Monet before 1879
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Paris
Chronology : 1870-1879 1877
See also : Paris
Chronology : 1870-1879 1877
masterpiece
1868-1869 La Pie
Musée d'Orsay
La pie by Monet (Musée d'Orsay) : artist's motivation and influences, breakthrough and legacy.
Claude Monet's La Pie (The Magpie), 1868–1869, housed in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, is one of the artist's most celebrated early works and a pivotal precursor to Impressionism. Painted in oil on canvas (89 × 130 cm), it depicts a solitary black magpie perched on a rustic wooden gate in a snow-covered countryside near Étretat, Normandy. The scene is bathed in soft winter light, with long blue-violet shadows cast across the pristine snow, creamy whites varying in tone, and subtle yellow highlights from the sunlight.
Artist's Motivation
Monet was driven by a desire to capture fleeting "effects" of nature—particularly the transitory play of light and atmosphere—rather than mere description. In the late 1860s, he extended this approach to challenging winter conditions, painting en plein air (outdoors) to record sensations directly from observation. Supported by patron Louis Joachim Gaudibert, who provided a house in Étretat for Monet, his partner Camille Doncieux, and their son Jean, he spent the harsh winter of 1868–1869 immersed in the landscape. Monet wrote to friend Frédéric Bazille about working constantly outdoors, believing he would produce "some serious things." The magpie itself serves as a simple, contemplative focal point—like "a note on a staff of music"—amid the vast, shimmering snow, emphasizing poetic subtlety over dramatic motifs.InfluencesMonet drew from several key sources:
Breakthrough
Painted five years before the first Impressionist exhibition (1874), La Pie marks an early breakthrough in Impressionist landscape painting. It exemplifies Monet's innovative use of a restricted, luminous palette—pale creams, blues, grays, and yellows—to convey the "all the colour in a snowy day." Shadows are not black or gray but blue-violet, created by reflected light, challenging academic conventions. Executed with broken brushwork and attention to aerial perspective, the work dissolves form into light and atmosphere, prioritizing immediate impressions over detail. Submitted to the 1869 Paris Salon alongside another painting, it was rejected by the jury for its daring novelty—too pale, sketch-like, and perception-focused rather than descriptive. Critics and the public were shocked; one noted the audience was "flabbergasted by this pale painting," accustomed to darker academic styles. This rejection highlighted the growing divide between innovative artists and traditional institutions.
Legacy
Today, La Pie is regarded as a masterpiece and one of Monet's finest snowscapes (he produced around 140 winter scenes). Acquired by the Musée d'Orsay in 1984, it ranks among the museum's most popular works, celebrated for its chromatic virtuosity, delicate contrasts, and evocation of winter's chill yet luminous beauty. It influenced Monet's later serial works (e.g., Haystacks) and helped redefine Western art's approach to light, color, and perception. Art historians praise its "virtuoso color performance" and role in Impressionism's foundations, symbolizing the movement's enduring appeal in capturing ephemeral natural effects.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Claude Monet's La Pie (The Magpie), 1868–1869, housed in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, is one of the artist's most celebrated early works and a pivotal precursor to Impressionism. Painted in oil on canvas (89 × 130 cm), it depicts a solitary black magpie perched on a rustic wooden gate in a snow-covered countryside near Étretat, Normandy. The scene is bathed in soft winter light, with long blue-violet shadows cast across the pristine snow, creamy whites varying in tone, and subtle yellow highlights from the sunlight.
Artist's Motivation
Monet was driven by a desire to capture fleeting "effects" of nature—particularly the transitory play of light and atmosphere—rather than mere description. In the late 1860s, he extended this approach to challenging winter conditions, painting en plein air (outdoors) to record sensations directly from observation. Supported by patron Louis Joachim Gaudibert, who provided a house in Étretat for Monet, his partner Camille Doncieux, and their son Jean, he spent the harsh winter of 1868–1869 immersed in the landscape. Monet wrote to friend Frédéric Bazille about working constantly outdoors, believing he would produce "some serious things." The magpie itself serves as a simple, contemplative focal point—like "a note on a staff of music"—amid the vast, shimmering snow, emphasizing poetic subtlety over dramatic motifs.InfluencesMonet drew from several key sources:
- Gustave Courbet, whose grand effets de neige (snow effects) inspired Monet and peers like Pissarro, Renoir, and Sisley to tackle snow landscapes, though Monet toned down Courbet's lyricism and avoided hunting scenes.
- Eugène Boudin and Johan Barthold Jongkind, mentors who introduced him to en plein air painting and prioritizing optical (perceived) color over local (actual) color.
- Emerging color theories from Michel Eugène Chevreul and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, explaining colored shadows and simultaneous contrast—evident in the vibrant blue shadows from yellow sunlight on snow.
Breakthrough
Painted five years before the first Impressionist exhibition (1874), La Pie marks an early breakthrough in Impressionist landscape painting. It exemplifies Monet's innovative use of a restricted, luminous palette—pale creams, blues, grays, and yellows—to convey the "all the colour in a snowy day." Shadows are not black or gray but blue-violet, created by reflected light, challenging academic conventions. Executed with broken brushwork and attention to aerial perspective, the work dissolves form into light and atmosphere, prioritizing immediate impressions over detail. Submitted to the 1869 Paris Salon alongside another painting, it was rejected by the jury for its daring novelty—too pale, sketch-like, and perception-focused rather than descriptive. Critics and the public were shocked; one noted the audience was "flabbergasted by this pale painting," accustomed to darker academic styles. This rejection highlighted the growing divide between innovative artists and traditional institutions.
Legacy
Today, La Pie is regarded as a masterpiece and one of Monet's finest snowscapes (he produced around 140 winter scenes). Acquired by the Musée d'Orsay in 1984, it ranks among the museum's most popular works, celebrated for its chromatic virtuosity, delicate contrasts, and evocation of winter's chill yet luminous beauty. It influenced Monet's later serial works (e.g., Haystacks) and helped redefine Western art's approach to light, color, and perception. Art historians praise its "virtuoso color performance" and role in Impressionism's foundations, symbolizing the movement's enduring appeal in capturing ephemeral natural effects.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1870 La Plage à Trouville
2000 SOLD for £ 11M by Sotheby's
Aged 30 in 1870, Claude Monet spent the summer in Trouville sur Mer with his newlywed Camille and their baby son. A painter specializing in the bourgeois scenes in seaside landscapes, he painted outdoors alongside with Eugène Boudin who had been his mentor since the later 1850s. Boudin was a specialist of views by the sea in bright daylight.
A view of the picturesque old fashioned beachfront at Trouville at high tide, oil on canvas 48 x 74 cm, was sold by Sotheby's for £ 11M on June 27, 2000, lot 14 and for £ 7.7M by Sotheby's on June 25, 2008, lot 10. The composition is nicely balanced with strollers under their beach umbrellas and sun hats at the middle distance, plus a few sailing boats and a steamer on the sea.
Already appealed by series, Monet also painted the same view at low tide. There is no evidence that they have ever been exhibited together.
The use of vivid colors in a happy scenery under the direct influence of Boudin marks a breakthrough in Monet's art.
A view of the picturesque old fashioned beachfront at Trouville at high tide, oil on canvas 48 x 74 cm, was sold by Sotheby's for £ 11M on June 27, 2000, lot 14 and for £ 7.7M by Sotheby's on June 25, 2008, lot 10. The composition is nicely balanced with strollers under their beach umbrellas and sun hats at the middle distance, plus a few sailing boats and a steamer on the sea.
Already appealed by series, Monet also painted the same view at low tide. There is no evidence that they have ever been exhibited together.
The use of vivid colors in a happy scenery under the direct influence of Boudin marks a breakthrough in Monet's art.
1870 Camille assise sur la plage à Trouville
2018 SOLD for $ 12.1M by Christie's
In 1870 on the fashionable sea shore at Trouville, Claude Monet watched the leisure goers including of course his new wife.
Seated on a chair in the beach, Camille is fully dressed according to the convenience of the time. A parasol and a veil are protecting her against sun and sand.
Camille assise sur la plage à Trouville is an unusual portrait with the features of the woman in the shadow of the parasol and some loss in details. She turns her back to the sea populated by a sail boat at mid distance and some ships on the horizon. The plein air work was certainly disturbed by the wind and the brush stroke is broader than usual for the artist.
