Claude Monet’s “The Artist’s Garden at Vétheuil”—Two Masterworks Reunited, Part III: In Context

Kimberly A. Jones, curator of 19th-century French paintings, National Gallery of Art. Two of Claude Monet’s paintings of the garden at his home in Vétheuil, France, have been reunited for the first time since they were created more than 100 years ago, thanks to a long-term series of loan exchanges between the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena. On view in the French impressionism galleries of the West Building from May 19 through August 8, 2018, the Norton Simon version of The Artist’s Garden at Vétheuil (1881) has long been believed to have served as the basis for the Gallery’s canvas of the same title. The paintings are the only two of the four known works Monet painted of this scene currently in public collections, and their relationship may not be as straightforward as scholars previously thought. Curator Kimberly A. Jones discusses the importance of Monet’s time in Vétheuil and how these paintings reflect a new direction in the artist’s career