Claude Monet - Die Rosensträucher im Garten von Montgeron (1876)

 

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Claude Monet created this garden scene as a commissioned work on the estate of the textile merchant Ernest Hoschedé in the Paris suburb of Montgeron. The painter disrupted the classically arranged pictorial space by placing the blooming shrubs unusually close in the foreground. This arrangement might be attributed to the intended use of the composition as wall decoration, simulating a view into the landscape.

Among Monet's early supporters was the textile magnate Ernest Hoschedé, who in the 1870s assembled one of the most significant Impressionism collections. Along with his wife Alice, he commissioned four paintings from Monet in the summer of 1876, which were intended to depict views of the immediate surroundings of their residence, the Château de Rottembourg in Montgeron. The works were conceived as a cohesive ensemble for the decoration of the castle's living spaces and included the compositions "Turkeys" (Musée d'Orsay, Paris), "Garden Corner in Montgeron" (State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg), "Pond in Montgeron" (State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg), and "The Hunt" (private collection).

This painting is the only documented study for the work "Garden Corner in Montgeron," which, with its unusually large dimensions of 172 x 193 cm, is more than twice the size of the preliminary study. The composition of the later painting is already precisely captured in the study, as well as the sophisticated interplay of shadows and light and the delicate textures on the lush rosebushes in the foreground, which obscure the view of the pond behind them. Ernest Hoschedé acquired the study in December 1876. After his bankruptcy the following year, the painting, along with the rest of his Impressionism collection, was auctioned off in 1878. He couldn't acquire the completed composition of the large decorative painting in 1877 due to financial constraints. After the death of his first wife Camille, Monet entered into a relationship with Ernest Hoschedé's wife, Alice, whom he later married after Ernest's death in 1892.