In Inondation à Giverny, Claude Monet conjures a pulsating landscape illuminated in natural light. Painted with rapid, short brushstrokes, the present work epitomizes the Impressionist desire to render the characteristics of light as it changes the appearance of nature With patches of colors that form the rolling hills of the distant landscape and the expansive waterbody that reflects the image of Giverny’s church and townscape on its surface, Monet dexterously portrays the atmospheric quality of the rural landscape.

The pastoral town of Giverny rests against the hills on the east bank of the Seine, where the valley broadens and offers extraordinary vistas of the sprawling rural landscape. Having moved to the small town in 1883, Claude Monet found abundant inspiration in the hills overlooking the village, the roads and field near his home, along the banks of the Seine and ultimately amidst the vast landscaping project in his extensive flower gardens. Here, he would discover the subjects of his best-known works, such as Les Meules à Giverny, Les Peupliers, Matinée sur la Seine and Nymphéas.

One of the foundational goals of the Impressionists was to capture the transitory nature of existence by depicting most ephemeral moments of the world with a sense of immediacy. This small stretch of the Seine that contains both Givery and Vétheuil provided innumerable opportunities for Monet to observe the same, or similar, views in different seasons and at different times of day and to explore the resulting nuances of light and color.

During a period of heavy rain in the early spring of 1886, the meadows next to Monet’s property flooded with overflow from the nearby river. As a chronicler of the village and surrounding landscape, Monet clambered to higher ground to capture the event in the present work. By capturing the passing floodwaters that filled the valley near his home Monet has provided a rare glimpse into a moment otherwise lost in time. The work brims with a sense of heightened intensity, while still retaining the soft beauty of the picturesque scene. The clouds withdraw as the town comes to a momentary standstill.

莫內於1883年遷居小鎮吉維尼，在此，他獲得無盡創作靈感，包括眺望村莊的山丘、他家附近的道路或田野、塞納河沿岸，以及他的大花園的宏偉園景之中。這些地方一一成為了他最著名系列作品的主題，例如《吉維尼的乾草堆》、《白楊樹》、《塞納河的早上》及《睡蓮》。 1886年春初，因暴雨的影響下，莫內住所旁邊的草甸被附近泛濫的河水淹浸。莫內抱著紀錄自然環境的熱愛，爬到較高處，用此作捕捉這一自然景象，讓後人能一覽這轉瞬即逝的罕有瞬間。 莫內在吉維尼創作的系列畫作融合印象派的自然寫實風格，及捕捉光影變化的大膽實驗性手法。這一小段塞納河橫跨了吉維尼及韋特伊兩地，因此莫內常於不同季節，或一日中的不同時分在同一地點觀察相同或相似的景色，以探討其光線與色彩之間的微妙差異，亦因此造就了無數的創作機會。 莫內吉維尼時期的多幅相類作品現均為各大博物館的館藏。