The Grand Canal (Le Grand Canal)

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The Grand Canal (Le Grand Canal): Claude Monet

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Art Type: Oil Painting
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Claude Monet Oil Painting - The Grand Canal (Le Grand Canal)

Keywords: Canal, Canal

Work Overview: Artist Claude Monet
Year 1908
Medium oil on canvas
Dimensions 92.4 cm × 73.7 cm (36.4 in × 29.0 in)
Location Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Le Grand Canal is an oil on canvas painting by French Impressionist painter Claude Monet (1840 - 1926). This painting is part of a series of paintings Monet undertook during 1908. This painting series en plein air, is a classic view of the Grand Canal, an attempt to capture the ever-changing face of Venice, as seen from the Palazzo Barbaro, where he stayed during his trip, was painted during a period that is generally regarded by art historians as the peak of his career.[1] One of the paintings from this series of Venetian waterscapes by Claude Monet was sold for more than $35 million at 2015 Sotheby's auction. Sotheby's called this painting "one of the most celebrated Venice paintings". Previously it has been in the private collection of the New Orleans sugar magnate, Hunt Henderson, who was a noted art collector.

This painting was undertaken on Monet's trip to Venice in the autumn of the year 1908, when the artist responded to an invitation from the American woman Mary Young Hunter, to visit her at the Palazzo Barbaro, in Venice. Monet was 68 years old this year. Hunter was a friend of Monet's wife, Alice, who invited the couple to come to visit her in Venice, where she rented this palazzo. Initially Monet was not keen but he did decide to travel. Monet and his wife arrived in Italy on October 1.[7]

While there Monet completed a series of artwork on the Canale Grande painting the same motif at different times of the day. Monet had the habit of studying the same subject in a varying light, at different times of the day, which resulted during his active career in many distinct Monet series, like for example the Water Lilies series, Poplar series, Rouen Cathedral series, Haystacks series and Charing Cross Bridge series.[8] Monet painted 37 works of Venice during his three-month stay in Italy, from October to December, including this painting and five more depicting the same theme, Canale Grande.[9] One is hosted at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

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Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926). The Grand Canal, Venice, 1908. Oil on canvas. Gift of Osgood Hooker. 1960.29
By the turn of the 20th century, Claude Monet was thoroughly absorbed with life at his home in Giverny. There he tended to his gardens and explored in his paintings the panoply of rich vegetation, water and the changing light and atmosphere surrounding him.

In the summer of 1908, however, an intriguing invitation arrived from Mary Young Hunter, an American friend of Monet’s second wife, Alice. Mary requested that the Monets come to visit her at the Palazzo Barbaro in Venice. Monet was reluctant to go but finally relented, and he and Alice arrived in Venice on October 1.

His first reactions confirmed his doubts about the trip. He found the city of Venice “too beautiful to be painted” and virtually “unrenderable.” Nonetheless, Monet soon set to work on a group of paintings that expanded his traditional interest in seriality–the practice of painting the same motif at different times of the day. With a heightened degree of systematic observation, Monet created a new approach to his series paintings: recording the same location, from the same perspective, at the same time each day. This structure allowed Monet to concentrate on the sensuous, almost iridescent visual effects produced by the shimmering haze of Venice.

The Grand Canal, Venice is one of six closely related works that show Santa Maria della Salute as it appeared looking out across the Grand Canal from the steps of the Palazzo Barbaro. Although similarly composed and sized, these paintings differ considerably in coloristic qualities–from high-keyed, prismatic division of hues (such as this example) to more unified, hazy harmonies. In all, Monet produced 37 views of Venice between October and December, when he returned to France. Bernheim-Jeune, the painter’s dealer, acquired 28 of these works, which he eventually displayed in the exhibition Claude Monet “Venise” in May and June of 1912.

The Grand Canal, Venice is currently on display in Gallery 19 at the Legion of Honor, so stop by at different times of day or every day at the same time!

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