The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 18, 2024

Spring Flowers

Spring Flowers

1864
(French, 1840–1926)
France, 19th century
oil on fabric
Framed: 144.5 x 117.2 x 12.1 cm (56 7/8 x 46 1/8 x 4 3/4 in.); Unframed: 116.8 x 90.5 cm (46 x 35 5/8 in.)
Gift of the Hanna Fund 1953.155
Location: 222 Impressionism & Post-Impressionism

Did You Know?

Monet is quoted as saying, "I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers." He painted this work in 1864, the first productive year of his career.

Description

This early work reveal's Monet's fascination with capturing the transitory effects that became the primary focus of his later innovations. Painted with almost scientific accuracy, this still life has a freshness and immediacy derived partly from its composition. Isolated against a dark background, the fully mature peonies, potted hydrangeas, and basketed lilacs spill downward and outward from the geraniums at the rear. At the same time, Monet's energetic brushwork conveys the sparkling play of light on leaves and petals.
  • The artist's elder brother, Léon Pascal Monet [1836-1917], Rouen, France
    ?-1953
    (Wildenstein & Col., New York, NY, April 17, 1953, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1953-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Dumas, Ann, William H. Robinson, Clare A. P. Willsdon, Monty Don, James Priest, Heather Lemonedes, and Lucy I. Zimmerman. Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse. 2015. catalogue no. 3 90
    Bazille, Frédéric, Michel Hilaire, and Paul Perrin. Frédéric Bazille (1841-1870) and the Birth of Impressionism. 2016. catalogue no. 52 95
    Venturi, Lionello, and Paul Durand-Ruel. Les archives de l'impressionnisme. Lettres de Renoir, Monet, Pissaro, Sisley et autres. Mémoires de Paul Durand-Ruel. Documents. Paris, France: Durand-Ruel, 1939. Mentioned: v. 1, p. 20
    Francis, Henry S. "Spring Flowers." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art XLI, no. 2 (February, 1954): 23-24. Reproduced: on cover
    "Accessions of American and Canadian Museums." The Art Quarterly XVII, no. 1 (Spring 1954): 63-75 Reproduced: p. 68
    Detroit Institute of Arts. The Two Sides of the Medal; French Painting from Gérôme to Gauguin. 1954. Mentioned: cat. no. 43, p 32, Reproduced: p. 36
    The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art XLII, no. 6 (June,1955). Reproduced: on cover
    City Art Museum of St. Louis. Claude Monet, a Loan Exhibition. 1957. Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 1, 23, 27
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. In Memoriam Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Reproduced: no. 66
    William Mathewson Milliken. The Cleveland Museum of Art. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1958. Reproduced: no. 52
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 502 archive.org
    ARTnews LVII, no. 1 (March 1958): 1. Reproduced: p. 1
    Rewald, John. The History of Impressionism. New York, NY: Museum of Modern Art, 1961. Reproduced: p. 112
    Tate Gallery, and John Hay Whitney. The John Hay Whitney Collection. Exh. Cat. London, UK: Tate Gallery, 1961. p. 9, 14
    Clifford, Henry, and Carl Zigrosser. "A World of Flowers: Paintings and Prints." Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin 58, no. 277 (1963): 93-243. doi:10.2307/3795158. www.jstor.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 174 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 174 archive.org
    Wildenstein, Daniel, and Aurora Colloridi. Claude Monet. Milan, Italy: Fratelli Fabbri, 1971. Reproduced: p. 75
    Wildenstein, Daniel, Claude Monet: biographie et catalogue raisonné. Lausanne. Switzerland: La Bibliothèque des arts, 1974. Reproduced: vol.1, no. 20
    Monet, Claude, and Susan Wise. Paintings by Monet: [Exhibition] March 15 Through May 11, 1975, the Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1975. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 3, p. 56-57
    Monneret, Sophie. L'impressionnisme et son époque: dictionnaire international illustré. Paris, France: Denoël, 1978. Mentioned: v. 2, p. 57; v. 2 p. 77
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 216 archive.org
    Philadelphia Museum of Art, Detroit Institute of Arts, and Galeries nationales du Grand Palais (France). The Second Empire, 1852-1870: Art in France Under Napoleon III. Philadelphia: The Museum, 1978.
    Stuckey, Charles F. Monet: A Retrospective. New York, NY, 1985. Reproduced: p. 272
    Renoir, Auguste. Renoir: Hayward Gallery, London, 30 January-21 April 1985, Galeries Nationales Du Grand Palais, Paris, 14 May-2 September 1985, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 9 October 1985-5 January 1986. [London]: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1985. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 183
    Henning, Edward B. Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Published by the Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1987. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 95, no. 1
    Kendall, Richard. Monet by Himself: Paintings, Drawings, Pastels, Letters. London, United Kingdom: Macdonald Orbis, 1989. Reproduced: p. 35
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Reproduced: p. 158
    Bajou-Charpentreau, Valérie, and Frédéric Bazille. Frédéric Bazille, 1841-1870. La Calade, Aix-en-Provence, France: Edisud, 1993. Reproduced: p. 121
    Denvir, Bernard. The Chronicle of Impressionism: An Intimate Diary of the Lives and World of the Great Artists. London, UK: Thames and Hudson, 1993. Reproduced: p. 32-33
    Grandjean, Gilles. Rouen, les Cathédrales de Monet: Exh. Cat. Rouen, France: Musée des Beaux Arts, 1994. Reproduced: p. 30
    Tucker, Paul Hayes. Mone ten = Monet, a retrospective. Exh. Cat. Nagoya-sh, Japan: Chūnichi Shinbunsha, 1994. Reproduced: p. 82
    Tinterow, Gary, and Henri Loyrette. Origins of Impressionism. 1994. Mentioned: cat. no. 115, p. 177, Reproduced: 179
