monet argenteuil basin with a single sailboat

Le Bassin d'Argenteuil

From December 1871 until 1878, Monet lived in Argenteuil. He would set up his easel out in the countryside or in his garden. But above all it was the Seine and the movement of the small boats which attracted the painter's attention. In his paintings, with their light and vivid colours, Monet shows his perfect mastery of the technique of fragmenting brush strokes, producing an interplay of luminous vibration. The left of the painting is taken up by the Argenteuil promenade, punctuated by the shadows of the trees planted along it. In the background there is a road bridge with a tollbooth at each end. On the right, in the foreground, there is the jetty of a bathing pool, then a washhouse. A major part of the painting is given over to clouds moving across the blue sky. As Daniel Wildenstein pointed out, Monet took several liberties with the motif. He only painted five arches on the bridge, which in reality had seven, and he raised the height of the tollbooths. The activity in Bassin d'Argenteuil recalls the beach scenes of Saint Adresse or those of the Grenouillère baths at Bougival before 1870. But here we have a particularly accomplished work, a brilliant starting point for a fruitful series, as Impressionism reached its peak during the Argenteuil period.

Object details

History - provenance, exhibitions, about this object record.

• collection Ernest Duez, Paris
• jusqu'en 1901, dans la collection Decap, Paris
• 1901, Vente Tableaux modernes... collection de M.X [Decap], Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 15 avril 1901, n°14
• de 1901 à 1911, dans la collection du comte Isaac de Camondo, Paris (acquis pour la somme de 16 500F à la Vente de Drouot du 15 avril)
• 1911, accepté par l'Etat à titre de legs du comte Isaac de Camondo pour le musée du Louvre (comité du 27/04/1911, conseil du 08/05/1911, arrêté du 23/11/1911)
• 1911, attribué au musée du Louvre, Paris
• de 1911 à 1947, au musée du Louvre, Paris (exposé à partir de 1914)
• de 1947 à 1986, au musée du Louvre, galerie du Jeu de Paume, Paris
• 1986, affecté au musée d'Orsay, Paris
• Deuxième exposition impressionniste - galerie Durand-Ruel - France, Paris, 1876
• Exposition du centenaire Monet-Rodin - musée de l'Orangerie - France, Paris, 1940
• Le paysage français de Poussin aux Impressionnistes - organisme inconnu - France, inconnu, 1956, ?, n°28 ?
• Loisirs sur l'eau - histoire de la plaisance en France 1640-1940 - palais de Chaillot - France, Paris, 1978, n°704
• Hommage à Claude Monet - Galeries nationales du Grand Palais - France, Paris, 1980
• Impressionnisme - fondation Anne et Albert Prouvost - France, Marcq-en-Baroeul, 1980-1981
• L'Impressionnisme et le paysage français - Los Angeles County Museum of Art - Etats-Unis, Los Angeles, 1984
• A Day in the Country: Impressionism and the French Landscape - The Art Institute of Chicago - Etats-Unis, Chicago, 1984-1985, n°44
• L'Impressionnisme et le paysage français - Galeries nationales du Grand Palais - France, Paris, 1985
• Budapest, 1869-1914 : modernité hongroise et peinture européenne - musée des Beaux-Arts - France, Dijon, 1995, n°174, p. 329
• Impressionists on the Seine. A celebration of Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party - The Phillips Collection - 1996-1997
• Impressionism: Paintings collected by European Museums - High Museum of Art - Etats-Unis, Atlanta, 1999, n°31
• Impressionism: Paintings collected by European Museums - Seattle Art Museum - Etats-Unis, Seattle, 1999, n°31
• Impressionism: Paintings collected by European Museums - Denver Art Museum - Etats-Unis, Denver, 1999, n°31
• The Impressionists at Argenteuil - National Gallery of Art - Etats-Unis, Washington, 2000, n°11, p. 69
• The Impressionists at Argenteuil - Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art - Etats-Unis, Hartford, 2000, n°11, p. 69
• Monet, i luoghi della pittura - Casa dei Carraresi - Italie, Trévise, 2001-2002
• Orte des Impressionismus Gemälde und Fotografien - Kunstmuseum Basel - Suisse, Bâle, 2003, n°19, p. 57
• Monet la Senna le ninfee. Il grande fiume e il nuovo secolo - Museo della città - Italie, Brescia, 2004-2005
• Temps d'harmonie : paradis d'artistes au XIXe siècle - City museum - Japon, Kobe, 2006
• Temps d'harmonie : paradis d'artistes au XIXe siècle - Metropolitan Art Museum - Japon, Tokyo, 2007
• De Millet à Bonnard. La création picturale dans les collections du musée d'Orsay (1848-1914) - Hangaram Art Museum - Corée, République de, Séoul, 2007
• L'impressionnisme au fil de la Seine - musée des Impressionnismes Giverny - France, Giverny, 2010
• Claude Monet 1840-1926 - Galeries nationales du Grand Palais - France, Paris, 2010-2011
• Impressionists on the Water - Legion of Honor - Etats-Unis, San Francisco, 2013
• Naissance de l'impressionnisme - National Art Center - Japon, Tokyo, 2014
• Monet. Un pont vers la modernité - musée des Beaux-Arts du Canada - Canada, Ottawa, 2015-2016
• Monet: The Early Years - Kimbell Art Museum - Etats-Unis, Fort Worth, 2016-2017
• Monet: The Early Years - Legion of Honor - Etats-Unis, San Francisco, 2017
• Impressionnisme : quelle modernité ? - Louvre Abu Dhabi - Emirats Arabes Unis, Abu Dhabi, 2022-2023
• Alexandre, Arsène, Les Arts , "Collection du comte Isaac de Camondo", Paris, [s.n.], 1908, p.32
• Anonyme, Catalogue de la collection Isaac de Camondo - Musée du Louvre , Paris, G. Braun, 1914, n°181, p. 35
• Jamot, Paul, La Collection Camondo au Musée du Louvre, les peintures et les dessins , Paris, La Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1914, p.14, 42-44, ill. p.43
