Tempera and gouache on paper. Featuring two figures running in the fields. Signed and attr. Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926) on the lower left corner. Gallery stamp on verso. 7.5 x 9.4 in. (19 x 24 cm). Claude Monet was a French painter known for his pioneering role in the development of Impressionism. A widely beloved artist of the 20th century, his inimitable style is best remembered through his vivid depictions of his flowering garden in Giverny, France, which today serves as a museum dedicated to his life and work. Monet, along with his peers Edgar Degasand Pierre-Auguste Renoir, were concerned with conveying atmosphere and mood with broken brushstrokes and a close attention to the colors of light and shadow. Some of his best known works include Water Lillies (1919), Impression, Sunrise(1872), and Rouen Cathedral at Sunset (1893). “When you go out to paint try to forget what object you have before you—a tree, a house, a field or whatever,†the artist once descried. “Merely think, here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you.†Born Oscar-Claude Monet on November 14, 1840 in Paris, France, he learned to plein-air paint as a teenager in the coastal town of Le Havre from an older artist named Eugene Boudin. Returning to Paris in 1859, he was a pupil in the studio of Charles Gleyre, where he met Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Frederic Bazille. Their first group show in 1874, caused a public outcry with the art critic Louis Leroy deriding them in print with the term “impressionists.†Over the following decades, public and critical opinion changed towards the Impressionist style, making many of the original members both wealthy and popular. Monet died on December 5, 1926 in Giverny, France at the age of 86. Today, there are around 2,500 surviving works by the artist, some of which are included in the collections of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, the National Gallery in London, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, among many others. PROVENANCE: Private collection (Chicago, United States).

All authorship of items in this catalog are described according to the following terms:

By [Artist Name] : In our opinion, the work is by the artist.

Attributed to [Artist Name] : In our opinion, the work may be ascribed to the artist on the basis of style, but there may be some question as to actual authorship.

In the manner of [Artist Name] : In our opinion, the work was executed by an unknown hand, but was designed deliberately to emulate the style of the artist.

After [Artist Name] : In our opinion, the work was executed by an unknown hand, but is a deliberate copy of a known work by the artist.

Circle of [Artist Name] : In our opinion, a work of the period of the artist showing his influence, closely associated with the artist but not necessarily his pupil.

Follower of [Artist Name]: In our opinion, a work by a pupil or a follower of the artist (not necessarily a pupil).

American, 19th century : In our opinion, this work was executed by an unknown hand, and can only be identified by origin (i.e., region, period).

Bears signature : In our opinion, the signature on the artwork may be spurious.
Apocryphal : Of doubtful authenticity.