Die Jagd

Monet painted this large panel in 1876 for a wealthy patron, Ernest Hoschedé, one of four decorations for the dining room of Hoschedé's country château at Montgeron, south of Paris. A hunt is an odd subject for Monet, and the real interest is the forest itself. A cleared path runs back into the trees toward a patch of light that pulls the eye inward, while the figures stay almost incidental. Within a year Hoschedé had gone bankrupt and the arrangement fell apart. His wife Alice and their children moved in with the Monets not long after, the two households sharing one house, and years later, once Monet's first wife had died, Alice became his second wife.