• Vitry, Paul ; Dreyfus, Carle ; Leprieur, Paul ; Migeon, Gaston, Catalogue de la collection Isaac de Camondo - Musée national du Louvre , Paris, Musées nationaux, 1922, n°181, p.39, non reprod.
• Brière, Gaston, Musée national du Louvre. Catalogue des peintures exposées dans les galeries. I. École française , Paris, Musées nationaux ; Palais du Louvre, 1924, n°CA. 181, p.189
• Regamey, Raymond, Gazette des beaux-arts , "Formation de Claude Monet", Paris, [s.n.], 1927, p. 82
• Léger, Charles, Claude Monet , Paris, G. Crès, 1930, n°7
• Reuterswärd, Oscar, Monet , Stockholm, A. Bonniers, 1948, p.282
• Bazin, Germain ; Adhémar, Hélène ; Sérullaz, Maurice, Catalogue des peintures, pastels, sculptures impressionnistes , Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1958, n°248, p.131-132, non reprod.
• Anonyme, Catalogue des peintures du musée du Louvre , Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1972, p. 272
• Adhémar, Hélène ; Dayez, Anne, Musée du Louvre, Musée du Jeu de Paume , Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1973, p. 66, 151
• Adhémar, Hélène ; Dayez-Distel, Anne, Musée du Jeu de Paume - Catalogue rédigé , Paris, Editions des musées nationaux, 1977, p.157, reprod. p.68
• Bellony-Rewald, Alice, Le Monde retrouvé des impressionnistes , Paris, Seghers, 1977, p. 120-122
• Adhémar, Hélène [sous la direction de], Chronologie impressionniste : 1863-1905 , Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1981, n°125
• Rossi Bortolatto, Luigina ; Bailly-Herzberg, Janine, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Monet. 1870-1899 , Paris, Flammarion, 1981, n°70, p.93, reprod. p.92 et pl.XXI
• House, John, Monet. Nature into art , New Haven, Yale University Press, 1986, n°143
• Patin, Sylvie, A la campagne , Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1986, n°53
• Rosenblum, Robert, Les Peintures du Musée d'Orsay , Paris, Nathan, 1989, p. 276
• Tucker, Paul Hayes, Monet in the 90's. The seires paintings , Boston, The Museum of Fine Arts, 1989, fig. 4, p. 10
• Cachin, Françoise, Chefs-d'oeuvre du musée d'Orsay , New York, Artabras, 1994, n°80
• Shimada, Norio, La Seine des impressionnistes , Tokyo, Shogakukan, 1996, p. 97
• Cutting, James E., Impressionism and its canon , Lanham, University Press of America, 2006, p. 50
• Font-Réaulx, Dominique de, Turner i gli impressionisti : la grande storia del paesaggio moderno in Europa , 'Il paesaggio fotografato in Francia, 1845-1870" : [mostra, Brescia, 28 ottobre 2006-25 marzo 2007], Trévise, Linea d'ombra libri, 2006, p. 250
• Anonyme, Elger Esser, Eigenzeit , [Ausstellung, Stuttgart, Kunstmuseum, 28. November 2009 bis 11. April 2010, Arnhem, Museum voor moderne kunst, 11. Juli bis 26. September 2010], Munich, Schirmer ; Mosel, 2009, n°7, p.17, 148
• Ingres à Picasso : portraits et figures de femmes, cat. exp. (Paris, La Renaissance, 1928) , Paris, [s.n.], 1928
• Exposition du centenaire MONET-RODIN : au profit de l'entr'aide des artistes, cat. exp. (Paris, musée de l'Orangerie, 1940) , Paris, [s.n.], 1940, n° 9, p. 4 (non reprod.)
• Durand-Ruel, Charles, Impressionnisme, cat. exp. (Marcq-en-Baroeul, fondation Anne et Albert Prouvost, du 18/10/1980 au 25/01/1981) , Marcq-en-Baroeul, La Fondation, 1980, n° 18
• Brettell, Richard ; Gache-Patin, Sylvie ; Schaefer, Scott, L'Impressionnisme et le paysage français, cat.exp. (Los Angeles country museum of art, du 28/06/1984 au16/09/1984 ; Chicago, the Art institute of Chicago, du 23/10/1984 au 06/01/1985 ; Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, du 04/02/1985 au 22/04/1985) , Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1985, n° 44
• Rathbone, Eliza E. ; Rothkopf, Katherine ; Brettell, Richard R., Impresionists on the Seine : a Celebration of Renoir’s Luncheon of the Baoating Party, cat. exp. (Washington, The Phillips Collection, 1996-1997) , Washington, Counterpoint, 1996, n° 17
• Goldin, Marco ; Murphy, Alexandra ; Stuckey, Charles F., Monet : i luoghi della pittura, cat. exp. (Trévise, Casa dei Carraresi, du 29/09/2001 au 10/02/2002) , Conegliano, Linea d'ombra Libri, 2001, n° 10, p. 88
• Goldin, Marco (dir.), Monet. La Senna. Le Ninfee. Il grande fiume e il nuovo secolo, cat. exp. (Brescia, Museo di Santa Giulia, 23 octobre 2004-20 mars 2005) , Conegliano, Linea d'ombra libri, 2004, n° 58
• Mathieu, Caroline ; Takahashi, Akiya ; Ono, Yoshiki, Collections du musée d'Orsay. Paradis d'artistes au XIXème siècle, cat.exp. (Kobé, Tokyo) , Tokyo, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, 2006, n° 21, p. 53
• Mathieu, Caroline ; Georgel, Chantal ; Lobstein, Dominique ; [et.al], De Millet à Bonnard : la création picturale dans les collections du Musée d'Orsay (1848-1914), cat.exp. (Séoul, 2007) , Paris, Musée d'Orsay, 2007, p. 40
• Patin, Sylvie ; Patry, Sylvie ; Roquebert, Anne ; Thomson, Richard, Monet, cat.exp. (Paris, Galeries nationales, Grand Palais, Paris, 22 septembre 2010-24 janvier 2011) , Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux ; Musée d'Orsay, 2010, n° 30, p. 131 (reprod.)
• Sterling, Charles ; Adhémar, Hélène, Musée du Louvre. Peintures... [Catalogue sommaire illustré] École française, XIXe siècle. vol. III , Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1960, n°1371
• Wildenstein, Daniel, Claude Monet : catalogue raisonné Claude Monet. 1, 1840-1881, peintures , Paris, Bibliothèque des Arts ; Wildenstein institute, 1974, n°225
• Compin, Isabelle ; Roquebert, Anne, Catalogue sommaire illustré des peintures du Musée du Louvre et du Musée d'Orsay , Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1986, vol.4, p.102
• Compin, Isabelle [coordination] ; Lacambre, Geneviève [coordination] ; Roquebert, Anne, Musée d'Orsay. Catalogue sommaire illustré des peintures , Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1990, vol.2, p.329