This oil on canvas 46 x 38 cm was sold for $ 12.1M by Christie's on May 8, 2018, lot 30. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Meanwhile the catastrophic beginning of French war with Prussia was a major concern. On October 6 Monet fled France to London directly from Trouville with his young family.
Seated on a chair in the beach, Camille is fully dressed according to the convenience of the time. A parasol and a veil are protecting her against sun and sand.
Camille assise sur la plage à Trouville is an unusual portrait with the features of the woman in the shadow of the parasol and some loss in details. She turns her back to the sea populated by a sail boat at mid distance and some ships on the horizon. The plein air work was certainly disturbed by the wind and the brush stroke is broader than usual for the artist.
This oil on canvas 46 x 38 cm was sold for $ 12.1M by Christie's on May 8, 2018, lot 30. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Meanwhile the catastrophic beginning of French war with Prussia was a major concern. On October 6 Monet fled France to London directly from Trouville with his young family.
1871 L'Embarcadère
2015 SOLD for £ 10.2M by Sotheby's
The famous Déjeuner sur l'Herbe painted by Manet in 1862-1863 did not leave indifferent his younger friends. This bold painting opened the way to the theme of popular pleasures and dance gardens.
In 1869 Monet and Renoir assiduously attend La Grenouillère, a place for fun and boating founded in 1850 on an island of the Seine at Croissy, far from the austere bourgeois way of life. Also far from academic doctrines, the two young artists are experimenting with compositions and colors, with a sharp line that does not yet announce the Impressionism.
On February 3, 2015, Sotheby's sold for £ 10.2M from a lower estimate of £ 7.5M an oil on canvas 54 x 74 cm titled L'Embarcadère (the pier) and signed by Monet, lot 29, showing the quiet activities of groups at the edge of a river. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
This picture is typical of the style of the young artists in La Grenouillère, but some details enable to locate it at Zaandam in 1871 when Claude is now the gentle husband of Camille. The young woman with a pink parasol, also figured in another view of Zaandam, is certainly Camille and some architectural details appear to be Dutch.
In 1869 Monet and Renoir assiduously attend La Grenouillère, a place for fun and boating founded in 1850 on an island of the Seine at Croissy, far from the austere bourgeois way of life. Also far from academic doctrines, the two young artists are experimenting with compositions and colors, with a sharp line that does not yet announce the Impressionism.
On February 3, 2015, Sotheby's sold for £ 10.2M from a lower estimate of £ 7.5M an oil on canvas 54 x 74 cm titled L'Embarcadère (the pier) and signed by Monet, lot 29, showing the quiet activities of groups at the edge of a river. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
This picture is typical of the style of the young artists in La Grenouillère, but some details enable to locate it at Zaandam in 1871 when Claude is now the gentle husband of Camille. The young woman with a pink parasol, also figured in another view of Zaandam, is certainly Camille and some architectural details appear to be Dutch.
masterpiece
1872 Impression Soleil Levant
Musée Marmottan
Claude Monet was not a theorist. He progressed by releasing his emotion. The Impression soleil levant painted in 1872 fades within the fog the real features of the view. This painting is a burst of intuition and is described in the history of art as the cornerstone of Impressionnisme.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Impression, Soleil Levant (Impression, Sunrise), painted by Claude Monet in 1872, is one of the most iconic works in art history. Housed at the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, this small oil on canvas (about 48 x 63 cm) depicts the port of Le Havre, Monet's hometown in Normandy, at dawn. The hazy scene captures the rising sun as an orange-red orb piercing through misty industrial vapors, with boats and cranes loosely suggested through rapid brushstrokes.
Here’s a focused overview of the artist's motivation and influences, its breakthrough, and its enduring legacy.
Artist's Motivation and Influences
Monet painted Impression, Soleil Levant during a visit to Le Havre in late 1872 (likely November), working quickly from a hotel window overlooking the harbor. His primary motivation was to capture the fleeting effects of light, atmosphere, and color at a specific moment—here, the misty dawn enveloping the modern, industrial port. Rather than a detailed, realistic representation, he aimed to convey his immediate impression of the scene: the play of orange and blue tones, reflections on water, and the vaporous haze from steamboat smoke and morning fog.
This approach stemmed from Monet's evolving plein air (outdoor) practice and rejection of academic finish. Key influences include:
Breakthrough
The painting debuted in April 1874 at the first exhibition of the Société Anonyme des Artistes Peintres (held in Nadar's studio), organized by Monet, Renoir, Degas, Pissarro, Sisley, and others as an alternative to the conservative Salon. Critics mocked the show, but Monet's work drew particular scorn.
Satirical critic Louis Leroy, in Le Charivari, sarcastically titled his review "The Exhibition of the Impressionists," riffing on Monet's title to deride the loose, unfinished style: "Impression—I was certain of it... Wallpaper in an embryonic state is more finished than that seascape." Though meant as mockery, the term "Impressionism" stuck—first negatively, then proudly adopted by the artists and supporters like Jules Castagnary.
This marked the official naming and public breakthrough of Impressionism as a movement, emphasizing perception, light, color, and modern subjects over academic precision.
Legacy
Impression, Soleil Levant is widely regarded as the founding work of Impressionism, encapsulating its core principles: spontaneity, en plein air painting, broken brushwork, and focus on momentary sensations. It shifted art toward subjective experience and paved the way for modernism.
The painting's journey includes ownership changes, a dramatic theft from the Musée Marmottan in 1985 (recovered in 1990), and exhibitions worldwide. It remains the jewel of the Musée Marmottan Monet's collection, which holds the world's largest Monet ensemble.
Its influence endures in how we view light, color, and perception in art—shaping Post-Impressionism, abstraction, and beyond. Monet later revisited similar titles (e.g., other "impressions"), but this one forever defined an era.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Impression, Soleil Levant (Impression, Sunrise), painted by Claude Monet in 1872, is one of the most iconic works in art history. Housed at the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, this small oil on canvas (about 48 x 63 cm) depicts the port of Le Havre, Monet's hometown in Normandy, at dawn. The hazy scene captures the rising sun as an orange-red orb piercing through misty industrial vapors, with boats and cranes loosely suggested through rapid brushstrokes.
Here’s a focused overview of the artist's motivation and influences, its breakthrough, and its enduring legacy.
Artist's Motivation and Influences
Monet painted Impression, Soleil Levant during a visit to Le Havre in late 1872 (likely November), working quickly from a hotel window overlooking the harbor. His primary motivation was to capture the fleeting effects of light, atmosphere, and color at a specific moment—here, the misty dawn enveloping the modern, industrial port. Rather than a detailed, realistic representation, he aimed to convey his immediate impression of the scene: the play of orange and blue tones, reflections on water, and the vaporous haze from steamboat smoke and morning fog.
This approach stemmed from Monet's evolving plein air (outdoor) practice and rejection of academic finish. Key influences include:
- Eugène Boudin and Johan Barthold Jongkind, who encouraged Monet's early focus on skies, sea, and transient weather effects through direct observation.
- The Barbizon School (e.g., Rousseau, Millet), which emphasized natural landscapes and outdoor sketching.
- Japanese prints (ukiyo-e by artists like Hokusai and Hiroshige), which Monet collected; their flattened perspectives, bold cropping, and atmospheric water depictions echo in the composition's simplicity and blending of elements.
- Exposure to Turner and Claude Lorrain during Monet's 1870–1871 stay in London, reinforcing his interest in light and mood over precise form.
Breakthrough
The painting debuted in April 1874 at the first exhibition of the Société Anonyme des Artistes Peintres (held in Nadar's studio), organized by Monet, Renoir, Degas, Pissarro, Sisley, and others as an alternative to the conservative Salon. Critics mocked the show, but Monet's work drew particular scorn.
Satirical critic Louis Leroy, in Le Charivari, sarcastically titled his review "The Exhibition of the Impressionists," riffing on Monet's title to deride the loose, unfinished style: "Impression—I was certain of it... Wallpaper in an embryonic state is more finished than that seascape." Though meant as mockery, the term "Impressionism" stuck—first negatively, then proudly adopted by the artists and supporters like Jules Castagnary.
This marked the official naming and public breakthrough of Impressionism as a movement, emphasizing perception, light, color, and modern subjects over academic precision.
Legacy
Impression, Soleil Levant is widely regarded as the founding work of Impressionism, encapsulating its core principles: spontaneity, en plein air painting, broken brushwork, and focus on momentary sensations. It shifted art toward subjective experience and paved the way for modernism.
