monet sailboats at argenteuil

In December 1871, Monet moved with his family to Argenteuil. This town to the northwest of Paris had become one of the favourite locations of enthusiasts who came to enjoy boating, yachting and rowing.Around 1875, Monet painted a series of views of sailing boats at anchor in Argenteuil basin. In the painting in the Musée de l’Orangerie, the vermilion hulls of the boats are at the centre of the composition. They offer a striking contrast with the blue of the sky and water, and the green of the vegetation floating on the surface of the Seine. Everything is enhanced by the white splashes of the sails and the navy blue of the hulls on the left. The broken brushstrokes are typical of Impressionism at its height. The vertical lines of the masts give rhythm and structure to the composition. Traditional perspective is not strictly observed, the perspective lines seem to diverge to the right and left of the boats. The painting acquired by Domenica Walter is the only work by Monet in the collection. This canvas from early in Monet’s career echoes his artistic testament, also in the Musée de l’Orangerie - the decorative cycle of  Nymphéas [Water Lilies] .

Provenance: Romaine Brooks, Nice (around1921); Domenica Walter (around 1955)

Object details

History - provenance, exhibitions, about this object record.

• entre 1921 et 1955, dans la collection Romaine Brooks, Nice
• jusqu'en 1963, dans la collection de Mme Jean Walter, Paris
• 1963, acquis de Mme Jean Walter avec le concours de la Société des Amis du Louvre (arrêté d'approbation de la vente du 28/12/1963)
• musée du Louvre, Paris
• 1977, musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, entrée matérielle
• Collection Jean Walter-Paul Guillaume - musée de l'Orangerie - France, Paris, 1966
• Impressionnistes et post-impressionnistes des musées français de Manet à Matisse - pinacothèque nationale – musée Alexandre Soutzo - 1980
• Impressionnistes et Post-Impressionnistes des musées français : de Manet à Matisse - musée national de Géorgie - Géorgie, Tbilissi, 1981
• Impressionnistes et Post-Impressionnistes des musées français : de Manet à Matisse - musée de l'Ermitage - Russie, Fédération de, Saint-Pétersbourg, 1981
• Claude Monet - Museo Español de Arte Contemporaneo - Espagne, Madrid, 1986
• Claude Monet - Oberes Belvedere - Autriche, Vienne, 1996
• Impressionists on the Seine. A celebration of Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party - The Phillips Collection - 1996-1997
• Chefs-d'oeuvres du musée de l'Orangerie : collection Jean Walter et Paul Guillaume - Bunkamura Museum of Art - Japon, Tokyo, 1998-1999
• Chefs-d'oeuvres du musée de l'Orangerie : collection Jean Walter et Paul Guillaume - City Art Museum - Japon, Nagoya, 1999
• Chefs-d'oeuvres du musée de l'Orangerie : collection Jean Walter et Paul Guillaume - Prefectural Art Museum - Japon, Hiroshima, 1999
• Chefs-d'oeuvres du musée de l'Orangerie : collection Jean Walter et Paul Guillaume - Niigata City Art Museum - Japon, Niigata, 1999
• Chefs-d'oeuvres du musée de l'Orangerie : collection Jean Walter et Paul Guillaume - National Museum of Modern Art - Japon, Kyoto, 1999
• Chefs-d'oeuvre du musée de l'Orangerie : collection Jean Walter et Paul Guillaume - Taïpei Fine Arts Museum - Taïwan, Province de Chine, Taïpei, 1999-2000
• Chefs-d'oeuvre du musée de l'Orangerie : collection Jean Walter et Paul Guillaume - Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts - Taïwan, Province de Chine, Kaohsiung, 2000
• De Renoir à Picasso : chefs-d'oeuvre du musée de l'Orangerie - musée des beaux-arts - Canada, Montréal, 2000
• De Renoir à Picasso : chefs-d'oeuvre du musée de l'Orangerie - Kimbell Art Museum - Etats-Unis, Fort Worth, 2000-2001
