A sun-dappled dirt road runs away from us, parallel to a shimmering body of water under a blue sky dotted with white clouds in this horizontal landscape painting. The scene is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes, so some details are difficult to make out. The road moves back in space from the lower right corner of the canvas. It is lined with tall thin trees with narrow, dark green canopies to our right and with marshy grasses to our left. The road ends or curves in front of a row of terracotta-orange and gray buildings and smokestacks along the horizon, which comes about a third of the way up this composition. Two women and a child stand and sit in the shadows at the base of the trees to our right. Two sailboats drift on the glassy surface of the water. A row of celery-green trees on the horizon to our left and the sails of the boats reflect in the water. The artist signed the lower right corner, “Claude Monet.”
Read the visual description

A sun-dappled dirt road runs away from us, parallel to a shimmering body of water under a blue sky dotted with white clouds in this horizontal landscape painting. The scene is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes, so some details are difficult to make out. The road moves back in space from the lower right corner of the canvas. It is lined with tall thin trees with narrow, dark green canopies to our right and with marshy grasses to our left. The road ends or curves in front of a row of terracotta-orange and gray buildings and smokestacks along the horizon, which comes about a third of the way up this composition. Two women and a child stand and sit in the shadows at the base of the trees to our right. Two sailboats drift on the glassy surface of the water. A row of celery-green trees on the horizon to our left and the sails of the boats reflect in the water. The artist signed the lower right corner, “Claude Monet.”

National Gallery of Art · Painting

Argenteuil

Claude Monet

Date
c. 1872
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 50.4 x 65.2 cm (19 13/16 x 25 11/16 in.) framed: 70.8 x 85.7 x 8.3 cm (27 7/8 x 33 3/4 x 3 1/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Accession number
1970.17.42
Credit line
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection
Time span
1851 to 1875
Department
CF

Subjects and terms

  • painted surface
  • French
  • France
  • landscape
  • Impressionist
  • French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century. Part II: Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
  • Waterway
  • Argenteuil
Provenance

Possibly purchased 1872 from the artist by (Durand-Ruel, Paris).[1] Mlle Marguerite Hugo, Paris, by c. 1957;[2] sold 1965 to (Wildenstein and Co., London, New York and Paris);[3] sold 14 March 1966 to Ailsa Mellon Bruce [1901-1969], New York; bequest 1970 to NGA. [1] Daniel Wildenstein, _Monet [vol. 1: The Triumph of Impressionism; vols. 2-4: Catalogue raisonné - Werkverzeichnis]_, 4 vols., Cologne and Paris, 1996: 2:99, no. 223, repro. [2] The painting was lent by Mlle Hugo to the 1957 Arts Council of Great Britain exhibition shown in Edinburgh and London. In the Wildenstein prospectus (in NGA curatorial files), she is identified as the great-granddaughter of Victor Hugo. [3] Acquisition source and date according to letter from Joseph Baillio of Wildenstein dated 14 December 1998, in NGA curatorial files.

Inscription

lower right: Claude Monet.

NGA object ID 52186. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.