The Customs House at Varengeville - Claude Monet

Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection

"The Customs House at Varengeville" by Claude Monet (1897) Oil on canvas.

Commentary

"The Customs House at Varengeville" by Claude Monet (1897) invites a close look at how form and feeling work together. Its painted surface guides your eye through color, brushwork, and contrast rather than through narrative alone. T hemes to notice include Impressionism, painting. This piece is held in the source collection's Painting and Sculpture of Europe collection. Claude Monet is the artist behind this work. A useful anchor for reading the piece: Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926). The work is cataloged within a France cultural context. It is associated with the Impressionism period. How to look at this work: It is cataloged as painting, which gives a clue to how the museum frames the object. Its medium (Oil on canvas) affects texture, durability, and how detail reads at different distances. Its listed dimensions (65.6 × 92.8 cm (25 13/16 × 36 1/2 in.); Framed: 83.5 × 110.2 × 5.7 cm (32 7/8 × 43 3/8 × 2 1/4 in.)) suggest how intimate or monumental it may feel in person. Subject cues from the catalog include Impressionism, painting. Compare this reading with the museum record at the source collection: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/16542

Sources: Art Institute of Chicago; Art Institute of Chicago / Public Records; Art Institute of Chicago Collection Data