Scarf - Monet Red Poppy Field Faux Silk Square, 35.5 in

A Summer Afternoon in a French Poppy Field

Claude Monet painted Poppies in the summer of 1873 in a field near his home in Argenteuil, with his wife, Camille, and their son, Jean, walking through the flowers. The painting is deceptively simple: a hillside of scarlet poppies cascading downward, a luminous sky above, and two pairs of figures -- mother and child repeated twice, as if caught in motion -- moving through the summer light. Yet something in it is perfectly, permanently alive. The red of the poppies, applied in loose dabs against the green and gold of the field, seems to move and shimmer. The sky breathes. The whole scene exists in a moment of beautiful transience.

This Monet Poppy Field faux silk square scarf brings that moment to life in wearable form. Made from satin polyester faux silk, the 35.5 x 35.5 inch scarf reproduces the painting's soft sky blues, meadow greens, and vivid scarlet poppies on a smooth satin finish with stitched edges. It is light, luminous, and effortlessly elegant -- beautiful worn around the neck, knotted as a headscarf, or draped over a shoulder. Pair it with a selection from our Museum Tote Bag Collection for a gift that captures the spirit of an afternoon at the Musee d'Orsay.

A perfect museum souvenir, a gift for Impressionism lovers, or a touch of French countryside warmth for any wardrobe. The Musee d'Orsay holds the original -- you can carry the feeling with you.

• Material: Satin polyester faux silk
• Size: 35.5 x 35.5 inches (90 x 90 cm)
• Printed one side | Stitched edges | Satin finish | Vibrant colors

Claude Monet | Father of French Impressionism

Claude Monet (1840-1926) is the artist most completely identified with French Impressionism -- the revolutionary movement that, beginning in the 1860s and 1870s, broke from the rigid conventions of academic painting to capture the world as the eye actually sees it: in light, in atmosphere, in fleeting, unrepeatable moments. The movement's very name derives from Monet's 1872 painting Impression, Sunrise, which a hostile critic cited as an example of unfinished sketchiness -- and which the artists promptly adopted as their banner.

Monet's method was radical in its simplicity: paint outdoors, directly from nature, in the changing light. His brushwork is loose and responsive -- short dabs and strokes of pure color that, at close range, resolve into abstract marks, and at a distance, coalesce into shimmering, luminous scenes. His lifelong obsession with light as subject, rather than merely as condition, culminated in his great late series -- the Water Lilies, the Haystacks, the Rouen Cathedral -- in which the same subject is painted again and again in different light and season. Poppies, painted early in his career, already shows that genius fully formed: color and light as feeling, the world caught and held for just a moment.