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Claude Monet, Poplars on the Epte

Key facts
Full title Poplars on the Epte
Artist Claude Monet
Artist dates 1840 - 1926
Date made 1891
Medium and support Oil on canvas
Dimensions 92.4 × 73.7 cm
Inscription summary Signed; Dated
Acquisition credit On loan from Tate: Presented by the Art Fund 1926
Inventory number L717
Location Not on display
Image copyright On loan from Tate: Presented by the Art Fund 1926, © 2000 Tate
Collection Main Collection
Poplars on the Epte
Claude Monet

Although dated 1890, this work was actually painted the following year. In the spring of 1891 Monet began work on a series of 23 paintings depicting the poplars which lined the left bank of the river Epte, near Limetz, south of Giverny. On 18 June the town decided to auction off the trees. Monet persuaded a wood merchant to buy them jointly with him, on the condition that they were left standing for a few more months to enable the artist to finish his series.

The works were painted from a flat-bottomed boat which Monet borrowed from fellow artist Gustave Caillebotte. From this low vantage-point the trees are viewed silhouetted against the sky and their formal qualities are stressed.

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