Le bassin d'Argenteuil by Claude Monet

Claude Monet
1840–1926 | French

Le bassin d'Argenteuil

Signed “Claude Monet 75” (lower right)
Oil on canvas

Perhaps more than any other painter in history, Claude Monet perfectly captured light as living, fleeting and ever-changing—the foundation of the Impressionist movement that would change art history forever. In Le bassin d’Argenteuil, painted in 1875, Monet depicts the legendary riverside town where Impressionism was born.

Created just one year after the first Impressionist exhibition stunned the Parisian art world, this painting belongs to one of the most important chapters of Monet’s career. In late 1871, the artist settled with his family in Argenteuil, a small town on the Seine just outside Paris. What began as a quiet retreat soon became the cradle of Impressionism itself, attracting Manet, Renoir, Sisley and Caillebotte to its riverbanks. With its sailboats, bridges, reflections and changing skies, Argenteuil offered Monet the perfect theater for modern painting.

In Le bassin d’Argenteuil, Monet makes light itself his subject, transforming a quiet harbor into something extraordinary. Sunlight filters through the clouds and glimmers brilliantly across the water, and swirls of vibrant hues bring the surrounding buildings and landscape to life. The scene is serene, yet every brushstroke feels alive, as if Monet has captured a single, fleeting moment in time. It is the quintessential Impressionist masterwork.

Between 1872 and 1875, Monet painted more than 50 views of the river around Argenteuil, returning to the subject again and again as one of his favorites. During these years, he also adopted his floating studio boat, allowing him to paint directly from the water and pursue the reflections, movement and optical effects that became central to his art. Without Argenteuil, the world may never have seen the rest of Monet's celebrated oeuvre.

Widely recognized as icons of Impressionism, most of Monet's Argenteuil scenes already reside in the world’s most prestigious museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Musée d’Orsay, the National Gallery and the Art Institute of Chicago—making this an exceptionally rare treasure by one of history's greatest artists.

Dated 1875

Canvas: 20” high x 27 1/2” wide (50.8 x 69.9 cm)
Framed: 29 1/4” high x 37” wide x 2 3/4” deep (74.3 x 94 x 7 cm)

View the Dossier

Provenance:
With Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, no. 12161 (label verso)
Collection of Oscar Schmitz, Dresden, 1904
Kunsthaus Zürich, on loan from 1931 from the collection of Oscar Schmitz
Kunstmuseum Basel, on loan from 1934 from the collection of Oscar Schmitz
Wildenstein & Co., London, from 1936
Mr. E.W. Fattorini, Great Britain, 1940
Sotheby's, London, April 16, 1975, lot 25
Private Collection, England
Sotheby's, London, December 3, 1991, lot 22
Private Collection, London, acquired at the above auction
Private Collection, Europe
Private Collection, London

Literature:
Daniel Wildenstein, Monet. Catalogue raisonné. Werkverzeichnis, Bonn, 1996, vol. II, p. 153, no. 371 (illustrated)
Paul Fechter, “Die Sammlung Schmitz,” Kunst und Künstler: Illustrierte Monatsschrift für bildende Kunst und Kunstgewerbe, Berlin, October 1909, p. 21
Karl Scheffler, “Die Sammlung Oskar Schmitz in Dresden,” Kunst und Künstler: Illustrierte Monatsschrift für bildende Kunst und Kunstgewerbe, Berlin, 1920/21, p. 186
Marie Dormoy, “La collection Schmitz à Dresde,” L’Amour de l’art, Paris, October 1926, p. 342
Daniel Wildenstein, Monet, vie et œuvre, Lausanne/Paris, 1974, vol. I, p. 273, 272 (illustrated)
Joel Isaacson, Observation and Reflection. Claude Monet, Oxford, 1978, p. 95, 207 (illustrated)
Paul Hayes Tucker, Monet at Argenteuil, New Haven/London, 1982, p. 120 (illustrated no. XXI)
Daniel Wildenstein, Monet, vie et œuvre, Lausanne/Paris, 1991, vol. V, p. 30 (illustrated)

Exhibited:
Zürich, Kunsthaus Zürich, Sammlung Oscar Schmitz, January 14-February 14, 1932, no. 35/47
Balingen, Stadthalle, Claude Monet, June 18-August 31, 1992, no. 6
Washington, D.C., Phillips Collection, Impressionists on the Seine: A Celebration of Renoir's “Luncheon of the Boating Party," September 21, 1996-February 2, 1997, pl. 39