Claude Monet

Durand-Ruel, Paris (acquired from the artist in 1872)
Ernst Hoschedé, Paris (acquired from the above in 1873)
Hadengue-Sandras (sold: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, February 2-3, 1880, lot 57)
Henri Rouart, Paris (acquired circa 1891 and sold; Manzi-Joyant, Paris, December 9-11, 1912, lot 253)
Louis Rouart, Paris
Arthur Tooth & Sons, Ltd., London
Lord Milford, Great Britain (acquired from the above in 1936)
Hon. Hanning Phillips, Great Britain (by descent from the above)
Sale: Christie's, London, June 30, 1970, lot 28
Ronald Lyon, London
Private Collection, Switzerland
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1987

London, Arthur Tooth & Sons, Ltd., Cl. Monet, 1936, no. 22
London, The Lefevre Gallery, Cl. Monet, The Early Years, 1969, no. 9
New York, Acquavella Gallery, Cl. Monet, 1976, no. 10
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996 (summer loan)
Washington, D.C., The Phillips Collection, Impressionists on the Seine: A Celebration of Renoir's "Luncheon of the Boating Party", 1996-97, no. 15

A. Dayot, "A travers les collections parisiennes," L'Art dans les Deux Mondes, Paris, April 25, 1891, p. 272
Arsène Alexandre, La Collection Henri Rouart, Paris, 1912, p. 105
A. Dalligny, "Collection H. Rouart, " Le Journal des Arts, November 30, 1912, p. 1
"Monets on Exhibition in London," Illustrated London News, March 21, 1936, illustrated p. 517
"Claude Monet," New Statesman, London, March 28, 1936
T. Combie, "Early Monet to Masterly May," Apollo, May 1969, illustrated p. 39
Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet, Biographie et Catalogue Raisonné, vol. I, Lausanne-Paris, 1974, no. 221, illustrated p. 211
H. Mullaly, "Seasonal Samplings," Apollo, London, December 1975, illustrated p. 472
Paul Hayes Tucker, Monet at Argenteuil, New Haven and London, 1982, fig. 1, illustrated p. 5
Robert Gordon and Andrew Forge, Monet, New York, 1983, illustrated p. 62 
Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet Catalogue Raisonné, vol. V, Lausanne-Paris, 1991, no. 221,  catalogued p. 26
Virginia Spate, Claude Monet, Life and Work, New York, 1992, no. 114, illustrated p. 104
Daniel Wildenstein, Monet, catalogue raisonné, vol. II, Cologne, 1996, no. 221, illustrated p. 89

Prior to 1873, France, along with the rest of western Europe, enjoyed a period of prosperity due to advances in industry, technology, wages and standards of living.  Those who could afford it moved to once-rural areas that were now quickly and easily accessible to Paris by train.  With their increased earnings, a leisure class of boaters and Sunday travelers emerged in these suburbs.  Factories replaced inexpensive farmland and soon began to appear just outside the city. Monet and his fellow painters delighted in depicting the symbols of progress that emerged across the landscape.   In December 1871 while enjoying a more steady stream of income from the sale of his pictures, Monet moved to Argenteuil, a nearby suburb of Paris, where he lived for the next six years.  Inspired by the picturesque scenery of the Seine that coexisted harmoniously with such emblems of modern life as smokestacks, boaters and well-dressed promenaders, Monet painted Les Bords de la Seine à Argenteuil less than a year after his arrival. 

In this scene, Monet is looking west, and the viewer is drawn in by the well-worn path that follows the river.  To the right of the center of the canvas, he depicts the Château Michelet, a grand Louis XIII-style home flanked by smokestacks visible in the distance.   Nearly camouflaged by the trees, one of these industrial structures emits dark smoke that, like a flag,  indicates the direction of the wind.  Three figures in hats and coats are silhouetted against the light water, and their forms are echoed by the trees that frame the architecture.  Painting simply what he sees, Monet captures the effects of a hidden sun illuminating the clouds from a position below the horizon and behind the mass of trees.  This spectacular depiction of the effects of light foretells the arrival of the movement with which Monet would be most closely associated; later in 1872 he painted Impression, Sunrise, from which Impressionism would later derive its name.

Monet’s enthusiasm for Argenteuil and the subjects it provided is evidenced by the fact that he painted forty-six pictures in his first year there. He depicted the same view westward along the Seine towards the Château Michelet in three other works of the same year (see fig. 1, 2 and 3).  The artist continued to feature Argenteuil in many of the landscapes that he would complete in the years to come, and this picture is essentially one of the first expressions of his love for the location.  According to Daniel Wildenstein, this scene is no longer recognizable in the Argenteuil of today.  The chateau was eventually replaced by a factory, transforming the landscape dramatically.  Monet's composition is thus a reminder of the radical transformations that the French countryside would undergo at the turn of the century.  As a testament of history and as a mature work in the style that would dominate the avant-garde for the next two decades, this canvas is truly important within the context ot the burgeoning Impressionist movement.

Fig. 1, Claude Monet, La Promenade d'Argenteuil, 1872, oil on canvas, Private Collection, Switzerland

Fig. 2, Claude Monet, La Promenade d'Argenteuil, 1872, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Fig. 3, Claude Monet, Argenteuil fin d'après-midi, 1872, oil on canvas, Private Collection, Switzerland