Musée d’Orsay · 1868
The Magpie
Claude Monet
Monet paints a single black-and-white bird on a gate, using the white snow to study countless subtle shades of white, grey and blue instead of treating snow as flat and colourless.
Why it matters
Monet paints a single black-and-white bird on a gate, using the white snow to study countless subtle shades of white, grey and blue instead of treating snow as flat and colourless.
Look closer
Look closely at the shadow the fence throws across the snow — it's built from blue and violet, not grey, one of the clearest early signs of Monet's mature colour sense.
Painted just before Monet turned decisively toward Impressionism, it was rejected by the official Salon for its unconventional shadows.
Value context
ELYIO places this work in an indicative editorial context of €null–null million.
The museum work is not for sale. This is ELYIO indicative context—not an appraisal, insurance value or offer.