• Renoir to Picasso : Masterpieces from the Musée de l'Orangerie - Queensland Art Gallery - Australie, Brisbane, 2001
• Renoir to Picasso : Masterpieces from the Musée de l'Orangerie - Art Gallery of New South Wales - Australie, Sydney, 2001
• Renoir to Picasso : Masterpieces from the Musée de l'Orangerie - National Gallery of Victoria - Australie, Melbourne, 2001
• Monet, i luoghi della pittura - Casa dei Carraresi - Italie, Trévise, 2001-2002
• De Renoir a Picasso : Obres mestres del Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris - CaixaForum - Espagne, Barcelone, 2002
• Claude Monet et ses amis - musée des Beaux-Arts - Hongrie, Budapest, 2003-2004
• Claude Monet - Von der Heydt-Museum - Allemagne, Wuppertal, 2009-2010
• Birth of Impressionism. Masterpieces from the Musée d'Orsay - Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco - Etats-Unis, San Francisco, 2010
• Birth of Impressionism. Masterpieces from the Musée d'Orsay - Frist Center for Visual Arts - Etats-Unis, Nashville, 2010-2011
• La couleur réfléchie. L'impressionnisme à la surface de l'eau - musée des Beaux-Arts - France, Rouen, 2013
• Obras Maestras del Musée de l’Orangerie - Museo Dolores Olmedo - Mexique, Mexico, 2013-2014
• Monet and the Seine : Impressions of a River - Philbrook Museum of Art - Etats-Unis, Tulsa, 2014
• Monet and the Seine : Impressions of a River - Museum of Fine Arts - Etats-Unis, Houston, 2014-2015
• Monet - Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea - Italie, Turin, 2015-2016
• Walter, Domenica, Classeur , [s.n.], Fol. 62 recto 1316 Argenteuil les barques 65 x 56 LOU avec point bleu et rouge souligné deux fois en vert Pas de photo Achat 56
• Le Gaulois , Les "Nymphéas" de Claude Monet, [s.n.], 1927
• Bouret, Jean, Réalités , n° 239 , L' Eblouissante collection Walter, [s.n.], 1965, p. 88, repr. coul. p. 88- 89
• Collection Jean Walter-Paul Guillaume , Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1966, n°18, repr. n. p.
• Lemoyne de Forges, Marie-Thérèse ; Allemand, Geneviève ; Bundorf, Michèle, Collection Jean Walter-Paul-Guillaume : catalogue , Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1966, n° 18, p. 45, repr. p. 44
• Wildenstein, Daniel, Claude Monet : biographie et catalogue raisonné, tome I , Paris, La Bibliothèque des Arts, 1974, n° 370, t. I, p. 272, repr. p. 372 ["Les Bateaux rouges. Argenteuil", "Romaine Brooks, Nice c. 1921 - Mme Jean Walter, Paris c. 1955 - donné en 1963 au Musée du
• Hoog, Michel, Monet , Paris, Fernand Hazan, 1978, n° 34, n.p., repr. coul. pl. 34
• Isaacson, Joel, Claude Monet : observation et réflexion , Neuchâtel, Ides et Calendes, 1978, n° 48, p. 109 et mentionné p. 19 et p.233, repr. coul. pl. 48 (Les bateaux rouges, Argenteuil
• Keller, Horst, The Art of the Impressionists , Oxford, Phaidon, 1980, repr. pl. 84
• Rossi Bortolatto, Luigina ; Bailly-Herzberg, Janine, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Monet. 1870-1899 , Paris, Flammarion, 1981, n° 121, p. 96, repr. (Les Bâteaux rouges Argenteuil).
• Hoog, Michel ; Guicharnaud, Hélène ; Giraudon, Colette, Musée de l’Orangerie : catalogue de la collection Jean Walter et Paul Guillaume, 3ème éd. revue et mise à jour [1ère éd. 1984] , Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1990, n° 65, p. 150, repr. coul. p. 151 (Argenteuil)
• Georgel, Pierre ; Peng, Chang-Ming, Chefs-d'oeuvre du musée de l'Orangerie : collection Jean Walter et Paul Guillaume. , Taïpei, China Times, 1999, n° 16, p. 72, repr. coul. 73
• Dulout, Stephanie, Azart , Cap sur la Normandie impressionniste, [s.n.], 2010, mentionné p. 106-107, repr. coul.
• Obras Maestras del Musée de l'Orangerie , Mexico, Museo Dolores Olmedo, 2013, Cat. 17, p. 87, repr. coul.