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Other artworks from artist

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Claude Monet, La Seine à Argenteuil

Claude Monet, Femmes au jardin

Claude Monet, Méditation. Madame Monet au canapé

Claude Monet

Description.

Claude Monet ( French , 1840-1926)

The Basin at Argenteuil (Le Bassin d'Argenteuil)

• Oil on canvas

Materials/Techniques

Signature / inscription / marks.

Signature: Signed LL:Claude Monet

Credit / Object Number

Gift of Mrs. Murray S. Danforth

Object Number

Purchased from the artist for 80 francs by Comte Jean de Rasty, possibly under the title Esquisse, Argenteuil; purchased from de Rasty by Alexandre Rosenberg for 3,500 francs, Paris, 1898; Lazare Weiller, Paris; Hotel Drouot, Paris, sale L. Weiller, November 29, 1901, no. 32; Bernheim-Jeune, Paris; Gaston Bernheim de Villiers, Paris, 1919; M. Knoedler, New York, 1928; Carroll Carstairs Gallery, New York, 1936; Mrs. Murray S. Danforth, Providence, 1938. Note: This provenance is published in Rosenfeld, RISD Museum, 1991.

Projects & Publications

Publications.

A Handbook of the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design

European Paintings and Sculpture, ca. 1770 - 1937

Exchange Exhibition, Exhibition Exchange: From the Collection of Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University; From the Collection of The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence.

Selected Works

Exhibition history.

The boat basin at Argenteuil, with its long promenade and terraced café, was a popular site for watching sailing regattas on the Seine. Monet set up his easel on an island across the river, distinguishing optical effects and textures with strategically varied brushmarks. Using pigments direct from tubes and mixed on his palette, he evoked the bramble of grasses in the foreground with congested jabs of color. Horizontal dashes capture the water and the reflections of broadly painted sailboats, and tiny dark and light flicks mark a procession of plane trees.

