Claude Monet

French, 1840-1926

Chemin de halage à Argenteuil (Towpath at Argenteuil, Winter), 1875-1876

oil on canvas

support: 23 5/8 x 39 3/8 inches (60.0075 x 100.0125 cm); framed: 32 1/2 x 48 x 4 7/8 inches (82.55 x 121.92 x 12.38 cm)

Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Gift of Charles Clifton, 1919

1919:8

More Details

Inscriptions

signature / lower right / Claude Monet

Provenance

possibly with Hiltbrunner, Paris.
possibly in 1877, but by June 1882, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, and with them until at least 1884.
Erwin Davis [1831-1902], New York.
by 1893, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris.
1898, William H. Fuller [d. 1902];
March 1903, sold at the William H. Fuller sale, American Art Association, New York, March 12-13, 1903, no. 145 (as "Près d’Argenteuil en Hiver"), to James F. Sutton [c. 1842-1915], New York, for $2,000;
to his wife, Florence Macy Sutton [1853-1933];
January 1917, sold at the Sutton sale, American Art Association, New York, January 16-17, 1917, no. 140, to James Hastings for $6,800.
until 1918, Henry Reinhardt;
to Knoedler and Company, New York;
October 29, 1919, sold by Knoedler and Company to the Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo

Class

Paintings

Work Type

Oil painting

This information may change due to ongoing research. Glossary of Terms

In 1871, following the end of the Franco-Prussian War, the newly wed Claude Monet moved from London to Argenteuil—a town located northwest of Paris on the River Seine. There, like his mentor Charles François Daubigny, Monet often worked from a boat-turned-studio in order to observe closely the effects of sunlight on the water. He remained in the area until 1876 and was joined for a time by artists Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Édouard Manet (French, 1832–1883), and Alfred Sisley. From this point on, the picturesque town of Argenteuil became a hub of artistic activity. In 1874, Monet and his contemporaries organized the first independent Impressionist exhibition. Believed to have been painted the following year, Towpath at Argenteuil, Winter contrasts two landscapes. This serene winterscape dotted with smokestacks along the right of the horizon portrays country life against the backdrop of industrialization. A slight opening in the heavy overcast sky melts snow along the riverbanks, and the faint flush of green in the trees hints at spring and, for Monet, the beginning of a new chapter in his life with his wife Camille.