Claude Monet | The Rose Bushes in the Garden at Montgeron, 1876

Claude Monet was commissioned to create this garden scene on the grounds of the textile merchant Ernest Hoschedé’s home in the Parisian suburb of Montgeron.

The artist disrupted the classically composed picture space by placing the blossoming bushes unusually close in the foreground.

This arrangement could be due to the purpose of the composition as a wall decoration that was to simulate a view into the landscape.

Claude Monet: The Rose Bushes in the Garden at Montgeron, 1876 | Museum Barberini

One of Monet’s first patrons was the textile magnate Ernest Hoschedé, who assembled one of the most important collections of Impressionism in the 1870s.

In the summer of 1876, he and his wife, Alice, commissioned Monet to paint four views of the grounds surrounding their residence, the Château de Rottembourg in Montgeron.

The series was conceived as an ensemble to decorate the living spaces of the château and was comprised of the paintings The Turkeys (Musée d’Orsay, Paris), Corner of the Garden at Montgeron (State Hermitage, St. Petersburg), Pond at Montgeron (State Hermitage, St. Petersburg), and The Hunt (private collection).

The work shown here is the only documented study for Corner of the Garden at Montgeron.

The final painting, measuring 172 by 193 centimeters, was unusually large for Monet at the time and was more than twice the size of the preliminary study.

The composition of the later painting is already closely prefigured in the earlier study, as is the subtle interplay of light and shadow and the fine texture of the luxuriant rosebushes in the foreground, screening the view of the pond behind them.

Ernest Hoschedé acquired the study in December 1876, but when he was forced to declare bankruptcy the following year, the piece was auctioned off along with the rest of his Impressionist collection in 1878.

Already in 1877, he had been unable to purchase the finished version of the large decorative painting due to lack of funds.

After the death of Monet’s first wife, Camille, the artist formed a liaison with Ernest Hoschedé’s wife, Alice, whom he married after her husband’s death in 1892. | Source: © Museum Barberini