The painting's journey includes ownership changes, a dramatic theft from the Musée Marmottan in 1985 (recovered in 1990), and exhibitions worldwide. It remains the jewel of the Musée Marmottan Monet's collection, which holds the world's largest Monet ensemble.
Its influence endures in how we view light, color, and perception in art—shaping Post-Impressionism, abstraction, and beyond. Monet later revisited similar titles (e.g., other "impressions"), but this one forever defined an era.
Japanese Ukiyo-e Influences on Claude Monet and Impression, Soleil Levant
(with special attention to Hokusai's The Great Wave off Kanagawa)
The Japanese woodblock print tradition of ukiyo-e ("pictures of the floating world") profoundly influenced Claude Monet and the birth of Impressionism in the late 19th century. This cross-cultural exchange, known as Japonisme, surged after Japan reopened to Western trade in the 1850s–1860s, flooding Europe with affordable, vibrant prints by masters such as Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Hiroshige, and Kitagawa Utamaro.
Monet became one of the movement's most passionate collectors, eventually owning over 200 prints—many still preserved in his Giverny home—including numerous works by Hokusai and Hiroshige. He first encountered ukiyo-e around 1871 (possibly in Amsterdam, where prints were used as wrapping paper), and their radical aesthetic offered a liberating alternative to Western academic conventions: flat color planes, bold outlines, asymmetrical compositions, cropped perspectives, emphasis on transient atmospheric effects, and a focus on fleeting moments of nature and modern life rather than idealized historical or narrative subjects.
Key Ukiyo-e Influences on Impression, Soleil Levant (1872)
Monet's painting of the misty Le Havre harbor at dawn—where an orange-red sun pierces through industrial haze—was driven primarily by his plein air practice and desire to capture ephemeral light and atmosphere. Yet ukiyo-e principles subtly reinforced and amplified his approach.
Hokusai's masterpiece from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji—a towering, claw-like wave crashing over boats with Mount Fuji serene in the distance—is one of the most iconic ukiyo-e prints.
While Impression, Soleil Levant depicts a calm, hazy dawn rather than a stormy sea, Hokusai's wave contributed indirectly but powerfully to Monet's evolving style:
Broader Legacy in Monet's Oeuvre
Ukiyo-e's influence extended far beyond this single painting. Monet's later serial works (haystacks, Rouen Cathedral, water lilies) echo Hokusai's repeated views of Mount Fuji under changing conditions and Hiroshige's seasonal landscapes. Monet even designed his Giverny garden with a Japanese bridge and imported plants, painting it repeatedly in ways that evoke ukiyo-e bridges and atmospheric nature scenes.
In essence, Japanese prints—led by Hokusai's dramatic Great Wave and Hiroshige's subtle atmospheres—helped Monet (and Impressionism) embrace subjective perception, momentary sensation, pure color, and modern subjects. This transformative exchange remains one of the most significant in modern art history, with Impression, Soleil Levant standing as the movement's founding emblem.
(with special attention to Hokusai's The Great Wave off Kanagawa)
The Japanese woodblock print tradition of ukiyo-e ("pictures of the floating world") profoundly influenced Claude Monet and the birth of Impressionism in the late 19th century. This cross-cultural exchange, known as Japonisme, surged after Japan reopened to Western trade in the 1850s–1860s, flooding Europe with affordable, vibrant prints by masters such as Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Hiroshige, and Kitagawa Utamaro.
Monet became one of the movement's most passionate collectors, eventually owning over 200 prints—many still preserved in his Giverny home—including numerous works by Hokusai and Hiroshige. He first encountered ukiyo-e around 1871 (possibly in Amsterdam, where prints were used as wrapping paper), and their radical aesthetic offered a liberating alternative to Western academic conventions: flat color planes, bold outlines, asymmetrical compositions, cropped perspectives, emphasis on transient atmospheric effects, and a focus on fleeting moments of nature and modern life rather than idealized historical or narrative subjects.
Key Ukiyo-e Influences on Impression, Soleil Levant (1872)
Monet's painting of the misty Le Havre harbor at dawn—where an orange-red sun pierces through industrial haze—was driven primarily by his plein air practice and desire to capture ephemeral light and atmosphere. Yet ukiyo-e principles subtly reinforced and amplified his approach.
- Atmospheric haze, mist, and blending of elements — The vaporous merging of sky, water, and steamboat smoke echoes Hiroshige's masterful gradations in dawn and foggy harbor scenes, where soft, diffused light and minimal detail create poetic ambiguity.
- Economy of means and suggestion over precise detail — Monet evokes boats, masts, and water reflections with rapid, loose brushstrokes and mere squiggles—mirroring how ukiyo-e artists used minimal lines to imply forms, waves, or figures, aligning with Impressionism's rejection of academic finish.
- Asymmetrical composition, cropping, and immediacy — The off-center sun and boats pushed to the edges create a snapshot-like feel, reminiscent of ukiyo-e's unconventional framing and negative space.
- Bold color contrasts and non-naturalistic palettes — Monet's vivid orange sun against blue-gray haze reflects ukiyo-e's innovative use of flat, pure colors (notably Prussian blue in many prints) to convey mood and light over realism.
Hokusai's masterpiece from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji—a towering, claw-like wave crashing over boats with Mount Fuji serene in the distance—is one of the most iconic ukiyo-e prints.
While Impression, Soleil Levant depicts a calm, hazy dawn rather than a stormy sea, Hokusai's wave contributed indirectly but powerfully to Monet's evolving style:
- Dynamic water and captured movement — Hokusai renders the wave's frothing energy and swirling forms with fluid, curving lines and suggestion, prioritizing motion over meticulous detail. Monet applies a similar economy to imply rippling water and harbor traffic.
- Dramatic asymmetry and tension — The wave's off-center dominance and tiny boats below create immediate, visceral impact—paralleling Monet's cropped, off-balance framing that conveys a fleeting "captured moment."
- Themes of transience and nature's power amid human activity — Both works blend ephemeral atmospheric conditions (crashing wave vs. dissolving dawn mist) with everyday human elements (boats in peril vs. industrial harbor life), reflecting ukiyo-e's celebration of the "floating world" of impermanence.
Broader Legacy in Monet's Oeuvre
Ukiyo-e's influence extended far beyond this single painting. Monet's later serial works (haystacks, Rouen Cathedral, water lilies) echo Hokusai's repeated views of Mount Fuji under changing conditions and Hiroshige's seasonal landscapes. Monet even designed his Giverny garden with a Japanese bridge and imported plants, painting it repeatedly in ways that evoke ukiyo-e bridges and atmospheric nature scenes.
In essence, Japanese prints—led by Hokusai's dramatic Great Wave and Hiroshige's subtle atmospheres—helped Monet (and Impressionism) embrace subjective perception, momentary sensation, pure color, and modern subjects. This transformative exchange remains one of the most significant in modern art history, with Impression, Soleil Levant standing as the movement's founding emblem.
Hiroshige's Misty Seascapes and Their Influence on Claude Monet and Impression, Soleil Levant
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), also known as Andō Hiroshige, stands as one of the greatest masters of ukiyo-e woodblock prints, renowned for his poetic landscapes that capture the transient beauty of nature—especially weather phenomena like mist, fog, rain, snow, and dawn light. Unlike Hokusai's dramatic, bold energy (e.g., The Great Wave), Hiroshige favored softer, atmospheric effects, subtle gradations of color, and evocative moods that convey a sense of impermanence and harmony. His works often depict travel routes, famous views, and everyday scenes enveloped in haze or vapor, making him a key figure in Japonisme's impact on Western art.
Hiroshige produced thousands of prints, with landscapes dominating his output. He excelled at rendering misty seascapes, foggy harbors, dawn mists, and atmospheric marine views, using innovative techniques like bokashi (graduated color printing) to create soft transitions between sky, water, and mist. These elements produce layered, dreamlike scenes where forms dissolve into ambient light and weather.
Notable Misty Seascapes and Atmospheric Prints by Hiroshige
Hiroshige's series frequently feature coastal or riverine scenes shrouded in fog or morning mist:
Influence on Monet and Impression, Soleil Levant (1872)
Monet, who amassed a large collection of Hiroshige prints (alongside Hokusai and others), drew significant inspiration from Hiroshige's atmospheric mastery. While Impression, Soleil Levant captures the industrial port of Le Havre at dawn—orange sun piercing blue-gray industrial haze—scholars frequently cite Hiroshige's misty harbors and dawn seascapes as closer visual and conceptual parallels than Hokusai's stormy waves.