• Jamot, Paul (préf.), Claude Monet, cat. exp. (Paris, Musée de l'Orangerie, de juin à juillet 1931) , Paris, musées nationaux, 1931, n° 69 (cat. p. 53 ["Les Bateaux rouges", "Collection de Mme Brooks"])
• Papastamos, Dimitrios ; Hoog, Michel ; Adhémar, Hélène ; , Impressionnistes et Post-Impressionnistes des musées français : de Manet à Matisse, cat. exp. (Athènes, Pinacothèque nationale, 1980) , Athènes, Pinacothèque Nationale, Musée Alexandre Soutzos, 1980, n° 22, p. 118,119,120, repr. p. 119, repr. coul. 149 et p. de couv.
• Hoog, Michel, Impressionistes et Post-impressionistes des musées français de Manet à Matisse, cat. exp. (Tbilissi ; Leningrad, 1981) , Tbilissi, Sabchota Sakartielo, 1981, n° 27, n.p., repr. coul.
• Esteban Leal, Paloma ; Sanchez Garcia, Carmen ; Huyghe, René ; Wildenstein, Daniel, Monet, cat. exp. (Madrid, Museo Espanol de Arte Contemporàneo, 1986) , Madrid, Museo Espanol de Arte Contemporaneo, 1986, n° 21, p. 234, 461, repr. coul. p. [235]
• Koja, Stephan, Claude Monet, cat. exp. (Vienne, Osterreichische Galerie Belvédère, 1996) , Munich, Prestel, 1996, n° 19 (cat. p. 216, repr. coul. p. 64)
• Rathbone, Eliza E. ; Rothkopf, Katherine ; Brettell, Richard R., Impresionists on the Seine : a Celebration of Renoir’s Luncheon of the Baoating Party, cat. exp. (Washington, The Phillips Collection, 1996-1997) , Washington, Counterpoint, 1996, s.n., p. 72, repr. coul. pl. 28 [n. p.]
• Georgel, Pierre ; Kijima, Shunsuke ; Nagai, Takanori, Chefs-d'oeuvre du musée de l'Orangerie : collection Jean Walter et Paul Guillaume, cat. exp. (Tokyo ; Nagoya ; Hiroshima ; Niigata ; Kyoto, 1998-1999) , Tokyo, NTV, 1998, n° 16, p. [56], 200, 201, repr. coul. p. [56], 57
• Georgel, Pierre ; Labiau, Jean-Pierre, De Renoir à Picasso : chefs d'oeuvre du musée de l'Orangerie, cat. exp. (Montréal ; Fort Worth, 2000-2001) , Montréal, Musée des Beaux-Arts, 2000, n° 17, p. 124, repr. coul. p. 122, 125
• Goldin, Marco ; Murphy, Alexandra ; Stuckey, Charles F., Monet : i luoghi della pittura, cat. exp. (Trévise, Casa dei Carraresi, du 29/09/2001 au 10/02/2002) , Conegliano, Linea d'ombra Libri, 2001, n° 18, p. 361-362, repr. coul. p. 85, 87 ( détail), 361 (Le Barche rosse, Argenteuil)
• Gesko, Judit ; Molnos, Peter ; Timar, Arpad, Monet et ses amis, cat. exp. (Budapest, Musée des beaux-arts, 2003-2004) , Budapest, Vince Kadio, 2003, n° 59, p. 242, repr. coul. p. [243]
• Finckh, Gerhardt, Claude Monet, cat. exp. (Wuppertal, Von der Heydt-Museum, du 11 octobre 2009 au 28 février 2009) , Wuppertal, Von der Heydt-Museum, 2009, (cat. p. 153, repr. coul., Die roten Boote, Argenteuil)
• Ferretti Bocquillon, Marina, L'Impressionnisme au fil de la Seine, cat. exp. (Giverny, Musée des Impressionnismes, 2010) , [s.n.], 2010, n° 27 (cat. p. 97, repr. coul., Les Bateaux rouges, Argenteuil)
• Amic, Sylvain ; Chardin, V. ; Nonne, M. ; David-Frank, J.-M. ; Eybert, M., Eblouissants reflets : cent chefs-d'oeuvre impressionnistes, cat. exp. (Rouen, musée des beaux-arts, du 29 avril au 30 septrembre 2013) , Rouen / Paris, musées de la Ville de Rouen / Réunion des musées nationaux, 2013, p. 45-46, repr. coul. p. 132-133
• Cogeval, Guy ; Rey, Xavier ; Bertone, Virginia ; Perrin, Paul ; Patin, Sylvie ; Badie Modiri, Elsa, Monet. Dalle collezioni del Musée d’Orsay, cat. exp. (Turin, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna et Contemporeana, 02 octobre 2015 au 31 janvier 2016) , Paris, Skira, 2015, cat. 17, p. 123 (reprod. coul.) ; p. 112 ; p. 113
• Chefs-d'oeuvre du Musée de l'Orangerie, collection Jean Walter et Paul Guillaume, cat. exp. (Yokohama Museum of Art, du 21 septembre 2019 au 13 janvier 2020) , Yokohama, Yokohama Museum of Art, 2019, n° 2, p. 40, pl. coul. p. 41