The boat basin at Argenteuil, with its long promenade and terraced café, was a popular site for watching sailing regattas on the Seine. Monet set up his easel on an island across the river, distinguishing optical effects and textures with strategically varied brushmarks. Using pigments direct from tubes and mixed on his palette, he evoked the bramble of grasses in the foreground with congested jabs of color. A dappled mosaic of horizontal dashes captures the movement of water and the reflections of broadly painted sailboats. Along the riverwalk, dark and light flicks of paint mark a procession of plane trees whose gray-green leaves and their purple shadows are rendered with a flattened touch.

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Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat is an oil on canvas autumn scene of the basin at Argenteuil , painted by French Impressionist artist Claude Monet in 1874. [1]

The piece was created during Monet's residence at Argenteuil, a town on the banks of the Seine , on the outskirts of Paris . Here Monet purchased a boat to be used as a floating studio and painted many scenes of the surrounding area. [1]

National Gallery of Ireland

The painting was purchased by Irish playwright and activist Edward Martyn in 1899, on the advice of his cousin, George Moore . It was bequeathed to the National Gallery of Ireland in 1924. [2] It is valued at €10m. [3]

Vandalism and restoration

At around 11am on 29 June 2012 a visitor to the gallery, Andrew Shannon, punched the painting causing "huge damage, shocking damage" [4] with "an extensive three-branched tear". [5]

After 18 months of restoration work, on 1 July 2014, the painting was re-hung in the gallery, behind protective glass. [3] The restoration saw 7% of the damaged area being lost, in a process that involved sewing microscopic threads back together. [4]

Shannon was jailed for 5 years for the attack. [6]

• "Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat" . National Gallery of Ireland . Retrieved 18 January 2015 .
• "eMuseum" . National Gallery of Ireland. Archived from the original on 18 January 2015 . Retrieved 18 January 2015 .
• "Restored Monet returned to National Gallery" . RTÉ. 1 July 2014 . Retrieved 18 January 2015 .
• "Vandalised Monet work restored" . Belfast Telegraph. 1 July 2014 . Retrieved 18 January 2015 .
• "The Claude Monet Research & Conservation Project" . National Gallery of Ireland . Retrieved 18 January 2015 .
• Wheaton, Oliver (6 December 2014). "Man is jailed for punching a hole through an £8 million Monet painting" . Metro . Retrieved 18 January 2015 .

External links

• , National Gallery of Ireland information
• , National Gallery of Ireland restoration process

Where next?

Explore related content

Bassin d'Argenteuil

Claude monet circa 1872, musée d’orsay, paris paris, france.

From December 1871 until 1878, Monet lived in Argenteuil. He would set up his easel out in the countryside or in his garden. But above all it was the Seine and the movement of the small boats which attracted the painter's attention.

In his paintings, with their light and vivid colours, Monet shows his perfect mastery of the technique of fragmenting brush strokes, producing an interplay of luminous vibration.

The left of the painting is taken up by the Argenteuil promenade, punctuated by the shadows of the trees planted along it. In the background there is a road bridge with a tollbooth at each end. On the right, in the foreground, there is the jetty of a bathing pool, then a washhouse. A major part of the painting is given over to clouds moving across the blue sky.

As Daniel Wildenstein pointed out, Monet took several liberties with the motif. He only painted five arches on the bridge, which in reality had seven, and he raised the height of the tollbooths.The activity in Bassin d'Argenteuil recalls the beach scenes of Saint Adresse or those of the Grenouillère baths at Bougival before 1870. But here we have a particularly accomplished work, a brilliant starting point for a fruitful series, as Impressionism reached its peak during the Argenteuil period.

• Title: Bassin d'Argenteuil
• Creator Lifespan: 1840 - 1926
• Creator Nationality: French
• Creator Gender: Male
• Date Created: circa 1872
• Provenance: Bequest of Count Isaac de Camondo, 1911
• Physical Dimensions: w800 x h600 cm
• Painter: Claude Monet
• Original Title: Le Bassin d'Argenteuil
• Credit Line: © Musée d'Orsay, dist.RMN / Patrice Schmidt
• Type: Oil on canvas
• Rights: © Musée d'Orsay, dist.RMN / Patrice Schmidt
• External Link: https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections

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Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat

Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat ( French : Bassin d'Argenteuil avec un seul voilier ) is an oil on canvas autumn scene of the basin at Argenteuil , painted by French Impressionist artist Claude Monet in 1874. [1]

National Gallery of Ireland

Vandalism and restoration, external links.