Specific parallels include:
Broader Legacy
Hiroshige's misty seascapes and weather-focused landscapes influenced not only Monet but also Van Gogh (who copied Hiroshige prints) and other Impressionists/Post-Impressionists. His emphasis on poetic atmosphere, serial views under varying conditions, and the "floating world" of impermanence helped shift Western art toward subjective perception and momentary sensation. In Impression, Soleil Levant, Hiroshige's misty dawn harbors find a direct echo, contributing to the painting's revolutionary status as the emblem of a new artistic era.
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), also known as Andō Hiroshige, stands as one of the greatest masters of ukiyo-e woodblock prints, renowned for his poetic landscapes that capture the transient beauty of nature—especially weather phenomena like mist, fog, rain, snow, and dawn light. Unlike Hokusai's dramatic, bold energy (e.g., The Great Wave), Hiroshige favored softer, atmospheric effects, subtle gradations of color, and evocative moods that convey a sense of impermanence and harmony. His works often depict travel routes, famous views, and everyday scenes enveloped in haze or vapor, making him a key figure in Japonisme's impact on Western art.
Hiroshige produced thousands of prints, with landscapes dominating his output. He excelled at rendering misty seascapes, foggy harbors, dawn mists, and atmospheric marine views, using innovative techniques like bokashi (graduated color printing) to create soft transitions between sky, water, and mist. These elements produce layered, dreamlike scenes where forms dissolve into ambient light and weather.
Notable Misty Seascapes and Atmospheric Prints by Hiroshige
Hiroshige's series frequently feature coastal or riverine scenes shrouded in fog or morning mist:
- Mishima: Morning Mist (from the Hoeido Tokaido series, c. 1833–34) — A classic example of dawn fog enveloping a landscape, with soft gradations creating depth and poetic ambiguity.
- Views from series like Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido (1833–34) and Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kiso Kaido — Many include misty rivers, harbors, or coastal crossings at dawn or in fog, blending human activity (ferries, travelers) with dissolving atmospheric effects.
- Mouth of the Aji River in Settsu Province (from Wrestling Matches between Mountains and Seas, 1858) — A late work showing a hazy river mouth or harbor, with mist merging water and sky, closely paralleling harbor compositions.
- Other evocative pieces include dawn views over Edo bays, misty ferries, or coastal fog in series like Famous Places in the Sixty-odd Provinces and One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, where mist creates layered, ethereal depth.
Influence on Monet and Impression, Soleil Levant (1872)
Monet, who amassed a large collection of Hiroshige prints (alongside Hokusai and others), drew significant inspiration from Hiroshige's atmospheric mastery. While Impression, Soleil Levant captures the industrial port of Le Havre at dawn—orange sun piercing blue-gray industrial haze—scholars frequently cite Hiroshige's misty harbors and dawn seascapes as closer visual and conceptual parallels than Hokusai's stormy waves.
Specific parallels include:
- Hazy, diffused atmospheres — Hiroshige's use of mist to blend sky, water, and distant elements mirrors the vaporous haze in Monet's painting, where industrial smoke and morning fog dissolve forms into soft gradients.
- Dawn and morning mist effects — Prints like Mishima: Morning Mist or river/harbor dawns feature soft, poetic light and color transitions that evoke Monet's orange sun rising through mist, prioritizing mood over detail.
- Economy and suggestion — Hiroshige's minimal lines for boats or masts in foggy settings align with Monet's loose brushstrokes implying harbor traffic, favoring perceptual impression over precise representation.
- Composition and mood — Both artists capture ephemeral moments of modern or everyday life (travelers/boats in mist) with a sense of tranquility and transience, blending nature's subtlety with human presence.
Broader Legacy
Hiroshige's misty seascapes and weather-focused landscapes influenced not only Monet but also Van Gogh (who copied Hiroshige prints) and other Impressionists/Post-Impressionists. His emphasis on poetic atmosphere, serial views under varying conditions, and the "floating world" of impermanence helped shift Western art toward subjective perception and momentary sensation. In Impression, Soleil Levant, Hiroshige's misty dawn harbors find a direct echo, contributing to the painting's revolutionary status as the emblem of a new artistic era.
Influence of Eugène Boudin, Johan Barthold Jongkind, and the Barbizon School on Claude Monet's Impression, Soleil Levant
Claude Monet's Impression, Soleil Levant (Impression, Sunrise, 1872), the iconic depiction of Le Havre's harbor at dawn now in the Musée Marmottan Monet, emerged from a confluence of influences that shaped his early development and the core principles of Impressionism. While the painting's revolutionary loose brushwork, focus on fleeting atmospheric effects, and emphasis on light over detail built on Monet's direct observation, it owed much to mentors Eugène Boudin and Johan Barthold Jongkind, as well as the broader legacy of the Barbizon School.
These predecessors encouraged plein air (outdoor) painting, attention to transient weather and light, and a rejection of rigid academic finish—foundations that Monet amplified in his misty, industrial sunrise scene.
Eugène Boudin (1824–1898): The Decisive Mentor and Plein Air Pioneer
Boudin, a Normandy-based marine and landscape painter, was Monet's most important early influence and, by Monet's own later admission, his "true master." In 1856–1857, as a teenager in Le Havre, Monet met Boudin, who ran a framing shop and encouraged the young caricaturist to paint outdoors.
Boudin introduced Monet to plein air techniques—painting directly from nature to capture changing light, skies, and sea effects—habits Monet maintained lifelong. Boudin's small-scale beach scenes, seascapes, and studies of cloudy skies and misty horizons emphasized rapid, loose brushwork and atmospheric subtlety over polished detail.
This directly informed Impression, Soleil Levant: Monet painted it quickly from a hotel window to seize the dawn's hazy light piercing industrial fog, echoing Boudin's focus on ephemeral marine atmospheres. Monet's orange sun dissolving into mist and loose suggestions of boats reflect Boudin's economical handling of light and weather in Normandy harbors.
Boudin also painted with Jongkind in Honfleur, reinforcing shared ideas of spontaneity and modern subjects.
Johan Barthold Jongkind (1819–1891): The "True Master" of Light and Atmosphere
The Dutch-French painter Jongkind, known for luminous watercolors and oils of harbors, rivers, and skies, met Monet around 1862 in Le Havre (after Monet's Algerian military service). Monet called him his "true master" for his ability to capture fleeting weather variations with bold, fragmented brushstrokes and vibrant, silvery light.
Jongkind's marine views—often hazy dawns, sunsets, or foggy ports—influenced Monet's rejection of precise form in favor of mood and immediacy. His innovative technique (loose, sketch-like handling and emphasis on reflections) prefigured Impressionist priorities.
In Impression, Soleil Levant, Jongkind's impact appears in the painting's vaporous haze, diffused light, and industrial-modern harbor elements, blending poetic atmosphere with contemporary life. Jongkind's sunrises and sunsets over water, with minimal detail and strong color contrasts, parallel Monet's orange orb piercing blue-gray mist.
Together, Boudin and Jongkind formed the "Honfleur School" circle that nurtured Monet's early plein air practice.
The Barbizon School: Broader Foundations in Naturalism and Outdoor Sketching
The Barbizon School (active 1830s–1870s) artists—Théodore Rousseau, Jean-François Millet, Charles Daubigny, Constant Troyon, and others—painted in the Fontainebleau Forest near Barbizon village, emphasizing direct observation of nature, realistic landscapes, and rural scenes over academic ideals.
They worked en plein air for sketches (though often finishing in studios) and focused on light, atmosphere, and everyday nature—ideas that influenced Monet during his Paris years (1859–1860s). Monet visited Barbizon areas and admired their naturalistic approach, which contrasted with Salon polish.
The term "impressionism" itself predated Monet, describing Barbizon effects (e.g., Daubigny or Manet used it for viewer impact). In Impression, Soleil Levant, this legacy appears in the commitment to perceived reality over idealization, though Monet pushed further: fully outdoor execution, broken color, and subjective "impression" over detailed realism.Barbizon's outdoor ethos and light focus laid groundwork, but Monet radicalized it by completing major works on-site and prioritizing momentary sensation.
