During the ten years that passed between the painting of Ionian in a Garden and Pond at Montgeron. Impressionism acquired a range of expressive means that enabled the painters to create with a new artistic language and unique vocabulary used consistently in this painting. Here, the painter has rejected the scale formerly used to determine the importance of an object. In this picture, an ordinary pond with its low banks covered with greenerv 3ƒ4 nothing special 3ƒ4was now painted on a very large canvas, and the objects shown by the painter are important not because of their beautifully depicted contours, but because of their role in the general rhythm of life.

The colorful pattern of the painting nearly conceals the figures: a man resting on the bank and a ladv with a fishing rod nearbv. The latter figure depicted is most probably Alice. Ernest Hoschedes wife, who later became Monet's second wife. As Claude Monet was trying to depict his momentary impression in this painting, he did not use distinctive contours or small details: instead, he employed other means to relay to the spectator an image of a colorful, beautiful scene.

Together with Corner of the Garden at Montgeron. the canvas was part of the decorative series ordered by Ernest Hoschede for his house in Montgeron. For the Pond and the companion painting. Monet used a preliminary outdoor sketch, which now belongs to a private collection l\^ildenstein, Monet, no. 419). Either the sketch or the painting was included in the Third Exhibition of Impressionists under the name of Mare a Montgeron.

Signed, bottom right: CI. M. Hermitage Museum, inv. no. 6.562

Provenance:

Ernest Hoschede collection. Paris: A. Vollard Gallery:

from 1907. I. Morozov collection (purchased for 10.000 francs):

1918. Second Museum of Modem \Sestem Painting. Moscow:

1923. Museum of Modem Western Art. Moscow:

since 1931. Hermitage. Leningrad.