Artists Garden at Vetheuil

In 1978 Oscar-Claude Monet together with his wife and two children temporarily moved to the house of Ernest Hoschede, a wealthy businessman and patron of the arts. Both Monet and Hoschede families shared a house in Vetheuil during the summer. On September 1879, Oscar-Claude Monet's dear wife, Camille Monet passed away and left the painter with his two children, Jean and Michel Monet. He vowed not to live in poverty and set out to produce some of his best art. Starting around this time Oscar-Claude Monet set out on a series of landscapes and seascapes resulting in an extensive campaign to document the French countryside through his art. One such painting in this series is the oil painting entitled The Artist's Garden at Vetheuil (1881). This oil painting is different from other paintings where the illusion of depth and movement is created through the interchange of various elements. This landscape painting is categorized as a flat landscape, probably one of the flattest landscapes painted. If we look at the painting starting from the top, the skyline is plain blue and there are no clouds that would depict movement or the influence of natural elements. The hillside staircase is blurry; if not for the children they would not be perceived. The children's movement is still, unlike an earlier painting Woman with a Parasol. The effect of the wind is noticeable on the clothes of the model which lends to the effect of movement. Another point in the flatness of the painting is the similar size of the sunflowers from the top of the hillside and continuing to the bottom. There is no enlargement of size as it travels downwards which would have provided depth.