The Cottage, Giverny

Charles Edward Conder (1868 - 1909)

Oil on canvas

c.1892-1894
Start Zooming
  • About the work
    Location
    Country: Other
    City: other locations abroad
    A woman in a long blue silk gown tends trees in a cottage garden at Giverny. The romantic, hazy, image has a fragile and elusive charm. Conder particularly loved the blossom trees of this region in the spring time and painted them many times. The delicate colour and handling of this oil painting are reminiscent of Conder’s watercolour technique, and show the influence of the later works of the French Impressionists, including Claude Monet, on his painting. 
    Giverny, in the Seine Valley in Normandy, is well known as the home of Claude Monet who lived there from 1883 until his death in 1926. From 1890 Monet completely transformed the gardens at Giverny and created a water garden with a Japanese bridge and water lilies. The Cottage, Giverny may have been produced during the summers of 1892-94, as Conder spent some time at Giverny when Monet was there, drawing inspiration from the beautiful countryside around the banks of the Seine. Although his health was starting to fail, friends took him all around Normandy, to places such as Vétheuil, Dennemont, La Roche-Guyon and Chantemesle. Throughout his life Conder was something of a nomad, never staying in one place for long. 
  • About the artist
    Charles Edward Conder was a portrait, landscape painter, printmaker and illustrator. However, he is best known for his watercolours on silk and fan paintings. The son of a civil engineer, Conder was born in London but spent his early childhood in India. At the age of 17 he joined his uncle in Australia and later obtained a post at ‘The Illustrated Sydney News’. He studied painting in Sydney and Melbourne. Conder later moved to Paris to study and exhibited in Paris from 1892 for the rest of his life. In 1893, he became a member of the New English Art Club and settled in London in 1897. He was forced to give up painting in 1906 and, after a long period of illness, died at Virginia Water in 1909.
  • Explore
    Places
    France, Eure, Giverny
    Materials & Techniques
    canvas, oil, oil painting
  • Details
    Title
    The Cottage, Giverny
    Date
    c.1892-1894
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    height: 61.00 cm, width: 81.50 cm
    Acquisition
    Purchased from the Leger Galleries, April 1966
    Inscription
    br: CONDER
    GAC number
    7358