Blanche Hoschedé-Monet

(French, 1865–1947)

Jardin en fleurs (Les rosiers)

oil on canvas

signed Blanche Hoschedé (lower left)

28 1/2 x 41 3/4 inches.

Property from a Florida Collection

This lot is located in Chicago.

Philippe Piguet has confirmed the authenticity of this lot. It is accompanied by a photo-certificate and will be included in his forthcoming catalogue raisonné on the artist under the reference number BHM 13.

Lot note:

Jardin en fleurs (Les rosiers) is a lush, impressionistic vision of rosebushes in full bloom. Painted by Blanche Hoschedé-Monet, the composition exudes the influence of her stepfather and father-in-law, Claude Monet. Born in Paris and raised in an artistic environment, Hoschedé-Monet was the daughter of Alice and Ernest Hoschedé. Ernest collected impressionist paintings and was an important patron to Monet in his early years, purchasing the artist’s famed Impression, Sunrise, 1872, which gave the movement its name. However, by 1878, the Hoschedés went bankrupt. Upon Monet’s invitation, the family, which included six children, moved into a house in Vétheuil with the artist, his wife Camille, and their two sons, Jean and Michel. By 1880, Camille passed away and Ernest had abandoned his family, which allowed Monet and Alice to pursue an already burgeoning relationship. The two families eventually settled in Giverny in 1883, where Alice and Monet finally married in 1892.

Hoschedé-Monet began painting at the age of 11, encouraged by Monet who recognized her interest in art and took her on as a favored model, assistant, and his only student. Blanche would frequently paint en plein air with her stepfather and absorbed his techniques and teachings as result. She also socialized with the American Impressionist colony that had gathered in Giverny, painting along side John Leslie Breck and Theodore Butler. The present painting, and Butler’s Port du Tréport, Normandy, c. 1906 (Lot 83) and Sailboats, Upper Bay, New York, 1917 (Lot 84), all come from the same collection. Breck and Blanche had a romance that was stopped by Monet, although he did allow his other stepdaughter, Suzanne, to marry Butler in 1892. Blanche eventually married Monet’s eldest son, Jean, in 1897 and settled in Rouen with him. After her mother’s death in 1911 and her husband’s death in 1914, Blanche returned to Giverny and took over her father-in-law’s household, caring for him until his own death in 1926. It is likely that she assisted Monet in painting the enormous panels of the Grandes Décorations, which he began in 1914 and continued to work on until he died. She became the guardian of both the artist’s iconic house and gardens, remaining there until she passed away in 1947.

In her own compositions, Hoschedé-Monet retained the almost “pure form of impressionism” that she learned from her mentor. In the present painting, she portrays the carefully trained rose bushes in Monet’s garden against a verdant background of trees. She uses short, decisive brushstrokes and brilliant hues to highlight the play of light through the luxuriant tangle of leaves, branches, and petals. Beneath the roses are bright splashes of pink, purple, and green from foliage that has settled on the ground and extends the riotous color through the entirety of the composition. With this artwork, it is clear that although she was greatly influenced by Monet, her oeuvre stands firm in its own right within the annals of French impressionism.

Interestingly, the canvas verso of Jardin en Fleurs (Les Rosiers) bears stamps that indicate it was possibly held in the collection of Mme Albert Salerou of Les Pinsons, Giverny. Madame Salerou, born Germaine Hoschedé, was Blanche’s youngest sister. Claude Monet bought the farm Les Pinsons, which was near his home, for his large, extended family. Jean and Blanche briefly lived there together in 1914, before Jean’s death in 1914. For the next 20 years, a series of artists lived in the house. In 1941, Germaine and her husband Albert, who was a French Army officer and Governor of the French Forces in Germany during World War I, left Paris to settle in Les Pinons and protect Monet’s home and gardens during the Vichy Occupation. Germaine was to live there until she died in 1968.