AFA Winter 2019

Antiques & Fine Art 103 2019 1. Letter from Claude Monet to Paul Durand-Ruel, January 23, 1884, in Wildenstein, Daniel. Claude Monet: Biogra- phie et catalogue raisonné , vol. 2: 1882–1886, Peintures . Lausanne and Paris, 1979, 233, no. 391. 2. Monet to Durand-Ruel, October 28, 1886, in Claude Monet , 285, no. 727. 3. Monet to Durand-Ruel, October 28, 1886, in Claude Monet , 284, no. 726. 4. Monet to [unknown], March 25, 1884, in Claude Monet , 246, no. 460. 5. Monet to Alice Hoschedé, October 30 [1886], in Claude Monet , 285, no. 730. 6. Monet to Alice Hoschedé, March 10, 1884, translation by Bridget Strevens Romer, in Richard Kendall, ed., Monet by Himself: Paintings, Drawings, Pastels, Letters (New York, NY: Chartwell Books, 2014), 111. 7. Alice Hoschedé to Germaine Salerou, October 27, 1904, in Jacqueline and Maurice Guillaud, Claude Monet at the Time of Giverny (Paris: Centre Culturel du Marais, 1983), 269. 8. Hoschedé to Germaine Salerou, January 1, 1909, in ibid., 278. Fig. 10: Claude Monet (1840–1926), The Japanese Bridge, 1918–1924. Oil on canvas, 35 x 39⅜ inches. Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris/Bridgeman Images. Fig. 9: Claude Monet (1840–1926), Waterlilies and Japanese Bridge, 1899. Oil on canvas, 35⅝ x 355⁄16 inches. Princeton University Art Museum: From the Collection of William Church Osborn, Class of 1883, trustee of Princeton University (1914-1951), president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1941-1947); given by his family (y1972-15). Photo courtesy Princeton University Art Museum/Art Resource, NY. “Poor Monet is so sorry not to be able to paint outside, but it would not be wise; indeed from the windows here the effect is not as he wishes it to be.”  8 This sense of nature’s inability at times to measure up to his expectations, so often encountered in his letters, is evidence of a punctilious mind, that of a person who made me t hod ic a l, h i gh ly i ntent iona l, a nd purposeful artistic choices. This is apparent not only in the context of his series practice, but also in the planned and systematic approach to compositions Monet displayed throughout his life. Monet did not stumble across inspiring places; he sought them, he chose them, and he painted them, at times over and over again. He spent his entire life chasing the truth of nature.  The exhibition Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature , is on view at the Denver Art Museum through February 2, 2020. The DAM is the only U.S. venue for this presentation. The exhibition then travels to the Museum Barberini in Potsdam, Germany, opening on February 22, 2020. For information, visit denverartmuseum.org or call 720.913.0130. Angelica Daneo is chief curator and curator of European art before 1900 at the Denver Art Museum. Unless otherwise noted, translations are by the author.