Walk (Road of the Farm Saint-Siméon)|Claude Monet |Search Collection

Updated 09 April 2025

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On Display

Permanent collection

Claude Monet

Paris, 1840 - Giverny, 1926

Walk (Road of the Farm Saint-Siméon)

Date	1864
Materials and Techniques	oil on canvas
Size（cm）	81.6 x 46.4
Inscriptions	Signed lower left: Monet
Credit Line	Matsukata Collection
Standard ref.	Wildenstein 29; M772
Category	Paintings
Collection Number	P.1959-0147

Monet created this work during his stay from the summer to the fall of 1864 in Honfleur in Normandy with Boudin, Jongkind and Bazille. This work is one of the few extant examples of his early work and was created along the farm road that connects Honfleur with Trouville. Farm buildings appear in the distance on the left of the composition. With its subdued tone and dark brown, green and blue coloration, the composition of the 17th-century Dutch landscapes and the works of the Barbizon school artists. The black silhouettes of the trees and the sparkle of light in the viscous brush work on the road indicate a material sensibility like that of Courbet and Diaz. This work was painted in the work of Monet's painter friend Frédéric Bazille, Studio in Furstenberg Street (1866, Musée d'Orsay, Paris), and Monet may have finished the work in Bazille's studio. Monet painted this same motif many times, and two other versions, one that completely reproduces this composition and another work of the same subject in a horizontal composition, are known. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no.70)

Provenance

[?] Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris [label on the reverse]; purchased by Kojiro Matsukata, Kobe, ca. June 1922 (Fr. 12,000) [see letter from Léonce Bénédite to Suzuki & Co., dated 15 June 1922, in the Bibliothèque centrale des musées nationaux, Paris (copy in NMWA curatorial file)]; sequestered by French government, 1944; vested in French government under San Francisco Peace Treaty, 1952; transferred from French to Japanese government, 23 January 1959; entered into NMWA, April 1959.

Exhibition History

1924: Exposition Claude Monet, organisée au bénéfice des Victimes de la Catastrophe du Japon, Galeries Georges Petit, Paris, 4 January 1924 - 18 January 1924, cat. no. 29
1925: Die führenden Meister der französischen Kunst im 19. Jahrhundert, Sezession, Wien, 0 1925 - 0 1925, cat. no. 35
1949: Landscape in French art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 0 1949 - 0 1950, cat. no. 243
1952: Monet, Kunsthaus, Zürich, 0 1952 - 0 1952, cat. no. 5
1952: Monet, Dienst voor Schone Kunsten, Den Haag, 0 1952 - 0 1952, cat. no. 76
1956: French painting in the 19th century, Moscow, 0 1956 - 0 1956
1978: Frederic Bazille and early impressionism, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 0 1978 - 0 1978, cat. no. 70, repr.
1982: Monet, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 9 October 1982 - 28 November 1982, cat. no. 1
1991: The Rise of Landscape Painting in France: Corot to Monet, The Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, 29 January 1991 - 28 April 1991, IBM Gallery of Science and Art, New York, 30 July-28 September 1991; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, 10 November 1991-5January 1992, cat. no. 93, col. repr.
1994: Monet: A Retrospective, Hiroshima Museum of Art, 18 June 1994 - 31 July 1994, cat. no. 2
1997: Expressiveness of Materials, National Museum of Art, Osaka, 17 April 1997 - 22 June 1997, cat. no, 25
2004: Japan and Paris: Impressionism, Post Impressionism, and the Modern Era, Honolulu Academy of Arts, 8 April 2004 - 6 June 2004, cat. no. 9
2009: La Sombra, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 10 February 2009 - 17 May 2009, cat. no. 55, col. repr.
2013: Monet, An Eye for Landscapes: Innovation in 19th Century French Landscape Paintings, Pola Museum of Art, 13 July 2013 - 24 November 2013, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 7 December 2013–9 March 2014, cat. no. 1, col. repr.
2015: L'estuaire de la Seine: L'invention d'un paysage, Hiroshima Museum of Art, Hiroshima, 28 February 2015 - 12 April 2015, cat. no. 32, col. repr.
2016: Frédéric Bazille (1841-1870) and the Birth of Impressionism, Musée Fabre, Montpellier, 25 June 2016 - 16 October 2016, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, 15 November-5 March 2017, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., 9 April-9 July, cat. no. 112, col. repr.
2019: The Matsukata Collection: A One-Hundred-Year Odyssey: Upon the 60th Anniversary of the NMWA, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 11 June 2019 - 23 September 2019, cat. no. 95, col. repr.
2022: Renoir—Monet—Gauguin: Images of a Floating World: the Collections of Kōjirō Matsukata and Karl Ernst Osthaus, Museum Folkwang, 6 February 2022 - 15 May 2022