The piece was created during Monet's residence at Argenteuil, a town on the banks of the Seine , on the outskirts of Paris . Here Monet purchased a boat to be used as a floating studio and painted many scenes of the surrounding area. [1]

The painting was purchased by Irish playwright and activist Edward Martyn in 1899, on the advice of his cousin, George Moore . It was bequeathed to the National Gallery of Ireland in 1924. [2] It is valued at €10m. [3]

At around 11am on 29 June 2012 a visitor to the gallery, Andrew Shannon, punched the painting causing "huge damage, shocking damage" [4] with "an extensive three-branched tear". [5]

After 18 months of restoration work, on 1 July 2014, the painting was re-hung in the gallery, behind protective glass. [3] The restoration saw 7% of the damaged area being lost, in a process that involved sewing microscopic threads back together. [4]

Shannon was jailed for 5 years for the attack. [6]

• List of paintings by Claude Monet

Related Research Articles

Oscar-Claude Monet was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his long career, he was the most consistent and prolific practitioner of impressionism's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions of nature, especially as applied to plein air (outdoor) landscape painting. The term "Impressionism" is derived from the title of his painting Impression, soleil levant , exhibited in 1874 initiated by Monet and his associates as an alternative to the Salon.

Gustave Caillebotte was a French painter who was a member and patron of the Impressionists, although he painted in a more realistic manner than many others in the group. Caillebotte was known for his early interest in photography as an art form.

Alfred Sisley was an Impressionist landscape painter who was born and spent most of his life in France, but retained British citizenship. He was the most consistent of the Impressionists in his dedication to painting landscape en plein air . He deviated into figure painting only rarely and, unlike Renoir and Pissarro, he found that Impressionism fulfilled his artistic needs.

The Gare Saint-Lazare , officially Paris Saint Lazare , is one of the seven large mainline railway station terminals in Paris, France. It was the first train station built in Paris, opening in 1837. It mostly serves train services to western suburbs, as well as intercity services toward Normandy using the Paris–Le Havre railway. Saint-Lazare is the third busiest station in France, after the Gare du Nord and Gare de Lyon. It handles 290,000 passengers each day. The current station building opened in 1889 and was designed by architect Juste Lisch; the maître d'œuvre was Eugène Flachat.

Events from the year 1874 in art .

Camille-Léonie Doncieux was the first wife of French painter Claude Monet, with whom she had two sons. She was the subject of a number of paintings by Monet, as well as Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Édouard Manet.

The Thomas Crown Affair is a 1999 American romantic heist film directed by John McTiernan, written by Leslie Dixon and Kurt Wimmer and is a remake of the 1968 film of the same name. Its story follows Thomas Crown, a billionaire who steals a painting from an art gallery and is pursued by an insurance investigator with the two falling in love. It stars Pierce Brosnan, Rene Russo, and Denis Leary.

Saint-Georges majeur au crépuscule refers to an Impressionist painting by Claude Monet, which exists in more than one version. It forms part of a series of views of the monastery-island of San Giorgio Maggiore. This series is in turn part of a larger series of views of Venice which Monet began in 1908 during his only visit there.

A Girl with a Watering Can is an 1876 Impressionist oil painting on canvas by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The work was apparently painted in Claude Monet's famous garden at Argenteuil, and may portray one of the girls in Renoir's neighborhood in a blue dress holding a watering can.

Snow at Argenteuil is an oil-on-canvas landscape painting by the Impressionist artist Claude Monet. It is the largest of no fewer than eighteen works Monet painted of his home commune of Argenteuil while it was under a blanket of snow during the winter of 1874–1875. This painting—number 352 in Wildenstein's catalogue of the works of Monet—is the largest of the eighteen. The attention to detail evident in the smaller paintings is less evident in this larger picture. Instead, Monet has rendered large areas of the canvas in closely like tones and colours of blue and grey. The application of smaller strokes of greens, yellows, reds and darker blues breaks up these large expanses, and the almost choreographed dispersal of these various colours helps bind the picture together. Paint at the depicted road surface is thicker than elsewhere in the painting, and impasto is suggestive of the feel of disturbed snow.

Argenteuil is a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It can also refer to:

Vandalism of art is intentional damage of an artwork. The object, usually exhibited in public, becomes damaged as a result of the act, and remains in place right after the act. This may distinguish it from art destruction and iconoclasm, where it may be wholly destroyed and removed, and art theft, or looting.

Bords de la Seine à Argenteuil is an oil painting by an unknown artist. The painting is a landscape depicting the River Seine at Argenteuil in France. It is owned by Englishman David Joel.

Springtime or The Reader is an 1872 painting by the French Impressionist painter Claude Monet. It depicts his first wife, Camille Doncieux, seated reading beneath a canopy of lilacs. The painting is presently held by the Walters Art Museum.

Black on Maroon is a mixed media painting by Mark Rothko, created in 1958. It is housed at the Tate Modern, in London.

The Fondation Claude Monet is a nonprofit organisation that runs and preserves the house and gardens of Claude Monet in Giverny, France, where Monet lived and painted for 43 years. Monet was inspired by his gardens, and spent years transforming them, planting thousands of flowers. He believed that it was important to surround himself with nature and paint outdoors. He created many paintings of his house and gardens, especially of water lilies in the pond, the Japanese bridge, and a weeping willow tree.