Synthesis and Legacy in Impression, Soleil Levant
These influences converged in 1872: Boudin's plein air discipline, Jongkind's atmospheric mastery, and Barbizon naturalism enabled Monet to render Le Havre's dawn haze—industrial smoke blending with mist—as a poetic, perceptual moment rather than a detailed view.
The painting's "unfinished" quality, rapid strokes, and light primacy shocked critics but defined Impressionism. Monet built on these roots to create a new vision: subjective, modern, and ephemeral.
This foundational trio—Boudin as mentor, Jongkind as technical inspiration, Barbizon as philosophical precursor—helped transform Monet from student to revolutionary, with Impression, Soleil Levant as the enduring emblem.
Claude Monet's Impression, Soleil Levant (Impression, Sunrise, 1872), the iconic depiction of Le Havre's harbor at dawn now in the Musée Marmottan Monet, emerged from a confluence of influences that shaped his early development and the core principles of Impressionism. While the painting's revolutionary loose brushwork, focus on fleeting atmospheric effects, and emphasis on light over detail built on Monet's direct observation, it owed much to mentors Eugène Boudin and Johan Barthold Jongkind, as well as the broader legacy of the Barbizon School.
These predecessors encouraged plein air (outdoor) painting, attention to transient weather and light, and a rejection of rigid academic finish—foundations that Monet amplified in his misty, industrial sunrise scene.
Eugène Boudin (1824–1898): The Decisive Mentor and Plein Air Pioneer
Boudin, a Normandy-based marine and landscape painter, was Monet's most important early influence and, by Monet's own later admission, his "true master." In 1856–1857, as a teenager in Le Havre, Monet met Boudin, who ran a framing shop and encouraged the young caricaturist to paint outdoors.
Boudin introduced Monet to plein air techniques—painting directly from nature to capture changing light, skies, and sea effects—habits Monet maintained lifelong. Boudin's small-scale beach scenes, seascapes, and studies of cloudy skies and misty horizons emphasized rapid, loose brushwork and atmospheric subtlety over polished detail.
This directly informed Impression, Soleil Levant: Monet painted it quickly from a hotel window to seize the dawn's hazy light piercing industrial fog, echoing Boudin's focus on ephemeral marine atmospheres. Monet's orange sun dissolving into mist and loose suggestions of boats reflect Boudin's economical handling of light and weather in Normandy harbors.
Boudin also painted with Jongkind in Honfleur, reinforcing shared ideas of spontaneity and modern subjects.
Johan Barthold Jongkind (1819–1891): The "True Master" of Light and Atmosphere
The Dutch-French painter Jongkind, known for luminous watercolors and oils of harbors, rivers, and skies, met Monet around 1862 in Le Havre (after Monet's Algerian military service). Monet called him his "true master" for his ability to capture fleeting weather variations with bold, fragmented brushstrokes and vibrant, silvery light.
Jongkind's marine views—often hazy dawns, sunsets, or foggy ports—influenced Monet's rejection of precise form in favor of mood and immediacy. His innovative technique (loose, sketch-like handling and emphasis on reflections) prefigured Impressionist priorities.
In Impression, Soleil Levant, Jongkind's impact appears in the painting's vaporous haze, diffused light, and industrial-modern harbor elements, blending poetic atmosphere with contemporary life. Jongkind's sunrises and sunsets over water, with minimal detail and strong color contrasts, parallel Monet's orange orb piercing blue-gray mist.
Together, Boudin and Jongkind formed the "Honfleur School" circle that nurtured Monet's early plein air practice.
The Barbizon School: Broader Foundations in Naturalism and Outdoor Sketching
The Barbizon School (active 1830s–1870s) artists—Théodore Rousseau, Jean-François Millet, Charles Daubigny, Constant Troyon, and others—painted in the Fontainebleau Forest near Barbizon village, emphasizing direct observation of nature, realistic landscapes, and rural scenes over academic ideals.
They worked en plein air for sketches (though often finishing in studios) and focused on light, atmosphere, and everyday nature—ideas that influenced Monet during his Paris years (1859–1860s). Monet visited Barbizon areas and admired their naturalistic approach, which contrasted with Salon polish.
The term "impressionism" itself predated Monet, describing Barbizon effects (e.g., Daubigny or Manet used it for viewer impact). In Impression, Soleil Levant, this legacy appears in the commitment to perceived reality over idealization, though Monet pushed further: fully outdoor execution, broken color, and subjective "impression" over detailed realism.Barbizon's outdoor ethos and light focus laid groundwork, but Monet radicalized it by completing major works on-site and prioritizing momentary sensation.
Synthesis and Legacy in Impression, Soleil Levant
These influences converged in 1872: Boudin's plein air discipline, Jongkind's atmospheric mastery, and Barbizon naturalism enabled Monet to render Le Havre's dawn haze—industrial smoke blending with mist—as a poetic, perceptual moment rather than a detailed view.
The painting's "unfinished" quality, rapid strokes, and light primacy shocked critics but defined Impressionism. Monet built on these roots to create a new vision: subjective, modern, and ephemeral.
This foundational trio—Boudin as mentor, Jongkind as technical inspiration, Barbizon as philosophical precursor—helped transform Monet from student to revolutionary, with Impression, Soleil Levant as the enduring emblem.
Influence of J.M.W. Turner and Claude Lorrain on Claude Monet's Impression, Soleil Levant
Claude Monet's Impression, Soleil Levant (Impression, Sunrise, 1872), the seminal harbor dawn scene at Le Havre that named Impressionism, draws on a rich lineage of landscape traditions. While Monet's immediate mentors (Boudin, Jongkind) and contemporaries shaped his plein air technique, his exposure to earlier masters—particularly during his 1870–1871 exile in London amid the Franco-Prussian War—played a key role in refining his obsession with atmospheric light, mist, and ephemeral effects.
Monet visited the National Gallery and other collections, encountering the luminous, fog-laden visions of J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) and the classical harbor scenes of Claude Lorrain (Claude Gellée, c. 1600–1682). These encounters reinforced Monet's shift toward subjective perception over detailed realism, though he later downplayed some influences (notably Turner).
J.M.W. Turner: Atmospheric Light, Mist, and Precursor to Impressionist Effects
Turner, the British Romantic master, revolutionized landscape painting with his emphasis on light as a transformative force, dissolving forms in mist, fog, spray, and radiant sunrises/sunsets. His late works—often executed in watercolor or with loose, swirling brushwork—prioritize mood, color vibrations, and atmospheric immersion over precise topography.
Monet, in London, was captivated by Turner's ability to capture transient weather and industrial haze (e.g., Thames fogs), which echoed the industrial vapors of Le Havre. Scholars frequently link Turner's influence to Impression, Soleil Levant's hazy veil, where sky, water, and smoke blend in soft gradients, and the orange sun pierces through mist with glowing intensity.
Specific parallels include:
Claude Lorrain: Classical Harbor Composition as a Timeless Model
Claude Lorrain, the 17th-century French Baroque landscapist (working in Italy), specialized in idealized seaports bathed in golden light, with balanced compositions framing sunrises or sunsets over water, ships, and architecture. His works evoke harmony, depth through atmospheric perspective, and the sublime beauty of dawn/dusk.
During Monet's London stay, he likely viewed Lorrain's Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba (1648) at the National Gallery—a grand harbor scene with radiant light, masts, and boats in a structured yet luminous vista.
Some scholars propose Monet consciously referenced this as a "contemporary variation": updating Lorrain's timeless, idealized port to a modern, industrial Le Havre dawn. Monet's composition—quays framing the central basin, sun low and central, boats and masts suggesting activity—echoes Lorrain's classical framing and light effects, but stripped of narrative grandeur for raw perceptual "impression."
This connection positions Impression, Soleil Levant as a modern dialogue with old masters: Monet secularizes and democratizes the sunrise motif, replacing mythic embarkations with everyday harbor life shrouded in factory haze.
Synthesis in Impression, Soleil Levant
Turner's atmospheric radicalism and Lorrain's compositional poise converged with Monet's French plein air roots (Boudin, Jongkind, Barbizon) and Japonisme to produce this breakthrough. The painting's misty diffusion, bold sun, and loose handling capture light's primacy—echoing Turner's dissolution of form and Lorrain's luminous harbors—while asserting modernity through industrial subject and subjective immediacy.
