The Impressionist's Garden
6 artworks from 6 artists across 5 galleries
The tour is ordered to begin from the Michigan Avenue entrance. If you are starting in the Modern Wing, simply do your tour in reverse order.
Impressionist painters were endlessly inspired by the outdoors and sun-filled gardens. Explore the wild and domestic landscapes these painters loved, and discover other artists that were inspired by their vistas.
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Woman in a Garden
Berthe Morisot
Gallery 201, second level, Arts of Europe: Painting and Sculpture Galleries
Morisot painted figures like she was making an Impressionist landscape, using the same strokes to paint the people at the center of this piece as she used when slashing acid green and blued oranges across her canvas to capture the dappled sunlight in this garden."This work was probably started in 1882, when Morisot and her family rented a house along the Seine river in northern France. The child wearing a straw hat in the background is likely based on her young daughter, Julie."
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The Artist's House at Argenteuil
Claude Monet
Gallery 201, second level, Arts of Europe: Painting and Sculpture Galleries
Claude Monet and his family lived in Argenteuil, outside Paris, from 1871 to 1878. In this painting, he depicted his five- or six-year-old son, Jean, playing with a hoop, and his wife, Camille, standing in the doorway of their vine-covered house. The pleasant weather and neatly kept garden, a forerunner of the artist’s celebrated garden at Giverny, give a sense of tranquility and well-being."Claude Monet was a pioneer of Impressionism. Throughout his long career, he portrayed the people closest to him and the places he knew best. His family and friends were his preferred models."
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Foliage—Oak Tree and Fruit Seller
Édouard Jean Vuillard
Gallery 244, second level, Impressionism Galleries
This large, tapestry-like canvas depicts the lush view from the second-story window of the artist’s vacation home near Versailles, France. Using a limited palette of greens and yellows with pops of lavender, Vuillard achieved a remarkable range of textures and tonalities, from the sunlit tree bark to the velvety foliage deep in the shadows."Working in a modern, post-Impressionist style, Vuillard painted mostly interiors, streets, and gardens in his work. Inspired by his mother, a dressmaker, he loved to depict intricate patterns."
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A City Park
William Merritt Chase
Gallery 171, first level, Arts of the Americas Galleries
William Merritt Chase was one of the most influential painters at the turn of the 20th century. In this painting, which probably depicts Brooklyn’s Tompkins Park, half the canvas is filled by the wide, empty walkway. Its strong diagonal borders carry the eye into the scene. This informal piece, capturing the sparkle of a summer day, affirms the fresh perspective Chase brought to painting scenes like this one."This painting is one in a series of plein-air paintings inspired by New York's parks that Chase began in the mid-1880s. The simple foreground and detailed background drew on the brilliant colors and unorthodox compositions of his French contemporaries."
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White Heron in a Pool in a Garden
Frank Weston Benson
Gallery 177, first level, Arts of the Americas Galleries
As an American Impressionist, Frank Weston Benson explored the effects of color and light in paintings inspired by his life in Maine. He often drew inspiration from a pond behind his home, with its thick vegetation, water lilies, and shady nooks. The white heron in this piece was likely painted from memory, as Benson was a lifelong wildlife enthusiast and was fascinated with the herons he saw during fishing trips in the Florida Keys."Benson is best known for the works he painted in plein air, the French term for "in the open air," and he regularly featured his wife or children in sun-filled, breezy landscapes."
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The Fountain, Villa Torlonia, Frascati, Italy
John Singer Sargent
Gallery 273, second level, Arts of the Americas Galleries
The year 1907 was a turning point for Sargent; the sought-after portraitist stepped away from his successful portraiture career to pursue plein-air landscape painting. This work, depicting his traveling companions and fellow artists Wilfrid and Jane Emmet de Glehn, captures that moment of transition. Combining landscape and portraiture, the composition speaks to friendship and painterly pursuits while also celebrating color, light, and movement."Sargent was partly inspired by a friendship with Monet, who's known for his spontaneity. The Fountain looks spontaneous, but Sargent was frequently interrupted by the rain. It took him days to complete, meaning his friends had to pose for a long time."
