The 'Poplars' series depicts very tall, very thin poplar trees lining the banks of
the River Epte. It is a tributary of the Seine immediately adjacent to Monet's garden at
Giverny where he lived in Normandy. He became fascinated with these trees and, with the
possibility of making pictures from them in 1891, set out to paint them; discovered in
the process that they were about to be cut down and so in fact bought the stand of trees
with a partner, a man in the lumber business, who agreed not to cut them down until Monet
had finished the series. Almost all of the pictures revolve around
three tall poplars in the foreground, behind them, looping away along the riverbank, are
the other trees forming a very beautiful arabesque pattern. Monet looks at all the variations
on this theme at different times of day, in different conditions of light, and indeed
in different seasons of the year. Very often, he's using colour as a gauge of
the intensity of the sunlight. In certain pictures, the tree trunks are almost golden
and one imagines the sun falling hard upon them. In others, as evening comes along, they
turn dark; sink into the sky. In others, we even have a sense of the wind blowing through these trees.
Up until the 1880s, most artists showed either in group exhibitions or at the annual official Salon.
One of Durand-Ruel's innovations was to promote the one-man show, the solo exhibition,
in which you saw the works of one artist at a time and were able to trace his or her development.
Monet was a little sceptical at first. He didn't really think that this would work.
Friends like Sisley were telling him it definitely wouldn't work, that he needed the security
of being seen in a group, but Durand-Ruel insisted and it made a huge impact.
In a funny way, the one-man show leads inevitably to the series paintings.
In a one-man show you're looking at a single, distinctive artistic personality. In the series pictures, you're
doing the same thing but focusing in on a single motif repeated over and over again.
Monet realised, in the early 1890s, how powerful that can be, and had this innovative idea
of painting pictures in series showing them all together, one motif at a time as it were.
Monet's conception of the series paintings would have tremendous impact
into the 20th century. But he could not have done it without constant consultation with
Durand-Ruel; in working out with him the best way to show, the best way to promote, the
best way to sell these images. It's one of those great moments in the history of modern art.