Poplars (Autumn)

Poplars (Autumn), catalogued in French as Les Trois arbres, automne (The Three Trees, Autumn), is a painting from Claude Monet's 1891 series of poplars on the river Epte near Giverny, Wildenstein no. 1308. The upright canvas measures 92 by 73 centimeters and is signed and dated Claude Monet 91 at the lower right. It is in a private collection.

What you're looking at

Three slender poplar trunks rise through the whole height of the picture: two at the left, close together, and one right of center. They are painted in violet, slate blue and rust, with little tufts of leaves in green, orange and blue clinging to them. Their crowns are cut off by the top of the canvas.

Behind them, a row of younger trees curves along the bank from the left edge to the right, and here autumn has fully arrived. Their crowns are a froth of orange, coral, salmon pink, gold and yellow, painted in short, feathery strokes, with a few patches of green still among them. On the far right the row fades into a pinkish haze. The sky is very pale: cream, ivory and a faint rose, almost white near the horizon.

Across the lower third of the canvas runs a strong band of emerald and blue-green, the grass of the bank in shadow, laid on in thick horizontal strokes. Below it, the Epte reflects the trees: violet columns for the trunks, orange and pink patches for the autumn crowns, pale cream for the sky. The signature, in red, is at the lower right.

The cool green band across the middle is the picture's key, the one strong contrast in an otherwise warm, high-key canvas.

The Poplars series

Monet painted the poplars from his studio boat on the Epte near Limetz in the summer and autumn of 1891, following the trees through the season. The "three trees" compositions trace that progression most clearly: from summer greens in Tokyo's Three Poplars, Summer, through the yellowing Three Poplars, Autumn Effect, to the full autumn color of this canvas and of Philadelphia's Poplars, Three Pink Trees, Autumn.

How it was painted

The handling is light and quick. The autumn crowns are built from small, separate strokes of warm color laid over a pale ground that glows through. The trunks are drawn in a few long strokes, the grass bank in heavy horizontal ones. Monet keeps the sky almost empty so that the colored foliage carries the light.

How this version differs

It is closest to the Philadelphia canvas, which shares its pink and coral palette, but here the sky is paler and creamier, the green bank darker and more emphatic, and the trunks bluer. Compared with the blue-sky Three Poplars, Autumn Effect, the season is later and the light softer, perhaps a misty autumn afternoon. For a cooler, windblown variation, see the Orsay's Wind Effect, Series of The Poplars. The whole series is in the Poplars series; the countryside in Monet's Giverny.

Where to see it

The painting is privately owned and its current location is not published. Related canvases are in public collections in Tokyo, Philadelphia, Paris, London and Edinburgh; see where to see Monet's paintings and the Claude Monet page.