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Red Boats at Argenteuil, 1875 by Claude Monet

Monet painted the town and surrounding area of Argenteuil through the 1870s and in each instant created pictures of beauty and harmony, which were often at odds with the reality of the moment. Although an adherent of en plein air painting, Monet carefully chose the elements he wanted to include and often finished his canvases in the studio.

There is no hint in his paintings of the pollution in the river at Argenteuil or the disarray of a town throwing everything into its industry. In Red Boats at Argenteuil ,1875, Monet has constructed the composition through the use of the boats, especially in the verticals of the masts Here again he uses contrasting colours through his blues and orange and reds and greens.

The canvas is alive with colour, while the depth of the water is illustrated through the purples and blues. The brushstrokes ore uniform through the water in their choppy style, but the sky is more broadly painted with blurring and merging colours, creating a very distinct contrast between the depth of the water and the translucence of the sky.

Impression Sunrise

San giorgio maggiore at dusk, water lilies, the artist's garden at giverny, the poppy field near argenteuil, the waterlily pond, the garden of monet at argenteuil, poppy field, tulip fields, women in the garden, cliff walk at pourville, the garden at sainte-adresse, garden path at giverny, waterloo bridge, water lilies: morning, rouen cathedral, woman with a parasol.

Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat by Claude Monet (1840-1926)

From 1871 to 1878, Monet lived in Argenteuil on the outskirts of Paris. During this period, he fitted out a boat as a floating studio and painted many views of the River Seine and its banks. He made this picture in 1874, the year that the first Impressionist exhibition was held in Paris. Monet used distinct broken brushstrokes and complementary colours, to suggest light and movement. The shifting clouds, rippled water, autumn leaves, and gliding yacht further evoke a sense of transience. Most of the scene is composed of sky and reflections.

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Gallery Text

For most of the 1870s, Monet lived in Argenteuil, a town on the Seine only seventeen miles from Paris and accessible to the city by train. He often worked outdoors in his own boat and painted this basin several times, though the lower vantage point of this scene suggests a perspective from the shoreline. Eliminating the factory smokestacks that were in fact visible at this location, Monet instead highlights the area’s picturesque and recreational aspects, including the boat rental area on the left.

Impressionist painters like Monet deliberately eschewed the finished structure and line of academic painting, but the irresolution of this painting has led to its occasional categorization as a “study.” As revealed in x-radiographs, the artist reworked the composition in several areas, removing a sixth paddling duck on the left, for example, by painting over it. The band of lavender brushstrokes along the horizon line is the site of a similar revision.

Identification and Creation

Physical descriptions.

• Signed: l.l. Claude Monet 75

Acquisition and Rights

THIS WORK HAS SIGNIFICANT LOAN RESTRICTIONS BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Publication History

