Tea Towel – Claude Monet, Meadow with Poplars

Throughout his life, Monet paid tribute to the central role played by nature – both the wild nature of the Normandy coast or the Forest of Fontainebleau, and the tamed nature of his gardens at Argenteuil or Giverny – in guiding his artistic vision. In this work from the mid 1870s, Monet uses contrasting highlights (red and green, purple and yellow) in bright impasto to bring the foreground closer to the viewer, while cool tones of more fluidly applied paint suggest the background’s recession to a hazy distance.

Claude Monet
French 1840–1926
Meadow with Poplars c.1875 (detail)
oil on canvas
54.6 x 65.4 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Bequest of David P. Kimball in memory of his
wife Clara Bertram Kimball (23.505)
© 2025 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Reproduced with permission. All Rights Reserved.