    Stuckey, Charles F., Claude Monet, Sophia Shaw, and James N. Wood. Claude Monet: 1840-1926. Exh. Cat. New York, NY: Thames and Hudson, 1995.
    Wildenstein, Daniel, Monet: Catalogue Raisonne, 4 volumes. Köln, Germany: Taschen, 1996.
    Wildenstein, Daniel. Monet. Köln, Germany: Taschen, 1996. Reproduced: Vol. 2, p. 16
    Pitman, Dianne W. Bazille: Purity, Pose, and Painting in the 1860s. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University, 1998. Reproduced: p. 80, Figure: 48
    D' Argencourt, Louise and Roger Diederen. The Cleveland Museum of Art: Catalogue of Paintings, Part II. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art,1999. Reproduced: p. 447
    Rathbone, Eliza E., and George T. M. Shackelford. Impressionist Still Life. New York, NY: H.N. Abrams, 2001. Reproduced: p. 63, Plate 9
    Becker, Christoph. Monet's garden. Ostfildern-Ruit, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2004. Reproduced: p. 15, Figure 1
    Willsdon, Clare A. P. In the Gardens of Impressionism. New York, NY: Vendome Press, 2004. Reproduced: p. 40, Figure 39
    Willsdon, Clare A. P. Impressionist Gardens. Exh. Cat. Edinburgh, Scotland: National Galleries of Scotland, 2010. Reproduced: p. 24, Figure 16
    Willsdon, Clare A. P. Jardines impresionistas. Exh. Cat. Madrid, Spain: Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2010. Reproduced: p. 55, Figure 19
    Dumas, Ann, William H. Robinson, Clare A. P. Willsdon, Monty Don, James Priest, and Heather Lemonedes. Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse. 2015. Mentioned: cat. no. 3, p. 90
    Willsdon, Clare A. P. In the Gardens of Impressionism. London: Thames and Hudson, 2016. Reproduced: P. 40, fig. 39; Mentioned: P. 42
    Shackelford, George T. M., et. al. Monet: The Early Years. Fort Worth, TX: Kimball Art Museum, 2016. Reproduced: p. 72, fig. 75
    Hilaire, Michel and Paul Perrin, eds. Frédéric Bazille (1841-1870) and the birth of impressionism. Paris: Flammarion, 2016. Reproduced: P. 95, fig. 52, cat. 110
    Amiot-Saulnier, Emmanuelle. "Le Jardin de Monet a Matisse." L'Estampille, l'objet d'art 521, (Mar. 2016): 28-35. Reproduced: p. 32
    Patry, Sylvie, and Anne Robbins. Le Décor Impressionniste: Aux Sources des Nymphéas. Vanves: Hazan; Paris: Musée de l'Orangerie, 2022. Reproduced: P. 52, no. 20
    Lefebvre, Géraldine, ed. "Collection Léon Monet. Œuvres." In Léon Monet: Frère de l'Artiste et Collectionneur, 112-151. Paris: RMN - Grand Palais, 2023. Reproduced: P. 121
  • At the Source of Monet's Water Lilies: The Impressionists Décor. Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, France (March 1-July 11, 2022).
    Frédéric Bazille and the Birth of Impressionism. Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France (June 25-October 16, 2016); Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France (organizer) (November 14, 2016-February 26, 2017); National Gallery of Art, Landover, MD (April 9-July 9, 2017).
    Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 6, 2015-January 5, 2016); Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (January 30-April 20, 2016).
    Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Beijing World Art Museum, China (May 26-August 27, 2006); Mori Art Center (September 16-November 26, 2006); Seoul Art Center, South Korea (December 22, 2006-March 28, 2007); Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, South Korea (April 7-May 20, 2007); Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (June 9-September 16, 2007); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (February 15-June 1, 2008); Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT (June 22-September 21, 2008); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (October 12, 2008-January 18, 2009).
    Monet's Garden. Kunsthaus Zürich, CH-8024 Zürich, Switzerland (organizer) (October 29, 2004-March 13, 2005).
    Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Still Life Painting. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC (organizer) (September 22, 2001-January 13, 2002); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA (February 17-June 9, 2002).
    Les Origines de l'Impressionnisme. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 75008 Paris, France (April 19-August 8, 1994); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (September 19, 1994-January 8, 1995).
    Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 16-November 8, 1987).
    L'Art en France Sours Le Second Empire (Art in France Under the Second Empire). Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (organizer) (October 1-November 26, 1978); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (January 28-March 18, 1979); Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 75008 Paris, France (May 11-August 13, 1979).
    Paintings by Monet. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (March 15-May 11, 1975).
    La vingtième exposition municipale des beaux-arts. Probably Musée de Rouen, Rouen, France (1864).
    A World of Flowers. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (organizer) (May 2-June 9, 1963).
    A World of Flowers. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (organizer) (May 1-June 9, 1963).
    In Memoriam: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr.. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 4-April 7, 1958).
    Claude Monet: a loan exhibition. Saint Louis Art Museum (organizer) (September 25-October 22, 1957); Minneapolis Institute of Art (November 1-December 1, 1957).
    Horticulture Motifs in Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 9-April 24, 1955).
    Two Sides of the Medal: French Painting from Gérôme to Gauguin. The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (organizer) (September 28-November 6, 1954).
  • {{cite web|title=Spring Flowers|url=false|author=Claude Monet|year=1864|access-date=18 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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