The Doge's Palace (Le Palais ducal)

Daunted by Venice?s innumerable picturesque views and art-historical legacy, Monet delayed visiting the city until 1908. Once there, he explored familiar artistic concerns3ƒ4reflection, atmosphere, and structure3ƒ4 through the city?s fundamental visual elements: its water, light, and architecture. To capture the Doge?s Palace, one of Venice?s most notable monuments, Monet positioned himself across an expanse of water, in a gondola. Despite the horizontal format of the canvas, and of the palace itself, the painter accentuated the vertical through reflection, dissolving the solid structure into a shimmer of pink, green, and yellow. Although Monet spent several sessions painting directly in front of his subject, he reworked this canvas in his Giverny studio in preparation for a 1912 exhibition.
Artist: Claude Monet, French, 1840-1926
Medium: Oil on canvas
Place Made: Europe
Dates: 1908
Dimensions: 32 x 39 in. (81.3 x 99.1cm) Frame: 40 1/4 x 48 x 4 1/2 in. (102.2 x 121.9 x 11.4 cm)
Signature: Signed and dated lower right: "Claude Monet 1908"
Collections: European Art
Museum Location: This item is on view in Beaux-Arts Court, South, 3rd Floor
Accession Number: 20.634
Credit Line: Gift of A. Augustus Healy