Woman with a Parasol – Madame Monet and Her Son , sometimes known as The Stroll is an oil-on-canvas painting by Claude Monet from 1875. The Impressionist work depicts his wife Camille Monet and their son Jean Monet in the period from 1871 to 1877 while they were living in Argenteuil, capturing a moment on a stroll on a windy summer's day.

Jean Monet was the eldest son of French Impressionist artist Claude Monet and Camille Doncieux Monet and the brother of Michel Monet. He was the subject of several paintings by his father and married his step-sister, Blanche Hoschedé.

Michel Monet was the second son of Claude Monet and Camille Doncieux Monet.

The Train in the Snow , or Le train dans la neige , is a landscape painting by the French Impressionist artist Claude Monet. The work depicts a train surrounded by snow at the Argenteuil station in France. Art historians see the work as a significant example of Monet's efforts to integrate nature and industry in his work. Many historians believe that Monet, out of all of the notable nineteenth century artists, made the most paintings of trains in his lifetime.

• ↑ "eMuseum" . National Gallery of Ireland. Archived from the original on 18 January 2015 . Retrieved 18 January 2015 .
• 1 2 "Restored Monet returned to National Gallery" . RTÉ . 1 July 2014 . Retrieved 18 January 2015 .
• 1 2 "Vandalised Monet work restored" . Belfast Telegraph . 1 July 2014 . Retrieved 18 January 2015 .
• ↑ "The Claude Monet Research & Conservation Project" . National Gallery of Ireland . Retrieved 18 January 2015 .
• ↑ Wheaton, Oliver (6 December 2014). "Man is jailed for punching a hole through an £8 million Monet painting" . Metro . Retrieved 18 January 2015 .
• , National Gallery of Ireland information
• , National Gallery of Ireland restoration process

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Restored Monet painting worth €10m unveiled at National Gallery

Man allegedly put his hand through argenteuil basin with a single sailboat in 2012.

A €10 million Claude Monet painting, which was damaged in 2012 when a man allegedly put his hand through it, is back on display at the National Gallery in Dublin after 18 months of extensive conservation work.

A Claude Monet painting, which was damaged when a man allegedly put his hand through it has gone back on display in the National Gallery after extensive repair work.

Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat was unveiled today after 18 months in the gallery's restoration department.

A man is currently before the courts charged with criminally damaging the work in June 2012.

The painting, which is the only one from the French impressionist in the National Gallery, dates from 1874 and is valued at €10 million.

The damage involved an extensive three branch tear. Fragments of paint and priming layers had also been lost from the surrounding site of the damage.

National Gallery director Sean Rainbird said the conservation team had done a "phenomenal job".

“This project to restore and conserve one of the gallery’s most popular Impressionist works of art is testament to the outstanding expertise and dedication of our professional team of conservators,” he said.

The project was undertaken with support from French bank BNP Paribas and cost a “five figure” sum, Mr Rainbird added.

He went on to say that although the incident in which the painting had been damaged was “traumatic” the gallery does have good security systems in place. Mr Rainbird said there is an inherent contradiction in putting priceless items on public display.

“You could say lock ‘em all up but that’s not what we’re here for,” he said.

The painting, which is now behind a protective sheet of glass, is once again hanging in its old spot in the gallery’s Millenium Wing. The repair work is subtly visible, which, the conservationists say, is in keeping with current ethics around the restoration of museum pieces.

Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat was bequeathed to the Gallery by the Irish dramatist and politician Edward Martyn (1859- 1923).

Martyn is thought to have acquired the painting on the advice of his cousin, the writer George Moore (1852-1933), who had lived in Paris and was well acquainted with Impressionist artists.

Dan Griffin

Dan Griffin is an Irish Times journalist

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In Focus: the flâneur

In our ongoing adult learning series, we link works from our collection with key art historical, theoretical or philosophical texts. Aimed especially at third-level students, but accessible to all, this series aims to support in-depth engagement with our collection and the selected texts.

In this post , we consider Claude Monet’s fishing boat, which he used as a floating studio, in the context of the flâneur, a wandering observer of urban spaces.

Key artwork

Claude Monet (1840-1926),  Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat,  1874

Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project, M The Flâneur ,  p.416-455  [via Monkskop]

In this discussion we will link the concept of the flâneur (one who strolls the streets with a keen observational eye) with Claude Monet’s experience of drifting through the Argenteuil Basin on the boat that he used as his ‘floating studio’. Although we will be considering Monet in a context other than that of one of the key figures of the French Impressionist movement, this post will nonetheless help us to understand elements of Impressionism.

Impressionist painting, most often practiced as plein air painting (painting outdoors), prioritises the articulation of perceptions of light. Monet was committed to capturing his impressions of nature in the French countryside; he exemplified this commitment by painting the same scene again and again, in an effort to harness specific light from a time in the day, a method which was also useful in recording shifts in the seasons.

