the request of Gustave Caillebotte.
Remus Niculescu. "Georges de Bellio, l'ami des impressionnistes (II)." Paragone 21 (November 1970), pp. 53, 64–65, 84, no. II75c, identifies it as the picture lent by de Bellio to the Monet-Rodin show in 1889.
Charles S. Moffett inImpressionism: A Centenary Exhibition. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1974, pp. 164–66, no. 31, ill. (color) [French ed., "Centenaire de l'impressionnisme," Paris], states that this work was included in the fourth Impressionist exhibition in 1879.
Daniel Wildenstein. Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné. Vol. 1, 1840–1881: Peintures. Lausanne, 1974, pp. 90, 316–17, no. 466, ill., does not list Georges de Bellio as a former owner, but does tentatively connect it with one bought from Monet by Collot in 1878; identifies a different version of the subject as the work lent by de Bellio to the fourth Impressionist exhibition in 1879 and to the Monet-Rodin exhibition in 1889 (W468; formerly private collection, Switzerland).
Alice Bellony-Rewald. The Lost World of the Impressionists. London, 1976, p. 186, refers to one of Monet's versions of this subject, possibly this picture.
Tetsuro Miura and Chuji Ikegami. Mone [Monet]. Tokyo, 1977, unpaginated, fig. 1 (color).
Rodolphe Walter. "Le parc de Monsieur Zola." L'Oeil no. 272 (March 1978), pp. 18–19, fig. 2 (color).
Charles S. Moffett. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1985, pp. 120–21, 252, ill. (color).
Claire Joyes. Claude Monet: Life at Giverny. New York, 1985, ill. opp. p. 5 (color).
Gary Tinterow et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 8, Modern Europe. New York, 1987, p. 32, colorpl. 16.
Robert L. Herbert. Impressionism: Art, Leisure, and Parisian Society. New Haven, 1988, p. 142, colorpl. 141.
Karin Sagner-Düchting. Claude Monet, 1840–1926: Ein Fest für die Augen. Cologne, 1990, p. 98, ill. p. 99 (color).
Michael F. Zimmermann. Seurat and the Art Theory of His Time. Antwerp, 1991, p. 145, colorpl. 278.
Robert L. Herbert et al. Georges Seurat, 1859–1891. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1991, p. 179 n. 24 [French ed., "Seurat," Paris, p. 217 n. 24].
Roger Hurlburt. "Free Spirits." Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale) (December 20, 1992), p. 4D, ill. p. 1D.
Helen Kohen. "Lasting Impressions." Miami Herald (December 20, 1992), p. 6I.
Albert Boime. Art and the French Commune: Imagining Paris after War and Revolution. Princeton, 1995, p. 96, fig. 66.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 474, ill.
Daniel Wildenstein. Monet. Vol. 2, Catalogue raisonné–Werkverzeichnis: Nos. 1–968. 2nd ed. Cologne, 1996, p. 187, no. 466, ill. (color).
Daniel Wildenstein. Monet or the Triumph of Impressionism. Vol. 1, 2nd ed. Cologne, 1996, p. 135.
Albert Schug inPointillismus: Auf den Spuren von Georges Seurat. Exh. cat., Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne. Munich, 1997, ill. p. 21 (color) [French ed., "Pointillisme sur les traces de Seurat," Lausanne, 1998].
Carla Rachman. Monet. London, 1997, p. 117, fig. 81 (color).
Impressionist & Modern Art: Part One. Sotheby's, London. June 26, 2001, p. 26, fig. 2 (color), illustrates it in an entry for another "Parc Monceau" painting from 1878 (W467).
Christoph Becker et al. Monet's Garden. Exh. cat., Kunsthaus Zürich. Ostfildern-Ruit, Germany, 2004, pp. 31–32, 196, no. 15, ill. (color).
Clare A. P. Willsdon. In the Gardens of Impressionism. New York, 2004, p. 118, colorpl. 120.
Eric M. Zafran inClaude Monet (1840–1926): A Tribute to Daniel Wildenstein and Katia Granoff. Exh. cat., Wildenstein & Co., Inc. New York, 2007, p. 133.
Impressionist and Modern Art: Evening Sale. Christie's, New York. May 9, 2007, p. 67, under no. 18, fig. 1 (color).
Clare A. P. Willsdon. Impressionist Gardens. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh. London, 2010, pp. 41, 79, 157, no. 50, ill. (color), suggests that the male figure on the far right may be a subconscious surrogate for the artist.
Mary Mathews Gedo. Monet and His Muse: Camille Monet in the Artist's Life. Chicago, 2010, p. 194.
Emmanuel Pernoud. Paradis ordinaires: L'artiste au jardin public. Dijon, 2013, pp. 14, 65, 164–65, fig. 32 (color), notes that Monet's approach to the composition, with no hint of public barriers, gives this Paris park the feeling of a private space in the country.
Colta Ives. Public Parks, Private Gardens: Paris to Provence. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2018, pp. 48–49, 185, ill. on cover, fig. 46 (color, overall and detail), suggests that the vertical format of this second group of three images of the park painted in 1878 may have been influenced by similarly composed landscapes in Monet's Japanese print collection.
George T. M. Shackelford inClaude Monet: The Truth of Nature. Ed. Angelica Daneo et al. Exh. cat., Denver Art Museum. Munich, 2019, p. 58.
Daniel Zamani inClaude Monet: The Truth of Nature. Ed. Angelica Daneo et al. Exh. cat., Denver Art Museum. Munich, 2019, pp. 101, 265, no. 22, ill. p. 111 (color).
Catherine Méneux in "Relative Independence: The Determining Role of Collectors at the Fourth 'Impressionist' Exhibition in 1879." Collecting Impressionism: A Reappraisal of the Role of Collectors in the History of the Movement. Ed. Ségolène Le Men and Félicie Faizand de Maupeou. Milan, 2022, p. 150 n. 18.
This is one of three paintings (W466–68) Monet made of the Parc Monceau in Paris in 1878. The Met's work (W466) is particularly close in composition to W467 (location unknown; seized by the Nazis and sold at auction). Monet also painted the park three times in 1876 (W398–400), and one of these earlier works is also in The Met's collection (59.206; W398).
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