These influences helped Monet transcend description, rendering not the port itself but the fleeting impression of dawn light, cementing Impression, Soleil Levant as Impressionism's founding work.
Claude Monet's Impression, Soleil Levant (Impression, Sunrise, 1872), the seminal harbor dawn scene at Le Havre that named Impressionism, draws on a rich lineage of landscape traditions. While Monet's immediate mentors (Boudin, Jongkind) and contemporaries shaped his plein air technique, his exposure to earlier masters—particularly during his 1870–1871 exile in London amid the Franco-Prussian War—played a key role in refining his obsession with atmospheric light, mist, and ephemeral effects.
Monet visited the National Gallery and other collections, encountering the luminous, fog-laden visions of J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) and the classical harbor scenes of Claude Lorrain (Claude Gellée, c. 1600–1682). These encounters reinforced Monet's shift toward subjective perception over detailed realism, though he later downplayed some influences (notably Turner).
J.M.W. Turner: Atmospheric Light, Mist, and Precursor to Impressionist Effects
Turner, the British Romantic master, revolutionized landscape painting with his emphasis on light as a transformative force, dissolving forms in mist, fog, spray, and radiant sunrises/sunsets. His late works—often executed in watercolor or with loose, swirling brushwork—prioritize mood, color vibrations, and atmospheric immersion over precise topography.
Monet, in London, was captivated by Turner's ability to capture transient weather and industrial haze (e.g., Thames fogs), which echoed the industrial vapors of Le Havre. Scholars frequently link Turner's influence to Impression, Soleil Levant's hazy veil, where sky, water, and smoke blend in soft gradients, and the orange sun pierces through mist with glowing intensity.
Specific parallels include:
- Limited palette and strong contrasts — Turner's The Scarlet Sunset (c. 1830–1840) uses restrained grays and oranges for hazy sunsets, with bold color to evoke mood—similar to Monet's blue-gray haze contrasting the vivid orange sun and its watery reflection.
- Atmospheric dissolution — Turner's fog-enshrouded harbors and sunrises (e.g., Norham Castle, Sunrise, 1845) prefigure Monet's "unfinished" sketch-like quality, where forms (boats, masts) emerge suggestively rather than defined.
- Modern subjects in poetic light — Both artists infuse contemporary scenes (industrial ports) with sublime, ephemeral beauty, though Monet radicalized this by completing the work en plein air for pure perceptual immediacy.
Claude Lorrain: Classical Harbor Composition as a Timeless Model
Claude Lorrain, the 17th-century French Baroque landscapist (working in Italy), specialized in idealized seaports bathed in golden light, with balanced compositions framing sunrises or sunsets over water, ships, and architecture. His works evoke harmony, depth through atmospheric perspective, and the sublime beauty of dawn/dusk.
During Monet's London stay, he likely viewed Lorrain's Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba (1648) at the National Gallery—a grand harbor scene with radiant light, masts, and boats in a structured yet luminous vista.
Some scholars propose Monet consciously referenced this as a "contemporary variation": updating Lorrain's timeless, idealized port to a modern, industrial Le Havre dawn. Monet's composition—quays framing the central basin, sun low and central, boats and masts suggesting activity—echoes Lorrain's classical framing and light effects, but stripped of narrative grandeur for raw perceptual "impression."
This connection positions Impression, Soleil Levant as a modern dialogue with old masters: Monet secularizes and democratizes the sunrise motif, replacing mythic embarkations with everyday harbor life shrouded in factory haze.
Synthesis in Impression, Soleil Levant
Turner's atmospheric radicalism and Lorrain's compositional poise converged with Monet's French plein air roots (Boudin, Jongkind, Barbizon) and Japonisme to produce this breakthrough. The painting's misty diffusion, bold sun, and loose handling capture light's primacy—echoing Turner's dissolution of form and Lorrain's luminous harbors—while asserting modernity through industrial subject and subjective immediacy.
These influences helped Monet transcend description, rendering not the port itself but the fleeting impression of dawn light, cementing Impression, Soleil Levant as Impressionism's founding work.
1873 Le Pont du Chemin de Fer à Argenteuil
2008 SOLD for $ 41.5M by Christie's
Claude Monet moved with his family to Argenteuil in December 1871. A quarter of an hour from Paris by train, this town of 8,000 people was at the border between the modernity of the city and the peaceful life of the countryside.
The Seine is broad at that place. The two bridges, one for the road and the other for the rail, were rebuilt after the Franco-Prussian War.
Monet is one of the very first artists to take an interest in the railway as a symbol of modern life. The train comfortably carries the boaters, and its smoke enlivens the landscape. Until his series of views of the Gare Saint-Lazare in 1877, the artist expresses his enthusiasm for this new industry.
Le Pont du chemin de fer à Argenteuil is an oil on canvas 60 x 98 cm painted in 1873. The bridge mounted on four pairs of pillars goes through the image over its entire length. Two trains are crossing one another, one of them being mostly noticeable by the smoke of its locomotive in the blue summer sky. Two small sailboats pass under the bridge, and two men on the quay look peacefully at the river.
The bridge is the main theme of the picture thanks to the absence of details on the two banks. It is the only view in which Monet uses this specific bridge as a symbol of modernism. In the following year his paintings on the same site are to study the variation of light.
Le Pont du chemin de fer à Argenteuil was sold for $ 41.5M by Christie's on May 6, 2008, lot 21. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Renoir put his easel at the same place, probably side by side with his friend. Compared to the clarity of Monet's drawing, this sketch by Renoir is too tormented and not spacious enough. One year before the first impressionist exhibition, Monet appears here as a master of the expression of modern life in a classic style.
The Seine is broad at that place. The two bridges, one for the road and the other for the rail, were rebuilt after the Franco-Prussian War.
Monet is one of the very first artists to take an interest in the railway as a symbol of modern life. The train comfortably carries the boaters, and its smoke enlivens the landscape. Until his series of views of the Gare Saint-Lazare in 1877, the artist expresses his enthusiasm for this new industry.
Le Pont du chemin de fer à Argenteuil is an oil on canvas 60 x 98 cm painted in 1873. The bridge mounted on four pairs of pillars goes through the image over its entire length. Two trains are crossing one another, one of them being mostly noticeable by the smoke of its locomotive in the blue summer sky. Two small sailboats pass under the bridge, and two men on the quay look peacefully at the river.
The bridge is the main theme of the picture thanks to the absence of details on the two banks. It is the only view in which Monet uses this specific bridge as a symbol of modernism. In the following year his paintings on the same site are to study the variation of light.
Le Pont du chemin de fer à Argenteuil was sold for $ 41.5M by Christie's on May 6, 2008, lot 21. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Renoir put his easel at the same place, probably side by side with his friend. Compared to the clarity of Monet's drawing, this sketch by Renoir is too tormented and not spacious enough. One year before the first impressionist exhibition, Monet appears here as a master of the expression of modern life in a classic style.
1874 Le Bassin d'Argenteuil
2021 SOLD for $ 28M by Christie's
Upstream from his home town of Sainte-Adresse to Paris, the Seine is the thread in Monet's art. Back from his exile in London, he moves to Argenteuil in December 1871. The small rural village formerly renowned for its vine and asparagus is close enough from Paris to appeal the middle class in search of nice leisure and spare time. Its first yacht club was created in 1858, taking advantage of the quietness of the flow at that place.
Young artists refuse the academicism of the official Salons. They create a cooperative and organize their first exhibition in the spring of 1874. No less than 29 artists participate, demonstrating the scale and momentum of this new movement. Impression Soleil levant painted two years earlier by Monet becomes the flagship of the new painting : they can show the mist without drawing the outlines.
Claude Monet is confident and enthusiastic. During the summer he paints tirelessly the Seine river at Argenteuil, from his new process of outdoor painting to which he adds the use of a bespoke studio boat. He keeps in touch on the site with the other avant-garde painters including Manet, Renoir and soon Caillebotte. The grass of the meadow and the reflection in the water are the sources of his new inspiration, the real birth of Impressionnisme.
Monet appreciates that his best ally is the spontaneity. The emotion is generated by the speed that liberates the instinct. He improves his technique by varying the brushstrokes by topic on the same canvas : horizontal mark for water and comma shaped wrist movement in the tree. The skilled hand of the artist generates a vibration that reflects the tremor and rustling of water and wind. Monet may now match Constable.
