A painting by Claude Monet, which is said to have started the new trend of ‘Impressionism’ with its colour-filled canvas, built with darting brushstrokes, is to go under the hammer next month.

The painting, Dans La Prairie, painted in 1876 and first shown at an exhibition in Paris in 1877, features the artist’s wife Camille almost submerged in a flower-strewn field in Argenteuil, to the north of Paris.

Monet’s skill in capturing the scene even bedazzled his contemporary, Paul Cezanne.

“Monet is the strongest of us. He’s only an eye, but, my God, what an eye!” the Telegraph quoted Cezanne as having said about the artist.

This is the first time Dans La Prairie will be seen ever since it remained in private hands around Europe, and since it was last exhibited at the Tate Gallery in London in 1957.

Christie’s the auctioneers expect it to fetch around 15 million pounds when it goes up for auction in an evening sale of Impressionist and Modern works on February 4 in London – Yahoo / ANI