Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son
1875
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 100 x 81 cm (39 3/8 x 31 7/8 in.) framed: 119.4 x 99.7 cm (47 x 39 1/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CF
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon
Accession Number
1983.1.29
Art Historical Context
Claude Monet’s *Woman with a Parasol—Madame Monet and Her Son* (1875) captures a fleeting moment of family life with the spontaneous spirit that defined Impressionism. Painted outdoors in the countryside near Argenteuil, the work shows Monet’s wife, Camille, and their young son, Jean, standing on a windswept hill. Rather than a formal portrait, the scene emphasizes the play of light and movement across the figures and the vast sky behind them. Working in oil on canvas, Monet used quick, visible brushstrokes to suggest rather than define forms, allowing the bright white parasol and flowing dre...
About the Artist
Claude Monet · 1840–1926
Claude Monet, born Oscar-Claude Monet on November 14, 1840, in Paris and raised in Le Havre, Normandy, began his artistic journey as a successful teenage caricaturist. His formal training started at the Le Havre secondary school of the arts in 1851, where he received his first drawing lessons from Jacques-François Ochard. Around 1858, he met Eugène Boudin, who became his pivotal mentor, introducin...