“The Doge’s Palace” by Claude Monet

“The Doge’s Palace” by Claude Monet depicts the Venician leader’s palace,  bathed in warm light, and painted from the vantage point of a boat moored in the lagoon. The Impressionist work is painted with dappled brushstrokes in a bright palette of pinks, yellows, and blues.

The composition is divided into two horizontal zones. The upper part depicts the pink and white Venetian Gothic palace and the blue sky above. The lower part is filled with the Venetian lagoon’s rippling waters and the reflection of the buildings.

The palace facade is composed of diamond-patterned stonework of the walls, which are pierced by arched windows. The colonnaded arcades on the lower two floors create the darker shadowing.

The Lion of Venice column in the Piazzetta di San Marco is shown to the left, and Ponte della Paglia and the New Prison building to the right. 

Monet painted the Doge’s Palace from several viewpoints during his three-month stay in Venice, from October to December 1908.

The title “Le Palais Ducal” refers to three similar paintings exemplified by this painting in the Brooklyn Museum.

Le Palais Ducal or The Doge’s Palace is the name given to various other compositions with different views that depict the Doge’s Palace made by Claude Monet during a visit to Venice in 1908.

These paintings are called in Italian, “Palazzo Ducale,” and French as “Palais Ducal.”

The Doge’s Palace – Le Palais Ducal

• Title:               The Doge’s Palace
• French:           Le Palais ducal
• Artist:             Claude Monet
• Year:              1908
• Medium:        Oil on canvas
• Dimensions:   Height: 81.3 cm (32 in); Width: 99.1 cm (39 in)
• Museum:       Brooklyn Museum

Le Palais Ducal vu de Saint-Georges Majeur by Claude Monet – Kunsthaus Zürich

“The Doge’s Palace Seen from San Giorgio Maggiore” has six versions and shows the more distant view from San Giorgio Maggiore.

The Doges Palace – Le Palais Ducal

• Title:              The Doge’s Palace Seen from San Giorgio Maggiore
• French:          Le Palais Ducal vu de Saint-Georges Majeur
• Artist:             Claude Monet
• Year:              1908
• Medium:        Oil on canvas
• Dimensions:  65 x 100 cm
• Museum:      Kunsthaus Zürich

A third view shows a more oblique view from further east, the best example is in a private collection.

Monet intended to return to paint in Venice again, but his second wife’s illness prevented him from traveling back to Venice.

He continued to work on many of his Venetian paintings when he returned home to Giverny until they were shown in an exhibition in 1912. 

 Le Palais Duca by Claude Monet – Private Collection

Doge’s Palace

The Doge’s Palace is built in Venetian Gothic style and is one of Venice’s main landmarks. The palace was the residence of the Doge of Venice, the supreme authority of the former Republic.

It was built in 1340 and extended and modified in the following centuries. The oldest part of the palace is the wing overlooking the lagoon, the corners of which are decorated with 14th-century sculptures.

The ground floor arcade and the loggia above are decorated with 14th- and 15th-century capitals, some of which were replaced with copies during the 19th century.

It became a museum in 1923, and today, the public entrance to the Doge’s Palace is via the Porta del Frumento, on the waterfront side of the building.

The Doge’s Palace Seen from San Giorgio Maggiore –Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Doge’s Palace Seen from San Giorgio Maggiore

• Title:              The Doge’s Palace Seen from San Giorgio Maggiore
• Artist:             Claude Monet
• Year:              1908
• Medium:        Oil on canvas
• Dimensions:  Height: 65.4 cm (25.7 in); Width: 92.7 cm (36.4 in)
• Museum:        Metropolitan Museum of Art

Claude Monet

Oscar-Claude Monet was a founder of French Impressionist painting, and the term “Impressionism” is derived from the title of his painting Impression, “Soleil Levant” or “Impression, Sunrise,” which was exhibited in 1874. 

Monet adopted a painting method in which he painted the same scene many times to capture the changing of light and the passing of the seasons. 

Monet is known for having produced a series of paintings, all versions of the same subject and perspective. Examples include his series of the “Valley of the Creuse” series and his famous series of “Haystacks” and “Water Lilies” paintings.

From 1883 Monet lived in Giverny, where he developed a garden landscape that included the lily ponds that would become the subjects of his best-known works at his home.

In 1899 he began painting the water lilies, first with a Japanese bridge as a central feature, and later in the series of large-scale paintings, with the water lilies as the main feature. This series occupied him for the last 20 years of his life.

Claude Monet

• Name:          Oscar-Claude Monet
• Born:            1840 – Paris, France
• Died:            1926 (aged 86) – Giverny, France
• Nationality:   French
• Movement:   Impressionism

Venice Through the Eyes of Claude Monet

Virtual Tour of Claude Monet

• Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond
• Water Lilies (Honolulu Museum of Art)
• Farmyard in Normandy
• The Basin at Argenteuil
• A Cart on the Snowy Road at Honfleur
• Water Lilies, (National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo)
• Camille Monet on a Bench
• The Houses of Parliament (Effect of Fog) – (MET)
• “Houses of Parliament, London” (Art Institute of Chicago)
• “The Houses of Parliament, Sunset” (National Gallery of Art, DC)
• London, Houses of Parliament. The Sun Shining through the Fog
• “Seagulls, the River Thames and the Houses of Parliament” (Pushkin Museum)
• Haystacks at Scottish National Gallery
• Stacks of Wheat (End of Day, Autumn) at Art Institute of Chicago
• Stacks of Wheat (End of Summer) at Art Institute of Chicago
• “Meules, milieu du jour” (National Gallery of Australia)
• “Wheatstacks, Snow Effect, Morning” (Getty Museum)
• Garden at Sainte-Adresse
• Poppy Field in a Hollow near Giverny
• The Gare St-Lazare (The National Gallery, London)
• “La Gare Saint-Lazare” (Musée d’Orsay)
• “Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare” by Claude Monet (Art Institute of Chicago)
• Le Pont de Argenteuil (The Argenteuil Bridge)
• Impression, Sunrise
• Japanese Bridge Paintings by Claude Monet – Musée Marmottan Monet
• Water Lilies at the Musée Marmottan Monet
• Gardens at Giverny Paintings at the Musée Marmottan Monet
• Weeping Willow Series by Claude Monet
• La Grenouillère
• Bathers at La Grenouillère
• Waterloo Bridge Series
• La Japonaise
• Woman with a Parasol – Madame Monet and Her Son
• The Doge’s Palace

“The Doges Palace” by Claude Monet

 Virtual Tour of the Brooklyn Museum

• John Singer Sargent Paintings at the Brooklyn Museum
• “The Peaceable Kingdom” by Edward Hicks
• “Crucifixion, seen from the Cross” by James Tissot
• “Jesus Found in the Temple” by James Tissot
• “Jesus Wept” by James Tissot
• “Eight Bells” by Winslow Homer
• Painting of Dream Figures on Bark
• Relief of Eagle-Headed Winged Figure Standing Between Two Sacred Trees
• “Columbus Before the Queen” by Emanuel Leutze
• “An Out-of-Doors Study” by John Singer Sargent

Monet’s Venice

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“Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand,
as if it were necessary to understand when it is simply necessary to love.”
– Claude Monet

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Photo Credit: 1) Claude Monet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Piotrus, CC BY-SA 3.0 <creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.