Paintings of the Tuileries Gardens: 2 After Monet

In the first of these two articles visiting the Tuileries Gardens in central Paris, I showed paintings known to have been made before the Communards burned the Tuileries Palace in 1871, and those up to Monet’s views of 1876. As a result of damage to the palace, it was demolished in 1883, leaving the space it had occupied to become an extension to the garden.

Plan of the modern Jardin des Tuileries, Paris. By Paris 16. Wikimedia Commons.

Today the Tuileries retains two substantial buildings: the Jeu de Paume and Musée de l’Orangerie, both at the Place de la Concorde end and almost surrounded by terraces. Its broad Grande Allée joins the massive Arc de Triomphe with its smaller sister, the Arc de Triomphe de Carrousel, by the Louvre. Depending on the season, the gardens may be busy with runners, noisy with childrens’ amusements, or a well of relative calm amid the rumbling rush of Paris and its traffic.

Gaston de La Touche (1854-1913), A Water Fountain in the Tuileries (c 1854-1913), oil on canvas, 97 x 78 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Wikimedia Commons.

Although Gaston de La Touche’s A Water Fountain in the Tuileries is undated, from its style it was painted after 1891, when he burned most of his earlier works and switched to this brighter style that could pass for Impressionism. Human figures are here, but dark, vague and subjugate to the jet of water in the fountain, the trees and the Louvre Palace behind. La Touche appears to have painted many fountains, and this may have been intended to form part of a series of such views.

Theodor von Hörmann (1840–1895), In the Tuileries (date not known), oil on canvas, 38 x 55 cm, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna, Austria. Wikimedia Commons.

Theodor von Hörmann’s undated In the Tuileries appears to be a brisk plein air sketch made in the late summer or early autumn. The child in the foreground is playing with a hoop.

Maurice Brazil Prendergast (1861–1924), The Tuileries Gardens, Paris (1895). Wikimedia Commons.

The Tuileries Gardens, Paris (1895) may have been painted shortly before Maurice Brazil Prendergast left the city to return to Boston. While he was in Paris he met Édouard Vuillard, whose influence appears to have extended to his use of colour here, and Pierre Bonnard, an addicted sketcher of street scenes in Paris.

Childe Hassam (1859-1935), Tuileries Gardens (c 1897), oil on canvas, 84.5 x 85.1 cm, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA. Wikimedia Commons.

Childe Hassam’s Tuileries Gardens from about 1897 is an early work in Impressionist style, with visible facture and textbook linear perspective. Its gestural figures are skilfully executed, giving the viewer just sufficient detail to be able to distinguish different types of hats, for instance. This American Impressionist studied in Paris at the Académie Julian.

At the end of 1898, Camille Pissarro rented a flat for his family in Paris, from where he enjoyed a superb view over the Tuileries Gardens, which, unlike Monet and Renoir, he hadn’t painted until late in his career. His first series of eleven paintings was sold to Durand-Ruel in May for the sum of 27,000 Francs. The artist then returned to the same flat to paint a second series at the end of 1899.

Camille Pissarro (1830–1903), The Garden of the Tuileries on a Winter Afternoon (1899), oil on canvas, 73.7 × 92.1 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY. Wikimedia Commons.

These two versions of The Garden of the Tuileries on a Winter Afternoon (1899), above and below, are composed almost identically to Monet’s view from nearly 25 years earlier, with the dome of Les Invalides and the spires of the Church of Saint-Clotilde in the background. Pissarro was perhaps the first to capture the appearance of the gardens when busy, as they are during fine weather even in winter. His crowds of people are as varied and minimalist as those in his other series paintings of Paris.

Camille Pissarro (1830–1903), The Garden of the Tuileries on a Winter Afternoon (1899), oil on canvas, 73.3 × 92.4 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY. Wikimedia Commons.
Camille Pissarro (1830–1903), The Garden of the Tuileries on a Spring Morning (1899), oil on canvas, 73.3 × 92.1 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY. Wikimedia Commons.

Pissarro’s Garden of the Tuileries on a Spring Morning from the same year is a similar aerial view, this time well into springtime, with the trees in full leaf, in their brilliant fresh green foliage. Although there are fewer people now, Pissarro affords us some delicate detail, for instance in the pram just above the middle of the lower edge of the canvas.

There are subtle differences between these three canvases demonstrating that Pissarro’s painting was far from mechanical, and involved significant interpretation. The spring view has a lower skyline that cannot be accounted for by its being angled more to the left than the winter views, for example. However details of trees and even quite small features in the distance match well, supporting the view that he did remain faithful to the real world.

Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947), The Tuileries Garden (1905), oil on board, 24.8 x 49.5 cm, Private collection. The Athenaeum.

Judging by the brown foliage in the trees in The Tuileries Garden (1905), Pierre Bonnard painted this view in the autumn. The rich array of statuary stands out well.

Jean-François Raffaëlli (1850–1924), The Tuileries Gardens (1910), colour engraving, 48.4 x 62.8 cm. Wikimedia Commons.

The Tuileries Gardens (1910) is one of Jean-François Raffaëlli’s colour engravings of the gardens, in a formal view. It’s easy to see how Degas’ enthusiasm for Raffaëlli’s work to be included in Impressionist exhibitions was so divisive. Although popular at the time, it wasn’t in the least Impressionist, and now seems perhaps a little anachronistic.

Pierre Thévenet (1870-1937), The Tuileries Gardens in Autumn (1922). Wikimedia Commons.

Finally, Pierre Thévenet’s The Tuileries Gardens in Autumn from 1922 is unique among these paintings in being completely unpopulated, and shows some of the trees during leaf-fall, with their rich colours, and the Louvre in the background. Thévenet was a Belgian Post-Impressionist who lived and worked in Paris from 1919, painting many views of the city.