Luncheon on the Grass

Claude Monet 1840–1926

Luncheon on the Grass (1866) by Claude Monet. Its palette is led by olive (#52552f, 20%) and bistre (#2d2b15, 19%), with accents of golden olive, soot, white and light amber gold. Overall the canvas is mid-toned, moderately saturated and warm.

Color note

Monet painted outdoors with the new tube paints and synthetic pigments and all but banished black, building shadows from blues and violets. His series of haystacks and of Rouen Cathedral record how the color of one subject changes with the light.

Palette

#52552f MG 046 olive 20.4% of canvas
#2d2b15 MG 219 bistre 18.7% of canvas
#7a7950 MG 192 golden olive 18.2% of canvas
#3d3f1e MG 195 dark olive 14.8% of canvas
#9f9e9d MG 208 pigeon grey 13.6% of canvas
#0e0c1d MG 223 soot 7.3% of canvas
#eeebee MG 205 white 3.8% of canvas
#baa869 MG 037 light amber gold 3.2% of canvas

Color families

Brown 52%, Black 16%, Gray 12%, Green 11%, Yellow 5%

Measurements

Lightness: 0.47
Contrast: 0.59
Vividness: 0.040
Warmth: +0.98
Complexity: 220 cells
Hue range: 0.30
Focus: 0.00

Composition

53% of the visual weight is in the right half, 58% in the lower half. Symmetry 0.33 (how closely its shapes and edges mirror each other). 3% of the canvas is calm space. Half of the detail sits in 34% of the canvas. Measured from the image, not a rule the painter followed.

Details

Date: 1866
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 460.0 × 600.0 cm
Genre: genre art
Collection: Musée d'Orsay, Paris

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More by Claude Monet

Garden at Sainte-Adresse, 1867
Regatta at Sainte-Adresse, 1867
Woman in the Garden, 1867
La Grenouillère, 1869
Impression, Sunrise, 1872
Woman with a Parasol – Madame Monet and Her Son, 1875
Madame Monet wearing a kimono, 1876
Rouen Cathedral, 1892
Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies, 1899
Water Lilies, 1919