Image: public domain, courtesy of Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

Woman with a Parasol – Madame Monet and Her Son

Claude Monet, 1875

Monet painted his wife Camille and their son Jean outdoors, probably in a single session of a few hours. Sunlight from behind makes her parasol glow white, while the flowers below tint her dress yellow.

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Did you know?

The canvas is about one metre tall, and Monet signed it at the lower right: Claude Monet 75.
The family then lived in Argenteuil, a town on the Seine near Paris, where Manet helped them find a house.
Look at Camille's veil and dress: the wind blows them sideways, and clouds race across the sky.
At the 1876 Impressionist exhibition in Paris it was shown under a simple title: Promenade, meaning A Walk.
Its first owner was Dr. Georges de Bellio, a friend of the Impressionists, who bought it from Monet in 1876.
Eleven years later, in 1886, Monet painted two more women with parasols, this time with Suzanne Hoschedé as his model.

About the artist

Claude Monet (1840–1926) was born in Paris, grew up by the sea in Le Havre, and from 1883 lived and painted at Giverny in Normandy.

He was the guiding spirit of Impressionism, which took its name from his painting Impression, Sunrise, and he is beloved for his haystacks, cathedrals and water lilies.

As a teenager he earned pocket money drawing funny caricatures of local people, and later he lovingly tended a garden with a Japanese bridge that he painted again and again.

Claude Monet ›

Where it is today: Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington · Museum page