Monet purchased an old fishing boat in Argenteuil on the outskirts of Paris, where he moved in 1871. He describes the acquisition of this boat, saying “a fair wind had brought me just enough money in one go to buy a boat and have a wooden cabin built on it just big enough to set up an easel”.

For this discussion, a key thing to consider is that Monet’s floating studio allowed him to paint views that would otherwise have been inaccessible. Through its use, Monet created a space in which he could access scenes of the Argenteuil and Giverny, allowing him to observe and document from a distance. We can make connections between this way of painting and the gaze of the flâneur.

Monet relished understanding how optical effects influenced his perception of the world. Impressionism helps us to understand colour as light, and colour as pigment. Colour theory draws on the colour spectrum, which is made up of light. In painting, particularly Impressionism, we experience colour as solid stuff (synthetic or solid pigments) that depicts colour as light. The way Monet recorded light was by focusing attention on a particular iteration of light in a space, all the while knowing that the same space would transform into multiple other versions as a result of the changing properties of a day or a season. To capture something as fleeting as light on a particular day, or in a particular instant, an artist needs to possess a sense of immediacy both in perception, and in the application of paint. If we imagine the gaze of the Impressionist painter, it chases what is fleeting and renders its appearance into paint on the surface. Monet’s floating studio and his method of repeatedly painting the same scene finds parallels in the flâneur.

The flâneur, who has his origins in 19 th century France, is an individual, male in this context (more recently, a female equivalent has been defined as a flâneuse, explored in detail by the writer Lauren Elkin in her book of the same name ) who strolls through city streets closely observing all its accompanying associations. The flâneur has the ability and the time to wander society while also being removed from it. His purpose is to observe society and only that: he therefore appears aimless.

While Monet observed light, most often in natural settings, the urban setting of Paris was where the flâneur experienced a phantasmagoria, captivated by sequences of images, creating clashes of meaning from that which he observed in the city. Can we compare Monet’s floating studio, drifting through Argenteuil, with the flâneur roaming Parisian streets? Can the movement of light on water share the vitality of a bustling market? Does a specific light shimmering on branches and leaves echo the endlessly stimulating details of a busy city arcade? The flâneur, a poet in the streets, sees the world through a kaleidoscope, finds solitude in a crowd, and delights in anonymity. He treats everyday life as its own creative space. He thrives in the demands of immediacy, observing the fleeting in the moment in which they occur.

The flâneur has been used to explain modern alienation, and gender and class divisions in Western cities of the 19th century. The French poet Charles Baudelaire ( 1821-1867) saw a need for artists to immerse themselves in the new social and economic realities that were brought on by industrialisation. In his view, traditional art did not have a place in this newly complex modern world. For Baudelaire, the artist needed to become “a botanist of the sidewalk”. This was considered an essential role that the metropolis demanded; a role that was responsible for understanding and portraying a city.

The crowd is his element, as the air is that of birds and water of fishes. His passion and his profession are to become one flesh with the crowd. For the perfect flâneur, for the passionate spectator, it is an immense joy to set up house in the heart of the multitude, amid the ebb and flow of movement, in the midst of the fugitive and the infinite. (Charles Baudelaire, The Painter of Modern Life, (Le Figaro), 1863)

The flâneur is a key motif in The Arcades Project, a major work by t he 20th century philosopher and critical theorist, Walter Benjamin (1892-1940). A n unfinished work written between 1927 and 1940, The Arcades Project was a monumental collection of writings on the city life of Paris in the 19th century. It focused on the glass and iron covered arcades which predated department stores and were a prominent feature of 19 th century Western cities. Paris had exceptional examples of these glass-roofed corridors lined with shops, brimming with desirable goods.

After Benjamin’s death, The Arcades Project was left unfinished in multiple parts. Its form was highly innovative in its time, and it is considered by many to be one of the most significant critical theory works of the 20 th century. It is presented as a montage of extracts by 19th century writers and contemporaries of Benjamin’s, with intermittent commentary from Benjamin himself. Readers are invited to combine textual fragments and experience comparative thinking. A version of this unfinished text was posthumously edited in 1982, and the flâneur is situated from a Marxist standpoint: a bourgeois dilettante, and a product of modern life.

Benjamin’s text takes the flâneur in multiple directions, presenting the reader with the potential for imaginative flashes of thought by connecting sections on the flâneur with other elements of the text. The gaze of Monet in his floating studio, the kaleidoscopic nature of the flâneur’s gaze and indeed Benjamin’s fragmented approach to this project, can all be considered in the context of one another. Benjamin offers ideas on the flâneur using language that signifies the experience of the painter, describing the flâneur’s strolling as an accumulation of “momentum”, and the city as a “landscape” that “feeds…sensory data”.