• 2e Exposition de peinture , exh. cat., Galerie Durand-Ruel (Paris, France, 1876), no. 160
• Monet-Rodin , exh. cat., Galerie Georges Petit (Paris, France, 1889), no. 27
• Arsène Alexandre, "La Collection E. L.", La Renaissance (October 1933 - November 1933), vol. XVI, pp. 182, 193
• Alfred M. Frankfurter, "Today's Collectors: Modern Milestones", Art News (June 1946), vol. XLV, no. 4, p. 64
• French Painting since 1870, lent by Maurice Wertheim, Class of 1906 , exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1946), p. 10, repr. p. 11
• John Rewald, The History of Impressionism [1st ed.] , The Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY, 1946), p. 347, repr. p. 285
• Oscar Reuterswärd, Monet, en konstnarshistorik , Albert Bonniers Förlag (Stockholm, Sweden, 1948), p. 282
• La Peinture Française Depuis 1870: Collection Maurice Wertheim , exh. cat., Tom Taylor (Québec, Canada, 1949), no. 3, pp. 9-10
• A Collector's Exhibition: Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Collections of Members of the Advisory Committee of the Institute of Fine Arts. , exh. cat., Knoedler & Co. Inc. (New York, NY, 1950), no. 4
• Howard Devree, "By French Masters: The Metropolitan Shows Wertheim Collection", The New York Times (New York, NY, July 6 1952), p. 6, p. 6
• John Canaday, Mainstreams of Modern Art , Henry Holt and Co. (New York, NY, 1959), repr. p. 96
• The Maurice Wertheim Catalogue: Modern French Art-- Monet to Picasso , exh. cat., North Carolina Museum of Art (Raleigh, NC, 1960), p. 28, repr. p. 28
• The Maurice Wertheim Collection: Manet to Picasso , exh. cat., The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Houston, TX, 1962), p. 32, pl. 11
• L'Opera completa di Claude Monet, 1870-1889 , Rizzoli (Milan, Italy, 1972), p. 97; repr. p. 96
• The Maurice Wertheim Collection , exh. cat., Maine State Museum (Augusta, ME, 1972), no. 20
• Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et Catalogue Raisonné , La Bibliothèque des Arts (Lausanne, Switzerland, 1974 - 1991), no. 369
• Robert L. Herbert, "Method and Meaning in Monet", Art In America (September 1979), vol. 67, pp. 90-108, p. 108
• Paul Hayes Tucker, Monet at Argenteuil , Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 1982), pl. XX, pp. 118-120, 149
• Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections , Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), no. 219, p. 192, repr. in color
• Helen Langdon, Impressionist Seasons , Phaidon Press (Oxford, England, 1986), repr. in color no. 11, p. 37; text p. 36
• John House, Monet: Nature into Art , Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 1986), pl. 20, pp. 18, 83
• Bernard Denvir, The Impressionists at First Hand , Thames & Hudson (London, England, 1987), repr. in b/w, p. 81
• John O'Brian, Degas to Matisse: the Maurice Wertheim Collection , Harry N. Abrams, Inc. and Fogg Art Museum (New York, NY and Cambridge, MA, 1988), no. 4, p. 45-47, repr. in color p. 46
• Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum , Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 120; repr. as no. 348
• The Maurice Wertheim Collection and Selected Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings and Drawings in the Fogg Art Museum , exh. cat., Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1990), repr. in color no. 5, p. 41
• Richard Mühlberger, O Que Faz de um Monet um Monet? , The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 1993), pp. 48-49, repr. in color with detail
• Richard Mühlberger, What Makes a Monet a Monet? , Metropolitan Museum of Art / Viking (New York, NY, 1993), repr. in color inside back cover and details, p. 48
• Lawrence S. Cunningham and John J. Reich, Culture and Values: A Survey of the Western Humanities , Harcourt Brace College Publishers (New York, NY, 1994), pp. 365-366, repr. in color fig 16.7
• Lynn Federle Orr, Monet: Late Paintings of Givenchy from the Musée Marmottan , exh. cat., Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (San Francisco, CA, 1994), p. 18, repr. in color fig. 4
• H. W. Janson and Anthony F. Janson, History of Art [5th ed.] , Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1995), pp. 705-706, repr. in color, fig. 949
• H. W. Janson and Anthony F. Janson, History of Art for Young People , Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1997), p. 462, fig. 396
• Christie's Impressionist and Nineteenth Century Art , auct. cat., Christie's, New York (New York NY, November 18 1998), under no. 13, repr. in color as fig. 3
• Norio Shimada and Keiko Sakagami, Claude Monet 1881-1926 , exh. cat., Toppan Tanc (Japan, 2001), p. 92, fig. 66, repr. in color
• Lawrence S. Cunningham and John J. Reich, Culture & Values: A Survey of the Humanities , Thomson Wadsworth (Belmont, CA, 2006), pp. 491-492, repr. in color as fig.18.7
• Elizabeth M. Rudy, "Researching the Wertheim Collection at the Harvard Art Museums", Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals (Summer 2014), Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 301-6, p. 303
• Camran Mani and Cecilia Zhou, ed., A Collection of Perspectives: Ho Family Student Guides at the Harvard Art Museums , Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, 2023), pp. 14-15, repr. p. 15

