Woman Seated Under the Willows

Woman Seated under the Willows
Claude Monet, 1880
25"x25" Square Natural Frame
Paper + Acrylic 
1.5" Border

A woman sits among loosely painted, crescent-shape blades of emerald and lemon-lime green grass, under tall trees in this vertical scene. The brushstrokes are unconnected and visible, so many of the details difficult to make out. Facing our left almost in profile, the woman’s form is suggested with thick strokes of eggshell white, periwinkle blue, mint green, and deep pink. We get the impression of a light-colored dress that pools around her hips and legs, and a hat atop her dark hair. Her face is painted with an area of blush peach. The blades of grass near her are layered with shamrock and moss green against lighter areas of honeydew green. The tree trunks are painted with streaks of cobalt blue and lilac purple, and long, whip-like, spindly branches reach vertically into the sky. Dashes of lavender purple and straw yellow suggest leaves in the feathery canopies. A sand-colored band running across the composition in the distance could be a path or a river, lined on the far side by loosely painted, periwinkle-blue buildings under a pale, butter-yellow sky. The artist signed and dated the work in black paint in the lower left corner, “1880 Claude Monet.”