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In a darkened room, two women sit at a round table near a man who stands leaning against a fireplace mantle, all illuminated only by a soft, yellow light from a ceiling lamp hanging over the table in this nearly square painting. All the people are light skinned and have brown or dark hair. The brushwork throughout is loose and details are indistinct. The brightest object in the room, the light, has a flaring shade over a spherical body, and hangs from three curling, scrolling arms. Painted in butter and golden yellow, it seems to be made from brass. The table is bare except for a white teapot and two small, white teacups on saucers near the women who sit to our right. The women have turned their wooden chairs to face each other next to the table, so the one closer to us sits with her back to us. Both have brown hair pulled up in buns, and they look down at their hands. The woman farther away wears a pine-green dress with white trim at the cuffs, and the one facing away from us wears a slate-blue, high-necked dress with a white collar. The one who faces us wears holds something white in her hands, presumably needlework. A third chair at the table, closest to us, is turned toward the women, but is empty. The man stands in semi-darkness behind the two women next to a glowing fireplace. He has a full beard and wears a black suit. He leans on the mantel with his left arm, on our right, with his other hand on his hip. Though his eyes are deeply shaded, he seems to look down at the woman in the blue-gray dress. A large mirror over the fireplace reflects the heads of the man and the woman facing us, as well as the back of a blue-gray lidded vase on the mantel and a clock hanging on the opposite wall, out of our view. A curtain runs along the wall beyond the fireplace and is painted with the suggestion of a floral pattern in strokes of forest green, burnt orange, gray, and tan. The rest of the room is swallowed in shadowy areas of dusky browns, grays, and tans. The artist signed the work in red letters in the lower left corner: “Claude Monet.”

Claude Monet

Interior, after Dinner, 1868/1869

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 86

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 50.2 x 65.4 cm (19 3/4 x 25 3/4 in.)

framed: 76.4 x 93.4 x 7.6 cm (30 1/16 x 36 3/4 x 3 in.)

Credit Line

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Accession Number

1983.1.26

Artists / Makers

Claude Monet (artist) French, 1840 - 1926

Image Use

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Inscription

lower left: Claude Monet

Provenance

Eugène Deudon [1841-1916]; sold 8 March 1899 to Paul Durand-Ruel [1831-1922], Paris;[1] sold by 1921 to Stern, Asea Vestar, Sweden; Mme. Nordeen, Stockholm; (Hirschl and Adler Galleries, New York); sold 1966 to Mr. Paul Mellon, Upperville, VA; gift 1983 to NGA.

[1] Early provenance according to Anne Distel, "Charles Deudon (1832-1914): collectionneur." La Revue de l'Art no. 86, 1989, p. 65.

Associated Names

Deudon, Eugène
Durand-Ruel et Cie
Hirschl & Adler Galleries
Mellon, Paul
Nordeen, Mme
Stern

Exhibition History

1880: Le peintre Claude Monet, La Vie Moderne, Paris, 1880, no. 16, as la salle à manger.

1928: Claude Monet, Galerien Thannhauser, Berlin, 1928, no. 5, repro., as Familie Sisley

1986: Gifts to the Nation: Selected Acquisitions from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1986, unnumbered checklist

1999: An Enduring Legacy: Masterpieces from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1999-2000, no cat.

2000: Light! The Industrial Age 1750-1900, Art & Science, Technology & Society, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, 2000-2001, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2008: Impressionist Interiors, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 2008, no. 17, repro.

2010: Claude Monet 1840-1926, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 2010-2011, no. 98, repro.

Bibliography

1974: Wildenstein, Daniel. Claude Monet: biographie et catalogue raisonné. 5 vols. Lausanne and Paris, 1974-1991: 1:no. 130.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 281, repro.

1989: Distel, Anne. "Charles Deudon (1832-1914): collectionneur." Revue de l'Art no. 86 (1989):65, repro.