In the Boat
Claude Monet, 1887
For now, just to look at
The photograph we have of this work is not sharp enough to print at the quality we want, so we are not selling it for now. We are looking for a better one.
About the work
- Artist
- Claude Monet
- Date
- 1887
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 97,5 × 130,5 cm
- Collection
- Musée d'Orsay, Paris
- Reference
- XDV-0845
What the museum label doesn't tell you
Count the women in the boat: only two. The record behind this canvas mentions three friends heading out to fish on the Epte, yet Monet crops the scene right where the third should be, leaving just the echo of her hat in the violet reflection. Not carelessness, composition: he trades narrative completeness for a balance of pale shapes against turquoise water. The boat barely touches the surface, floating among loose strokes where sky and river blur into one. Would you rather see the whole story, or guess who's missing?