Exhibition History

• Deuxieme exposition de peinture , Rue le Peletier, Paris, 04/01/1876 - 04/30/1876
• Monet-Rodin , Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 01/01/1889 - 12/31/1889
• French Painting since 1870 lent by Maurice Wertheim, Class of 1906 , Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 06/01/1946 - 09/07/1946; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 07/01/1953 - 09/13/1953
• La Peinture Française depuis 1870 , Musée de la Province de Quebec, 07/12/1949 - 08/07/1949
• A Collector's Exhibition , M. Knoedler & Co., Newport, 02/06/1950 - 02/25/1950
• The Maurice Wertheim Collection , The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 07/01/1952 - 09/14/1952
• French Paintings Since 1870 from the Maurice Wertheim Collection , National Gallery of Art, Washington, 06/01/1953 - 09/30/1953
• The Maurice Wertheim Collection , Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 06/15/1957 - 09/15/1957
• The Maurice Wertheim Collection , Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 06/10/1958 - 08/31/1958
• The Maurice Wertheim Collection: Modern French Art--Monet to Picasso , North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, 06/17/1960 - 09/04/1960
• The Maurice Wertheim Collection: Manet to Picasso , The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, 06/13/1962 - 09/02/1962
• The Maurice Wertheim Collection , Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, 06/20/1963 - 09/01/1963
• The Maurice Wertheim Collection , Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, 06/24/1965 - 09/07/1965
• The Maurice Wertheim Collection , Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, 09/03/1968 - 09/22/1968
• The Maurice Wertheim Collection , Montgomery Museum of Art, Montgomery, 06/01/1971 - 09/30/1971
• The Maurice Wertheim Collection , Maine State Museum, Augusta, 06/01/1972 - 09/01/1972
• Manet to Matisse: The Maurice Wertheim Collection , IBM Gallery of Science and Art, New York, 04/09/1985 - 05/25/1985
• The Maurice Wertheim Collection and Selected Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings and Drawings in the Fogg Art Museum , Isetan Department Store, Tokyo, 03/01/1990 - 04/10/1990; Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, 04/14/1990 - 05/13/1990
• Re-View: S427 Impressionist & Postimpressionist Art , Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/02/2008 - 06/18/2011
• 32Q: 1220 Wertheim , Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

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Artist of original: Claude Monet

X-radiograph(s) of "red boats at argenteuil", verification level.

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Red Boats at Argenteuil   1875

by Claude Monet

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MONET'S WATERWORKS: Argenteuil (Red Boats) by Claude Monet

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Description:

ARGENTEUIL (RED BOATS), by Claude Monet, 1875, Oil on canvas

For the better part of the 1870s Claude Monet lived and painted in Argenteuil, a village northwest of Paris. The name Argenteuil is derived, in part, from the Latin “argento,” meaning silvery or shiny, and is thought to refer to the gleaming surface of the river Seine…

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"Red Boats at Argenteuil "

by Claude Monet

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Red Boats, Argenteuil

Claude monet 1875, harvard art museums cambridge, united states.

• Title: Red Boats, Argenteuil
• Creator Lifespan: 1840 - 1926
• Creator Nationality: French
• Creator Death Place: Giverny, France
• Creator Birth Place: Paris, France
• Physical Dimensions: w82.5 x h61.8 x d0.0 cm
• Credit Line: Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest from the Collection of Maurice Wertheim, Class of 1906
• Artist: Claude Monet
• Type: Paintings
• External Link: Harvard Art Museums
• Medium: Oil on canvas

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Le Pont d'Argenteuil

In 1874, the year of the first Impressionist exhibition, Claude Monet painted the Argenteuil Bridge seven times, and the railway bridge which spans the Seine upstream from the village, four times. This shows how attached the artist was to the motif, using the flowing river as a counterpoint for the geometrical mass of the bridge and its piles reflected in the water. Here the foreground is filled with sailboats at their mooring. The effects of light on the masts and on the roofs of the houses on the bank in the background are an opportunity for the play of complementary colours (orange and blue) which accentuate the glittering light. The Argenteuil Bridge exhibits great variety in treatment: the still firm outlines of the solid or structured elements, such as the sailboats and the bridge, a smooth, even texture for the water in the foreground, and choppy brushstrokes capturing the reflections in the middle ground.

Object details

History - provenance, exhibitions, about this object record.

