Claude Monet (1840–1926), France, Still Life with Bottle, Carafe, Bread, and Wine, circa 1863–63, oil on canvas, 15 5/8 x 23 9/16 in. (36.7 x 59.9 cm), National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 2014.18.32

Audio Description

Still Life with Bottle, Carafe, Bread, and Wine is a two-foot-wide oil painting on canvas, made around 1862-63 by the French artist Claude Monet, who lived from 1840 to 1926. It is part of the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, where its reference number is 2014.18.32.

We see a tightly cropped view of a tabletop, positioned diagonally to the picture plane. On the white tablecloth are arrayed three bottles and a goblet, all glass, filled to different levels with water, wine, and brandy. In front of the vessels is a plate of butter and a knife. Part of a loaf of baguette rests at the far end of the table, the edge of which is difficult to distinguish from the grey wall behind. The corner of a painting suggested on the wall above and a door to the left give the only context of the room.

Label Copy

Still Life with Bottle, Carafe, Bread, and Wine is a two-foot-wide oil painting on canvas, made around 1862-63 by the French artist Claude Monet, who lived from 1840 to 1926. It is part of the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, where its reference number is 2014.18.32.

This painting dates from the very outset of Claude Monet’s career. The artist depicts a straightforward group of objects—vessels of brandy, water and wine, with a dish of butter and loaf of bread—but the canvas is marked by ambiguities. Painted with similar colors and brushwork, the table seems to merge into the wall behind. Monet is focused on the effects of light transmitted through different colored glass and liquid, and yet the door and painting behind the arrangement engage our attention almost as much as the tabletop objects.

Monet’s water lily series, the paintings for which he is best known, were made in the last decades of his long life and can be regarded as the artist’s final statement on still life representation. By contrast, here is a tentative exploration of the subject by a young artist that shows the promise of exceptional ability in composition, technique and the depiction of light and atmosphere.

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