Claude Monet | Autumn Effect at Argenteuil, 1873

Artist: Claude Monet (1840-1926)

Title: Autumn Effect at Argenteuil

Object type: painting

Date: 1873

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions: 55 × 74.5 cm (21.6 × 29.3 in)

Current location: Courtauld Institute of Art

The subject matter of this painting is in many ways mundane: Monet depicted the small town of Argenteuil seen from a branch of the river Seine.

The thick blue stripe running horizontally marks the main stream of the river.

Behind it are houses and a church spire whose verticality is echoed by the white chimney of a factory. The smoke it emits merges into the clouds above.

However, Monet’s focus is less on the modern city than the effects of the seasons, the reflections on the water, and the array of colours in the trees - from orange and pink to purple and green - all evidence of his careful observation of fleeting moments.

In the Making

Monet painted this composition from his bateau atelier, a small boat that he had outfitted for use as a studio from 1872.

In this way, he was able to paint outdoors while being protected from the elements.

His brush marks in this work are extremely varied but this was not an especially quickly executed painting; it is much ‘tighter’ and more fully worked than the sketchy canvases of Monet’s later career.

This is one of the first pictures in which Monet completely rejects black paint: there are no firm outlines, and the shapes are created from patches of colour alone, which would become a hallmark of Impressionist painting.

Look closely at the trees on the right hand side of the canvas: you will notice a number of diagonal lines scratched into the surface of the paint, revealing the light grey priming underneath. Is this damage? This seems unlikely.

Rather, Monet used the handle of his brush to scratch into the paint once it was dry, cutting through the density of the paint layers to add variations in texture.

Context

The arrival of the railway in 1851 turned Argenteuil into a popular destination for Parisian day-trippers, seeking the pleasures of boating in a somewhat rural setting.

However, by the 1870s, Argenteuil was turning into an industrial city, with tanneries, chemical plants and the vast Joly ironworks visible from the banks of the river.

This painting was shown at the Second Impressionist Exhibition in 1876, and critics varied in their reactions: for some, the bright hues made the painting an ‘eastern fairytale’, whilst for others it was artificial and overdone.

For the poet Stéphane Mallarmé, it was a triumph.

He commented that:

‘Claude Monet loves water, and it is his special gift to portray its mobility and transparency, be it sea or river, grey and monotonous or coloured by the sky’.

This was one of many canvases that Monet painted of Argenteuil whilst he lived there from 1872-1877.

Points of interest

Monet was not the first artist to make use of a floating studio.

The ‘Barbizon’ painter, Charles-François Daubigny, was fascinated by the prospects of painting from nature, and he acquired a boat in 1857. He called it ‘Le Botin’ (Little Box).

Daubigny painted on the rivers Seine, Marne and Oise, focusing on the beauty of the natural landscape and creating nostalgic, idyllic views of what he saw around him. | Source: © The Courtauld Gallery, London

Claude Monet visse ad Argenteuil, un sobborgo di Parigi, dal 1871-1878.

Era un'alternativa economica alla capitale, facilmente accessibile dalle nuove ferrovie.

In quanto città un tempo rurale in rapido cambiamento industriale, gli offriva anche un paesaggio unico e moderno.

Ha dipinto questa veduta della Senna e della città dalla sua barca studio appositamente progettata, ormeggiata su un tranquillo canale laterale.

Sebbene parti del paesaggio urbano di Argenteuil possano essere riconosciute sullo sfondo, i veri soggetti di questo lavoro sono i colori sgargianti dell'autunno e l'effetto della luce e del vento sull'acqua.

Le svolazzanti foglie arancioni contrastano con l'acqua blu, resa come spesse linee parallele.

Monet ha aggiunto consistenza agli alberi graffiando la vernice con il manico del suo pennello.

Autumn Effect at Argenteuil è stato incluso nella seconda mostra impressionista nel 1876.

Quando è stato mostrato a Londra negli anni '80 dell'Ottocento, i critici hanno elogiato la freschezza e la vivacità del suo colore. | Fonte: © The Courtauld Gallery, London