On November 11, 2021, Christie's sold for $ 28M from a lower estimate of $ 15M Le Bassin d'Argenteuil, oil on canvas 54 x 73 cm painted in late spring or summer 1874 in the wake of the first Impressionist exhibition, lot 15C. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
In a pleasant weather, there is busy boating on the river. White sails provide a striking contrast. A bearded man and his wife are standing on the jetty. The interplay of glowing colors in thick brush strokes is superseding lines and sharpness for sharing a sensation of quiet leisure.
Le Petit-Gennevilliers is right in front of Argenteuil, on the other side of the river. Monet works outdoors : he set up his easel on a barge under the railway bridge. Boats for rent await the walkers at this point, increasing the charm of the scene. A painting by Manet shows Monet busy at work at that very place.
On May 12, 2016, Christie's sold for $ 11.4M a view of Le Petit-Gennevilliers painted by Monet in 1874, oil on canvas 55 x 73 cm, lot 16C. The weather is gray and the sun is screened, providing an atmosphere altogether soft and quivering which is a beautiful effect of the early impressionist experiments. Since 1901 this painting had not left the collection of the philanthropist HO Havemeyer and his wife Louisine who were in their time the best connoisseurs of impressionism in the United States.
Young artists refuse the academicism of the official Salons. They create a cooperative and organize their first exhibition in the spring of 1874. No less than 29 artists participate, demonstrating the scale and momentum of this new movement. Impression Soleil levant painted two years earlier by Monet becomes the flagship of the new painting : they can show the mist without drawing the outlines.
Claude Monet is confident and enthusiastic. During the summer he paints tirelessly the Seine river at Argenteuil, from his new process of outdoor painting to which he adds the use of a bespoke studio boat. He keeps in touch on the site with the other avant-garde painters including Manet, Renoir and soon Caillebotte. The grass of the meadow and the reflection in the water are the sources of his new inspiration, the real birth of Impressionnisme.
Monet appreciates that his best ally is the spontaneity. The emotion is generated by the speed that liberates the instinct. He improves his technique by varying the brushstrokes by topic on the same canvas : horizontal mark for water and comma shaped wrist movement in the tree. The skilled hand of the artist generates a vibration that reflects the tremor and rustling of water and wind. Monet may now match Constable.
On November 11, 2021, Christie's sold for $ 28M from a lower estimate of $ 15M Le Bassin d'Argenteuil, oil on canvas 54 x 73 cm painted in late spring or summer 1874 in the wake of the first Impressionist exhibition, lot 15C. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
In a pleasant weather, there is busy boating on the river. White sails provide a striking contrast. A bearded man and his wife are standing on the jetty. The interplay of glowing colors in thick brush strokes is superseding lines and sharpness for sharing a sensation of quiet leisure.
Le Petit-Gennevilliers is right in front of Argenteuil, on the other side of the river. Monet works outdoors : he set up his easel on a barge under the railway bridge. Boats for rent await the walkers at this point, increasing the charm of the scene. A painting by Manet shows Monet busy at work at that very place.
On May 12, 2016, Christie's sold for $ 11.4M a view of Le Petit-Gennevilliers painted by Monet in 1874, oil on canvas 55 x 73 cm, lot 16C. The weather is gray and the sun is screened, providing an atmosphere altogether soft and quivering which is a beautiful effect of the early impressionist experiments. Since 1901 this painting had not left the collection of the philanthropist HO Havemeyer and his wife Louisine who were in their time the best connoisseurs of impressionism in the United States.
#AuctionUpdate: 'Le bassin d'Argenteuil' by Claude Monet (1840-1926) achieved $27,840,000 at auction. Painted in 1874, the year of the landmark First Impressionist Exhibition, 'Le bassin d'Argenteuil' is a quintessential landscape of modernity in form and in subject.⠀ pic.twitter.com/TG8kKHSxmA
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) November 12, 2021
winter 1874-1875 Effet de Neige
2022 SOLD for $ 25.6M by Christie's
In the unusually cold winter of 1874-1875, Claude Monet was keen to catch outdoors the various effect of the snow in Argenteuil. He humorously reminded his beard overgrown with icicles.
La Mare (effet de neige), oil on canvas 60 x 82 cm, is dated 1875 by the artist. It was sold for $ 25.6M from a lower estimate of $ 18M by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 18C. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The fully frozen pond is viewed through a foreground of bare limbed trees. A few small characters enter its surface as in the old Dutch winter sceneries. The roofs of the modest houses around are covered with melting snow. The impressionist atmosphere is made of loose brushwork in thick layers.
In 1879 Monet was discouraged by a poor commercial feedback and by Camille's critically ailing condition. Caillebotte could not imagine an Exposition des Impressionistes without Monet and Durand-Ruel lent La Mare then in his ownership. Monet did not attend despite a full room had been dedicated to his and Pissarro's works.
La Mare (effet de neige), oil on canvas 60 x 82 cm, is dated 1875 by the artist. It was sold for $ 25.6M from a lower estimate of $ 18M by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 18C. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The fully frozen pond is viewed through a foreground of bare limbed trees. A few small characters enter its surface as in the old Dutch winter sceneries. The roofs of the modest houses around are covered with melting snow. The impressionist atmosphere is made of loose brushwork in thick layers.
In 1879 Monet was discouraged by a poor commercial feedback and by Camille's critically ailing condition. Caillebotte could not imagine an Exposition des Impressionistes without Monet and Durand-Ruel lent La Mare then in his ownership. Monet did not attend despite a full room had been dedicated to his and Pissarro's works.
1875 Au Jardin
2021 SOLD for $ 24.4M by Christie's
From his youth at Sainte-Adresse, Claude Monet felt happy in the gardens. He once said : "Je dois peut-être aux fleurs d'être devenu un peintre". When the young avant-garde artists went to promote the outdoor painting, flowers and foliage were the most suitable themes for the new Impressionniste aesthetic.
From 1871 Monet enjoyed living in Argenteuil with his wife Camille and their son Jean, born in 1867. From 1874 he rented a house with a private garden.
Au Jardin, la Famille de l'artiste, oil of canvas 60 x 80 cm, is an emanation from that happy time. It was painted during a sunny summer day in 1875. The foreground is a vibrant flowerbed of blooming roses, geraniums and gladioli in front of the shades of a screen of trees.
The garden is occupied with Camille, Jean and another person who is possibly a maid. Their discreet scale embedded within the lush nature provides an idyllic intimacy to the whole scenery.
Au Jardin was sold for $ 24.4M from a lower estimate of $ 12M by Christie's on November 11, 2021, lot 41C. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Painted in 1874 by Manet, La Famille Monet dans son jardin à Argenteuil is a close up view of a similar scene from behind the flowers, with some poultry added.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 12, 2021
#AuctionUpdate: 'Au jardin, la famille de l'artist by Claude Monet (1840-1926) achieved $24,405,000 at auction. The work was painted in the summer of 1875, just a year after the First Impressionist Exhibition.
From 1871 Monet enjoyed living in Argenteuil with his wife Camille and their son Jean, born in 1867. From 1874 he rented a house with a private garden.
Au Jardin, la Famille de l'artiste, oil of canvas 60 x 80 cm, is an emanation from that happy time. It was painted during a sunny summer day in 1875. The foreground is a vibrant flowerbed of blooming roses, geraniums and gladioli in front of the shades of a screen of trees.
The garden is occupied with Camille, Jean and another person who is possibly a maid. Their discreet scale embedded within the lush nature provides an idyllic intimacy to the whole scenery.
Au Jardin was sold for $ 24.4M from a lower estimate of $ 12M by Christie's on November 11, 2021, lot 41C. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Painted in 1874 by Manet, La Famille Monet dans son jardin à Argenteuil is a close up view of a similar scene from behind the flowers, with some poultry added.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 12, 2021
#AuctionUpdate: 'Au jardin, la famille de l'artist by Claude Monet (1840-1926) achieved $24,405,000 at auction. The work was painted in the summer of 1875, just a year after the First Impressionist Exhibition.
- The post highlights Christie's sale of Claude Monet's 1875 oil "Au jardin, la famille de l'artiste," a sunlit garden scene featuring his wife Camille, son Jean, and a maid amid blooming flowers, which sold for $24.4 million—exceeding its $12-18 million estimate in a 20th Century Art Evening Sale.
- Created in Argenteuil just after the inaugural Impressionist exhibition, the painting exemplifies Monet's shift to plein-air techniques, using loose brushwork to convey fleeting light effects on foliage and figures, a hallmark of early Impressionism.
