Monet’s twin garden paintings are reunited for the first time

For the first time since they were painted more than a century ago, two oil paintings of Claude Monet’s garden in Vetheuil have been reunited, in Washington.

Monet moved to this village in the Paris suburbs in 1878 with his sickened wife Camille and their two young children as they faced financial difficulties, along with the family of one-time patron Ernest Hoschede.

The period that ensued was one of the most prolific for the French Impressionist, who produced in just three years nearly 300 paintings, including both versions of The Artist’s Garden at Vetheuil (1881).

Until August 8, the National Gallery of Art is presenting two of four known works of this lush summer scene with huge sunflowers, including its own, larger piece and another temporarily on loan from California’s Norton Simon Museum.

“It’s a turning point in terms of his career, his struggles, he’s turning more toward landscape, he’s becoming more interested in atmospheric effects,” National Gallery curator of 19th century French paintings Kimberly Jones said in an interview.

The Norton Simon’s version, believed to have served as a model for its companion, is more heavily worked in most areas. The National Gallery version features Monet’s son with a toy wagon.

“Before these two pictures were together, we always described the handling of this one as quite loose because we didn’t have another example, and we had always believed ours was a study for the larger picture,” said Norton Simon assistant curator Emily Talbot.