Bibliography

1955: La Collection Matsukata, Tokyo, Asahi- Shimbun, 1955 (Japanese), no, 54, repr.
1961: Catalogue du Musée National d'Art Occidental, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1961 (Préface and Catalogue Général in Japanese and French), P-205.
1968: Annual bulletin of the National Museum of Western Art. No. 2 (1967), 1968, Nakayama, Kimio, preface; Kuroe, Mitsuhiko, catalogue. Claude Monet dans les collections japonais., p. 4, no. 1, repr.
1971: Les cent chefs-d'œuvre du Musée National d'Art Occidental. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1971 (Japanese), no. 47, repr.
1974: Wildenstein, D. Claude Monet, biographie et catalogue raisonné. tome 1, Lausanne/ Paris, 1974, p. 132, no. 29, repr.; tome 5, 1991, pp. 21, 215 (lettre no. 3061).
1975: Les cent chefs-d'œuvre du Musée National d'Art Occidental. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1975 (Japanese), no. 30, repr.
1978: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1978 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 38, repr.
1979: The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo: Catalogue of Paintings. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1979, no. 187, repr.
1990: The Old Matsukata Collection. Kobe City Museum, ed. Kobe, "Matsukata Korekushon Ten" Jikkoiinkai, 1990, cat. no. 1063.
1991: The Rise of Landscape Painting in France: Corot to Monet (exh. cat.). Champa, Kermit Swiler; Wissman, Fronia E.; Johnson, Deborah J. Manchester, N.H., Currier Gallery of Art, 1991, pp. 196, 229, cat. no. 93, col. repr.
1994: Monet: A Retrospective (exh. cat.). Bridgestone Museum of art, Ishibashi Foundation; Nagoya City Art Museum, eds. Nagoya, The Chunichi Shimbun, 1994, pp. 90-91, cat. no. 2, col. repr.
1996: Wildenstein, Daniel. Monet: Catalogue raisonné. vol. 2, Cologne, Taschen, 1996, p. 20, cat. no. 29, repr. color.
2004: Japan & Paris: Impressionism, Post Impressionism, and the Modern Era (exh.cat.). Guth, Christine; Volk, Alicia; Yamanashi, Emiko; Entwistle, Redmond, Honolulu, Honolulu Academy of Arts, 2004, pp. 78-79, cat. no. 9, col. repr.
2006: Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2006 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 70, col. repr.
2009: Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2009, no. 70, col. repr.
2009: La sombra. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza; Fundación Caja Madrid, eds. Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2009, cat. no. 55, col. repr.
2013: MONET, An Eye For Landscapes: Innovation in 19th Century French Landscape Paintings(exh. cat.). Tokyo, TBS, c2013, cat. no. 1, col. repr.
2014: L’estuaire de la Seine: L’invention d’un paysage(exh. cat.). [Tokyo], Comité d’organisation de l’exposition 2014, c2014, cat. no. 32, col. repr.
2016: Frédéric Bazille (1841-1870) and the Birth of Impressionism (exh. cat.). Hilaire, Michel; Perrin, Paul, eds. Paris, Flammarion, 2016, pp. 52, 56, 276, cat. no. 112, col. repr.
2018: The Matsukata Collection: Complete Catalogue of the European Art. Kawaguchi, Masako; Jingaoka, Megumi, eds. vol. 1: Paintings, Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2018, cat. no. 772, col. repr.
2019: The Matsukata Collection: A One-Hundred-Year Odyssey (exh. cat.). Jingaoka, Megumi, ed. Tokyo, The National Museum of the Western Art, Tokyo; Yomiuri Shimbun; NHK; NHK Promotions, 2019, pp. 180, 183, 365, cat. no. 95, col. repr.
2022: Renoir—Monet—Gauguin: Images of a Floating World: the Collections of Kōjirō Matsukata and Karl Ernst Osthaus (exh.cat.). Engel, Nadine; Herlemann, Rebecca, eds. Berlin, Hatje Cantz, [2022], pp. 275, 366, col. repr.

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