Springtime by Claude Monet - 1872 - 50 × 65.6 cm Walters Art Museum Springtime by Claude Monet - 1872 - 50 × 65.6 cm Walters Art Museum

Springtime

oil on canvas • 50 × 65.6 cm
  • Claude Monet - 14 November 1840 - 5 December 1926 Claude Monet 1872

Claude Monet's Springtime depicts his first wife, Camille Doncieux, seated serenely beneath a canopy of lilacs. The painting is presently held by the Walters Art Museum.

Camille and Claude Monet were married in 1870, before this time she had been his mistress and served as a model for Monet's figurative paintings of the 1860s and 1870s. Camille, a beautiful woman, was also used by Auguste Renoir and Édouard Manet. The painting represents an enchanting scene of domestic life, so typical for early Monet's paintings.

Springtime was on display on a first Impressionist exhibition organized at Durand Ruel's Paris Gallery, from March 30 to April 30, 1876. Monet exhibited 18 works there, for which 6 of these works Camille had posed. During this exhibition, Springtime was given the more generic title of Woman Reading. But Springtime is much more pleasant, isn't it?