Women in the Garden

A huge canvas painted in the open air

In 1866, Claude Monet began a very large painting in the garden of a house he was renting at Ville-d’Avray, just west of Paris. The canvas is about two and a half metres tall. His aim was ambitious: to paint life-size figures entirely outdoors, in real sunlight.

That was not how large figure paintings were normally made. Academic painters worked in the studio from sketches. Monet later said he dug a trench in the garden so the canvas could be lowered to let him reach the top. Whether or not every detail of that story is exact, the painting clearly tried to capture outdoor light at full scale.

Four women, perhaps one model

Four women in summer dresses gather near a small tree. One stands at the left in a striped gown; another, beside her, buries her face in a bouquet. Camille Doncieux, Monet’s companion and later his wife, is generally thought to have posed for several of them.

The faces are not detailed portraits. Monet was more interested in the dresses, the flowers and the way light fell on them. The women are part of the garden as much as visitors to it.

Sunlight and shade on white cloth

The seated woman in the centre wears a huge white dress decorated with black braid. A parasol shades her face, so it falls into soft greenish shadow, while sunlight strikes her skirt. On the white fabric, the shadows are bluish and the lit areas are warm.

This was the problem Monet set himself: how white looks in sun and in shade, outdoors, at life size. The answer he found, coloured shadows and bright patches of light, points directly to Impressionism.

A woman reaches for a branch

At the right, a red-haired woman in a white dress with dark dots turns away from us and reaches up to pull a flower or branch from a bush. Her skirt swings out behind her as she moves.

She is the only figure in motion, and she breaks the stillness of the group at the left. Her back is turned, so we see no face at all, just the movement of the body and the dress.

The path carries the light

Across the gravel path, dappled shadows from the leaves fall in patches of grey and violet. Monet signed the painting in the lower right corner, on the path itself.

The path is almost empty, but it is one of the most modern parts of the picture. It is a surface on which light and shade are recorded directly, with no figure needed to justify them.

Rejected, then bought by a friend

Monet sent the painting to the Salon of 1867, and the jury refused it. The Musée d’Orsay notes that the jury objected to its visible brushstrokes and lack of a clear subject.

His friend Frédéric Bazille, also a painter, bought it to help Monet, who was short of money, and paid in instalments. Decades later Monet had it back, and in 1921 the French state acquired it from him. It is now in the Musée d’Orsay.

Camille and Monet in 1866

In 1866 Monet was in his mid-twenties, ambitious and short of money. That spring, a full-length portrait of Camille Doncieux in a green dress had been accepted at the Paris Salon and praised by critics. He hoped Women in the Garden would bring an even bigger success.

The young couple were struggling. Monet was pursued by creditors, and at one point he is said to have slashed some of his own canvases rather than let them be seized. Their son Jean was born in 1867, the year the painting was rejected.

Bought by a friend

After the rejection, Monet’s friend and fellow painter Frédéric Bazille bought Women in the Garden, paying in monthly instalments. It was a generous way to support Monet at a difficult moment. Bazille was killed in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, and the painting later found its way back to Monet.

Much later, when Monet was famous, the French state acquired the picture in 1921. It entered the national collections during his lifetime, a sign of how far opinion had changed since the Salon turned it down.

Where to see it

Women in the Garden hangs in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. Our hand-painted oil reproduction follows this composition. For more paintings of women in art, explore our collection of famous paintings of women.

Questions about Women in the Garden

Where was it painted?

In the garden of a house Monet rented at Ville-d’Avray, near Paris, in 1866 and 1867.

Who are the women?

Camille Doncieux, Monet’s future wife, is thought to have posed for several of the figures.

Where is the original?

Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

How large is it?

About 255 × 205 centimetres, oil on canvas.

Who bought the painting after its rejection?

Monet’s friend Frédéric Bazille, who paid for it in instalments.

When did it enter the French national collections?

In 1921, while Monet was still alive.

Sources and image credit

• Musée d’Orsay: Femmes au jardin
• Wikimedia Commons: Women in the Garden

Public-domain reproduction of Women in the Garden (1866 to 1867), via Wikimedia Commons. Detail images are crops of the same historical painting; no reconstruction or upscaling.