• de 1874 à 1906, dans la collection Jean-Baptiste Faure (sans doute acquis de l'artiste en juin)
• en 1906, dans la collection Durand-Ruel, Paris (acquis le 11 juin et vendu le même jour à Antonin Personnaz)
• de 1906 à 1937, dans la collection Antonin Personnaz
• 1937, accepté par l'Etat à titre de legs d'Antonin Personnaz aux Musées nationaux pour le musée du Louvre (arrêté du 03/11/1937)
• 1937, attribué au musée du Louvre, Paris
• de 1937 à 1947, musée du Louvre, Paris
• de 1947 à 1954, musée du Louvre, galerie du Jeu de Paume, Paris
• de 1954 à 1967, musée du Louvre, Paris
• de 1967 à 1986, musée du Louvre, galerie du Jeu de Paume, Paris
• 1986, affecté au musée d'Orsay, Paris
• Deuxième exposition impressionniste - galerie Durand-Ruel - France, Paris, 1876, n°56
• Salon des XX - palais des Beaux-Arts - Belgique, Bruxelles, 1886, n°5
• Claude Monet, A. Rodin - galerie Georges Petit - France, Paris, 1889, n°24
• Exposition Universelle - Exposition centennale rétrospective de l'Art français de 1800 à 1889 - Galeries nationales du Grand Palais - France, Paris, 1900, n°490
• Dix-sept tableaux de Claude Monet de la collection Faure - galerie Durand-Ruel - France, Paris, 1906, n°9
• Claude Monet : exposition rétrospective - musée de l'Orangerie - France, Paris, 1931
• Chefs-d'oeuvre impressionistes - musée de l'Orangerie - France, Paris, 1956, n°5
• Hommage à Claude Monet - Galeries nationales du Grand Palais - France, Paris, 1980
• Claude Monet 1840-1926 - Galeries nationales du Grand Palais - France, Paris, 2010-2011
• Bazin, Germain ; Adhémar, Hélène ; Sérullaz, Maurice, Catalogue des peintures, pastels, sculptures impressionnistes , Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1958, n°245, p.130-131, non reprod.
• Adhémar, Hélène ; Dayez-Distel, Anne, Musée du Jeu de Paume - Catalogue rédigé , Paris, Editions des musées nationaux, 1977, p.157, reprod. p.68
• Rossi Bortolatto, Luigina ; Bailly-Herzberg, Janine, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Monet. 1870-1899 , Paris, Flammarion, 1981, n°96, p.94, reprod. p.95 et pl.XVII
• Patin, Sylvie ; Patry, Sylvie ; Roquebert, Anne ; Thomson, Richard, Monet, cat.exp. (Paris, Galeries nationales, Grand Palais, Paris, du 22 septembre 2010 au 24 janvier 2011) , Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux ; Musée d'Orsay, 2010, n° 35, p. 136
• Cogeval, Guy ; Rey, Xavier ; Bertone, Virginia ; Perrin, Paul ; Patin, Sylvie ; Badie Modiri, Elsa, Monet. Dalle collezioni del Musée d’Orsay, cat. exp. (Turin, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna et Contemporeana, 02 octobre 2015 au 31 janvier 2016) , Paris, Skira, 2015, ill. 2, p. 28 (reprod. coul.) ; p. 26 ; p. 29
• Wildenstein, Daniel, Claude Monet : catalogue raisonné Claude Monet. 1, 1840-1881, peintures , Paris, Bibliothèque des Arts ; Wildenstein institute, 1974, n°311
• Compin, Isabelle ; Roquebert, Anne, Catalogue sommaire illustré des peintures du Musée du Louvre et du Musée d'Orsay , Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1986, vol.4, p.105
• Compin, Isabelle [coordination] ; Lacambre, Geneviève [coordination] ; Roquebert, Anne, Musée d'Orsay. Catalogue sommaire illustré des peintures , Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1990, vol.2, p.333

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Other artworks from artist

Claude Monet, Grosse mer à Etretat

Claude Monet, Le Pavé de Chailly

Claude Monet, Saule pleureur

Claude Monet, Madame Louis Joachim Gaudibert

Claude Monet, La Seine à Argenteuil

Claude Monet, Femmes au jardin

Claude Monet, Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe

Claude Monet, La Pie

Category : Paintings of boats by Claude Monet

Subcategories.

This category has the following 10 subcategories, out of 10 total.

• Bateaux sur la plage à Étretat ‎ (3 F)
• Boats Moored at Le Petit-Gennevilliers by Claude Monet ‎ (6 F)
• Fishing boats at Étretat (1885) ‎ (5 F)
• Garden at Sainte-Adresse by Claude Monet ‎ (6 F)
• Monet - Mer agitée à Etretat ‎ (6 F)
• Paintings of rowboats by Claude Monet ‎ (1 C, 41 F)
• Red Boats at Argenteuil (1875) by Claude Monet ‎ (7 F)
• The Beach at Sainte-Adresse by Claude Monet ‎ (3 F)
• The Green Wave by Claude Monet ‎ (5 F)
• The Railway Bridge at Argenteuil, Claude Monet, musée d'Orsay, 1874 ‎ (8 F)

Media in category "Paintings of boats by Claude Monet"

The following 200 files are in this category, out of 236 total.

• Paintings by Claude Monet by subject
• Impressionist paintings of boats
• Paintings of boats by artist
• 1870s paintings by Claude Monet

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Impression, Sunrise, 1872

About the artwork.

Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926), Impression, Sunrise , 1872. Oil on canvas, 48 × 63 cm (18 15/16 × 24 13/16 in.), Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris, gift of Eugène and Victorine Donop de Monchy, 1940. Inv. 4014. Photo: © musée Marmottan Monet / Studio Christian Baraja SLB.

Claude Monet Boats and Ships Landscapes and Scenery Sunsets and Sunrises Transportation Waterscapes Harbors European Art Impressionism Weather Fog 19th Century Rowboats Paintings Paris 1874

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Why we love Monet’s masterpiece, coming to the U.S. for the first time

Monet’s “Impression, Sunrise,” one of the most famous paintings ever created, will soon be on view at the National Gallery.

It’s at least a little bit funny — isn’t it? — that Claude Monet’s “Impression, Sunrise” should be one of the most famous works of art ever created.

After all, it’s so slight — so almost not there!

“Impression, Sunrise,” which usually lives in Paris at the Musée Marmottan Monet , is in the United States for the first time. It’s the star item in “ Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment ,” opening Sept. 8 at the National Gallery of Art. Why do we love it so much?

With disdainful haste, Monet seems to have covered the 20-by-25-inch canvas with a lot of gray paint. He punctuated this desultory scene with a small, slightly off-center orange disk and some little boats in silhouette. This disk — the rising sun — accounts for the dirty smudge of pink and orange in the sky above and the collapsing ladder of orange rungs, tinged with white, reflected in the water beneath. Everything else (which is not much) is bluish gray.

When he painted it, in 1872, Monet had just returned from an extended spell in London, where he observed the smog-shrouded Thames. He also fell under the spell of J.M.W. Turner , who specialized in cloud, fog, sea spray and mist.

From his home in Argenteuil, on the western fringe of Paris, Monet traveled by train to the industrial port of Le Havre. He painted the port entrance, with its panoramic spread of cranes and masts and chimneys, from a hotel room on the Grand Quai.

Monet exhibited the painting, which he called “Impression, Sunrise,” along with four other oil paintings and seven pastel sketches, at the first impressionist exhibition in 1874. It didn’t get much attention. But the critic Louis Leroy did mention it — sarcastically, contemptuously — and in the process coined the term “impressionists.”

The National Gallery show’s title is apt: Impressionism really was a “moment.” No sooner had it triumphed, it seemed, than it was under siege — not just from conservatives who obsessed neurotically over everything they thought the new paintings lacked, but also from younger progressive artists who detected weaknesses in the movement’s underlying premises.

The post-impressionists moved quickly to correct these perceived faults. Cezanne used visual rhythms to give structure and solidity — compositional bones — to impressionist flux. Seurat imposed his own idea of scientific rigor on impressionist spontaneity. Gauguin and Van Gogh gave poetry, expressive color and symbolic meanings to a style that had eschewed ideas, aligning itself too slavishly (they felt) to the world of appearances.

Even the core impressionists copped to the critiques and changed their ways. Pissarro adopted the methods of Seurat. He and Renoir both turned to painting monumental figures in the landscape. (“You want bones? I’ll give you bones!”) Degas — never really much of an impressionist — loosened color from the duties of description and retreated into his own, poetic interior world.

Even Monet felt obliged to lend his pictures of transient light the possibility of deeper meanings. He did it by painting the same motif repeatedly in different weather, at different times of the day, and in different seasons.

But the idea of making a picture that captures but a moment — with no other overlay of meaning, no illusion of enduring structure — remains potent, and helps account, I think, for why we so love “Impression, Sunrise.”

What if every moment is, in fact, unrepeatable? What if there are no hidden meanings? What if life has no shape other than the one it appears to have: You are born, you live, and when you die, you disintegrate?

“What might not follow,” wrote the Australian novelist Gerald Murnane , “if there should be nothing more substantial in all our experience than those discoveries that seem too slight to signify anything apart from their own brief occurrence?”

Sigmund Freud, in an essay on transience , addressed the despair felt by those who recognize that everything beautiful and precious will eventually meet with its own demise. Perhaps, suggested Freud, an awareness of transience might encourage us to find more value in fleeting moments, just as we attribute greater value to objects because they are scarce. “Transience value is scarcity value in time,” he wrote.

So then: Come and see this painting before it goes back to Paris. Come and see it while you can.

About this story

Image provided by the National Museum of Art in Washington, D.C.

Impression, Sunrise ( 1872 )

Claude Monet (b. 1840 ). National Gallery of Art.

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