60.7 x 81.3 cm (23 7/8 x 32 in.)
Oil on canvas

Inscriptions: Lower right: 81. Claude Monet

Classification: Paintings
Type, sub-type: Landscape

Object is currently not on view

A single tree, deformed by the constant buffeting of onshore winds, is the central motif of this painting by Monet. Because the horizon line is effaced in a haze of creamy blue strokes, there is no sense of recession into the distance. Such an abstract field behind the tree deprives it of volume, so that it reads as a flat pattern on the surface. This pattern is so dominant that its outline determines the shapes of other forms in the painting. Not only do the low blue bushes that extend from one edge of the canvas to the other echo the general form of the tree's foliage, but the very ground answers the bending motion in low hillocks parallel or related to the tree's angle. Although the tree's form is dominant and determines so many other shapes in the painting, the tree in itself is almost ephemeral, for it is barely rooted in the soil. The painting is thus an exercise in pattern making rather than a naturalistic description of a place.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

The John Pickering Lyman Collection. Gift of Miss Theodora Lyman, 1919
Accession number: 19.1314

Provenance/Ownership History: Please note: The history of ownership is not definitive or comprehensive, as it is under constant review and revision by MFA curators and researchers.

By June 1882, possibly sold by the artist to Durand-Ruel, Paris, France; August 1883, sold by Durand-Ruel, Paris, to Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, France. By 1888, Leroux, Paris; February 27-28, 1888, sold at Leroux sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, no. 61, and bought by Durand-Ruel, Paris; 1888, most likely sold by Durand-Ruel to Mrs. Catholina Lambert, Paterson, NJ; February 28, 1899, sold by Mrs. Catholina Lambert to Durand-Ruel, New York; from 1899 through 1907, with Durand-Ruel, New York, no. 2122; April 13, 1907, sold by Durand-Ruel, New York, to John Pickering Lyman, Portsmouth, N.H.; 1907 John Pickering Lyman, Portsmouth, NH (d.1914); 1914, after his death, inherited by Miss Theodora Lyman (d. 1919); 1919, gift of Theodora Lyman. (Accession Date: September 18, 1919)

This object is included in the following Selected Tour(s):

• MFA Images: Landscapes
• All European Paintings
• French Paintings
• MFA Images: Seascapes
• MFA Images: European Impressionism & Related Works
• MFA Images: Country Life
• Claude Monet