- Provenance includes direct purchase by collector Jean-Baptiste Faure in 1875; after decades in European hands, it entered a U.S. private collection via Sotheby's in 1984, with recent expert review debunking prior fire damage claims to affirm its pristine condition.
1876 Dans la Prairie
1988 SOLD for £ 14.3M by Sotheby's
While in Argenteuil, Claude Monet turned to intimate outdoor scenes. Dans la Prairie (In the meadows), oil on canvas 60 x 82 cm painted in 1876, features the artist's wife Camille. She is reading, surrounded by finely nuanced flowers, an umbrella behind her.
Despite the protests generated by the first two exhibitions of the Monet group in 1874 and 1876, his art had already champions, including Théodore Duret who bought our painting. In 1877, the tide is turning. The third exhibition, for which Duret lent his painting, is a success, and the group accepts the designation of Impressionists that had been given to them by some traditionalist art critics.
Dans la Prairie was sold by Sotheby's for £ 14.3M on June 28, 1988, lot 10 and for $ 15.4M on November 11, 1999, lot 107, and by Christie's for £ 11.2M on February 4, 2009, lot 19. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Despite the protests generated by the first two exhibitions of the Monet group in 1874 and 1876, his art had already champions, including Théodore Duret who bought our painting. In 1877, the tide is turning. The third exhibition, for which Duret lent his painting, is a success, and the group accepts the designation of Impressionists that had been given to them by some traditionalist art critics.
Dans la Prairie was sold by Sotheby's for £ 14.3M on June 28, 1988, lot 10 and for $ 15.4M on November 11, 1999, lot 107, and by Christie's for £ 11.2M on February 4, 2009, lot 19. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1877 Gare Saint-Lazare
Intro
Young people of all times are tempted by modern life. Monet is soon disillusioned. He had desired to maintain in Argenteuil his corner of paradise, a residence in the countryside for which the railway is the link with the big city and its progress. Urbanization reaches Argenteuil. He feels the need to take a decision.
In 1876 Monet lost his enthusiasm for Argenteuil. He spends the last months of that year in a more rural atmosphere in Montgeron for the decoration of the Hoschedé residence. Just back from Montgeron he left for Paris with an authorization from the railway administration to work inside the Gare Saint-Lazare.
From January to March 1877 he made a sort of report composed of twelve artworks, four inside the station and eight outside, in varied weather conditions. A passer-by narrated that he saw Claude Monet perched on a stack of crates with his brush in his hand, feverishly waiting for the ambient light to match his expectations.
The choice of this theme is unexpected for this artist but is certainly not a self attempt to be disgusted from the smokes of the city. A better hypothesis is that Monet considered himself as a leader of the new outdoor painting and did not want to be overcome by the urban pictures of Caillebotte and Manet.
Monet painted twelve canvases showing the interior with the platforms or the outside with trains coming or leaving. The result of this creativity is significant. The nauseating smoke of trains mingles with a heavily loaded sky and makes you want to run away.
Indeed when the third exhibition of the Impressionnistes opened in April 1877 his Saint-Lazare series was already completed and it featured prominently in his selection.
His Gares Saint-Lazare will remain forever an unparalleled set. For the very last time he had tried to illustrate the progress. For nearly half a century he will stubbornly devote to landscapes, to monuments and to his garden.
In 1876 Monet lost his enthusiasm for Argenteuil. He spends the last months of that year in a more rural atmosphere in Montgeron for the decoration of the Hoschedé residence. Just back from Montgeron he left for Paris with an authorization from the railway administration to work inside the Gare Saint-Lazare.
From January to March 1877 he made a sort of report composed of twelve artworks, four inside the station and eight outside, in varied weather conditions. A passer-by narrated that he saw Claude Monet perched on a stack of crates with his brush in his hand, feverishly waiting for the ambient light to match his expectations.
The choice of this theme is unexpected for this artist but is certainly not a self attempt to be disgusted from the smokes of the city. A better hypothesis is that Monet considered himself as a leader of the new outdoor painting and did not want to be overcome by the urban pictures of Caillebotte and Manet.
Monet painted twelve canvases showing the interior with the platforms or the outside with trains coming or leaving. The result of this creativity is significant. The nauseating smoke of trains mingles with a heavily loaded sky and makes you want to run away.
Indeed when the third exhibition of the Impressionnistes opened in April 1877 his Saint-Lazare series was already completed and it featured prominently in his selection.
His Gares Saint-Lazare will remain forever an unparalleled set. For the very last time he had tried to illustrate the progress. For nearly half a century he will stubbornly devote to landscapes, to monuments and to his garden.
1
2018 SOLD for $ 33M by Christie's
Only one of the twelve paintings, 61 x 81 cm, escapes Monet's pessimism thanks to a bright sunshine. The view is taken towards the double tunnel of the Batignolles. On the left the smoke is a fairly sharp cone. On the right the train has not yet come out and its smoke is diffused in all directions in the square, creating a veil in the atmosphere of clear weather.
In the best tradition of early Impressionnisme, this painting offers an ambience through which we can almost perceive heat and smell. Rockefeller did not make a mistake when he bought it. He liked this artwork very much while noting that the asking price had seemed high. It was sold for $ 33M by Christie's on May 8, 2018, lot 26. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
In the best tradition of early Impressionnisme, this painting offers an ambience through which we can almost perceive heat and smell. Rockefeller did not make a mistake when he bought it. He liked this artwork very much while noting that the asking price had seemed high. It was sold for $ 33M by Christie's on May 8, 2018, lot 26. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
2
2018 SOLD for £ 25M by Christie's
On June 20, 2018, Christie's sold for £ 25M an outdoor view, oil on canvas 61 x 81 cm, lot 25 B. The foreground is intentionally empty to draw a better attention to the background where the thick steam from the trains mingle in a cloudy sky. The two locomotives and the tall arches of the glass roofs of the station provide the illusion of a picturesque instantaneous.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
for reference
1878 Rue Montorgueil
Musée d'Orsay
A keen Republican and a friend of Zola, Edouard Manet was appealed by the depiction of daily life with its pleasures and pains.
After the Franco-Prussian war and the Commune, the Troisième République was established, endeavoring to bring back peace and prosperity. From May to October 1878 in Paris, the Exposition Universelle is the showcase of that recovery.
A Fête de la Paix is inserted in the calendar of the Exposition at June 30 to honor the French Republic. It is an opportunity to let crowds occupy the streets and to hang from the windows the French tricolore flag. Two years later the feast becomes yearly and national and is transferred to Bastille day.
Monet and Manet represented the feast in an opposite style. Monet's Rue Montorgueil is a masterpiece of Impressionnisme, intermingling the atmosphere of the feast with the colors of innumerable flags. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Manet's depiction is not festive but social. The rue Mosnier was painted from Manet's studio window. It is only occupied by sparse horse carriages with bourgeois at mid and far distances. and a disabled man in the foreground, behind a ladder carried by a worker out of field. The one legged beggar in a difficult walk with crutches symbolizes the ravages of war. The top down view reveals a garbage area behind a fence. Rue Mosnier aux drapeaux, oil on canvas 65 x 80 cm, was sold for $ 26.4M by Christie's on November 14, 1989.
After the Franco-Prussian war and the Commune, the Troisième République was established, endeavoring to bring back peace and prosperity. From May to October 1878 in Paris, the Exposition Universelle is the showcase of that recovery.
A Fête de la Paix is inserted in the calendar of the Exposition at June 30 to honor the French Republic. It is an opportunity to let crowds occupy the streets and to hang from the windows the French tricolore flag. Two years later the feast becomes yearly and national and is transferred to Bastille day.
Monet and Manet represented the feast in an opposite style. Monet's Rue Montorgueil is a masterpiece of Impressionnisme, intermingling the atmosphere of the feast with the colors of innumerable flags. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Manet's depiction is not festive but social. The rue Mosnier was painted from Manet's studio window. It is only occupied by sparse horse carriages with bourgeois at mid and far distances. and a disabled man in the foreground, behind a ladder carried by a worker out of field. The one legged beggar in a difficult walk with crutches symbolizes the ravages of war. The top down view reveals a garbage area behind a fence. Rue Mosnier aux drapeaux, oil on canvas 65 x 80 cm, was sold for $ 26.4M by Christie's on November 14, 1989.
