Collections: European Art: The Doge's Palace (Le Palais ducal)

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The Doge's Palace (Le Palais ducal)

Daunted by Venice’s innumerable picturesque views and art-historical legacy, Monet delayed visiting the city until 1908. Once there, he explored familiar artistic concerns—reflection, atmosphere, and structure— through the city’s fundamental visual elements: its water, light, and architecture. To capture the Doge’s Palace, one of Venice’s most notable monuments, Monet positioned himself across an expanse of water, in a gondola. Despite the horizontal format of the canvas, and of the palace itself, the painter accentuated the vertical through reflection, dissolving the solid structure into a shimmer of pink, green, and yellow. Although Monet spent several sessions painting directly in front of his subject, he reworked this canvas in his Giverny studio in preparation for a 1912 exhibition.


• Artist: Claude Monet, French, 1840-1926
• Medium: Oil on canvas
• Place Made: Europe
• Dates: 1908
• Dimensions: 32 x 39 in. (81.3 x 99.1cm) Frame: 40 1/4 x 48 x 4 1/2 in. (102.2 x 121.9 x 11.4 cm)
• Signature: Signed and dated lower right: "Claude Monet 1908"
• Collections: European Art
• Museum Location: This item is on view in Beaux-Arts Court, South, 3rd Floor
• Accession Number: 20.634
• Credit Line: Gift of A. Augustus Healy
• Image: Overall, 20.634_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926). The Doge's Palace (Le Palais ducal), 1908. Oil on canvas, 32 x 39 in. (81.3 x 99.1cm) Frame: 40 1/4 x 48 x 4 1/2 in. (102.2 x 121.9 x 11.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of A. Augustus Healy, 20.634 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 20.634_SL1.jpg)