Golden Woman with a Parasol

About this work

Because we look up at her, the woman seems to stand against the sky itself, and the whole picture feels breezy and tall. The gold parasol is the anchor: tilted to the left, it forms a bright curved roof over her head, and its warm tone is echoed in the clouds that pile up behind, white and cream with touches of gold. Her dark hair and the hem of the dress are pulled sideways by the wind, which gives the figure movement without any drama. Below, the green grass carries golden highlights, so the bottom of the picture glows as well as the top. The brushstrokes are loose and quick, laid side by side rather than blended. From a distance it reads as a single sunny afternoon; nearer, you see how few strokes make each fold of fabric.

Claude Monet painted Woman with a Parasol – Madame Monet and Her Son in 1875 at Argenteuil, the town on the Seine near Paris where the family then lived. The figures are his wife Camille and their young son Jean, caught outdoors as if in passing, and the original belongs to the National Gallery of Art in Washington. Monet returned to the theme in 1886 with two studies of a woman holding a parasol on a hillside, now in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Our reimagined version keeps only the woman, leaving the boy out, and turns the parasol and the clouds to gold, so it is a new picture after Monet rather than a copy of his canvas.

Paired with Golden Impression, Sunrise, it gives a wall two sides of Monet, a bright hilltop and a hazy harbour morning. For a softer mix, The Little Foal shares its pale palette and gentle mood. Light blue, duck-egg, sage and warm white walls suit it best, and a natural oak or thin gold frame keeps the airy feeling. Choose a white or cream mat of five to seven centimetres so the sky does not run into the frame. It loves daylight, though direct sun on the glass is best avoided. The 7168 × 10752 px file prints sharp to about 60 × 90 cm, a comfortable size above a bed. A Frame TV version with a gallery mat comes with it.