He also includes a quote from physician Jean François Dancel that captures a static stance of the sailor:

"When one is sailing on a river or lake, one's body is without active movement . . . .The skin experiences no contraction, and its pores remain wide open and capable of absorbing all the emanations and vapors of the surrounding environment…" (Dancel, 1846)

This is an idea that we can twist for the purposes of this discussion: while in his floating studio, Monet’s body was almost fully stationary, his motion dependent on the mechanisms of the boat. There is, however, another element of motion at play - the act of looking and painting. This eye movement or fixation on a brief veil of light can be understood as an exception to this image of the stationary sailor, bringing Monet in his floating studio closer still to the wandering, mobile flâneur.

When we look at the painting Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat, we can see that it embodies one of the key motifs of Impressionism, with short, thin brushstrokes. Here, we don’t see crowds: we see water, trees and a single sailboat. The silence of Monet’s observation echoes the subtle footsteps of the flâneur. Monet found subjects for his painting from his immediate environment, which he  perceived from a somewhat removed and objective eye. His determination to observe scenes of the River Seine from his floating studio brings Monet conceptually closer to observers of the modern metropolis nearby.

• How can we compare observations of natural spaces e.g. a river versus constructed spaces like a department store?
• Can we understand constructed spaces like cities as a part of nature?
• What are the sociopolitical implications of the existence of the flâneur in 19 th century cities?
• In your view, can a version of the flâneur exist in digital space?

Further reading:

• Baudelaire, Charles, The Painter of Modern Life Translated by Jonathan Maine (1964) London, Phaidon Press.
• Sontag, Susan, (1977) On Photography, USA & Canada, Penguin Books.

Written by: Jennie Taylor, National Gallery of Ireland

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A reading list of American literature and poetry.

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How a $12 Million Monet Was Repaired After Some Idiot Punched It

Almost three years ago, an unhinged Irish gentleman named Andrew Shannon punched a 141-year-old Monet painting hanging in Ireland's National Gallery. Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat was ruined—or so it seemed.

The painting had three jagged rips down its center, twisted outward from where Shannon's fist hit the canvas. Shannon, for his part, is now serving a five-year sentence for his crime, which Metro UK explained as "an attempt to 'get back at the state.'" But the painstaking restoration has taken almost as long as his prison sentence.

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While it seems beyond repair in the image above, conservators at the National Gallery posted a detailed account of what sounds a lot like a harrowing surgery on its website.

First, they made sure that they had all the pieces. This is a 130-year-old painting, and when it was punched, says the gallery, "tiny fragments of paint and ground came loose and were deposited on the painting's surface or on the ground nearby." They had to carefully pick up and classify all these crumbs and flakes of paint so they could be restored.

Even then, some of the pieces are too small to figure out where they belong. "Seven percent of the fragments lost during the damage were so tiny that even with a powerful microscope, it was impossible to relocate them back into the painting," says the gallery. They still played a useful role in the restoration though; the lab was able to chemically analyze them to figure out the makeup of the paint Monet used.

Knowing more about the provenance of the paint, it was time to get started. Repairing the painting would require it to be turned upside down—it was placed on a "padded cushion"—and to "stabilize" it, the team covered the painted side with "a low-concentration of water-based, animal glue." The idea was to make the paint itself stronger while so much was happening on the other side of the canvas.

Then came the real work:

With the aid of a high-powered microscope and appropriately small tools, the tear edges were carefully aligned thread-by-thread. Re-joining of the realigned, broken canvas fibres involved applying a specially formulated adhesive to achieve a strong but reversible bond between the thread ends. This adhesive material has been used and developed by painting conservators in Germany over the past 40 years. Examples shown here include small steel surgical tools for working on tiny areas using a microscope; mini hot spatula for applying controlled and localised heat to the painting; warming plate and glass containers for keeping adhesive at a consistent temperature. Hydrated collagen adhesive was made in-studio.

If it sounds like surgery, that's because it is. The aging, fragile threads are almost like blood vessels that need to be carefully and gently tied off or rejoined. Any mistakes, and the entire painting could have been lost.

But there was still a huge scar down the middle of the painting. So, like piecing together a puzzle, the team placed those collection paint fragments back where they belonged using a microscope—and then used gesso and watercolor to retouch the remaining lines.

One of the most interesting things about the detailed account of the restoration is that along the way, every single technique was designed to be reversible . This is an idea that runs throughout art restoration and even archaeology, that, even though we might think we're improving or studying a piece of history in the least harmful way possible, it's likely that the conservators of the future will have better technology and better techniques for the work we're doing now.

So they make sure to leave clear and careful breadcrumbs. Clues that, decades from now, might help future conservators understand how better to make this battered, beautiful painting whole. [ National Gallery ; h/t Hyperallergic ]

All images via the National Gallery of Ireland .

Monet Collection " Argenteuil Basin With A Single Sailboat " by Claude Monet on Canvas

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How to Fix a Monet After Somebody Punches It

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Claude Monet, “Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat” (all images courtesy of National Gallery of Ireland)

Conservators are probably the closest thing the art world has to surgeons. With care and precision, they repair wounds caused by old age, negligence, and, every once in a while, crazed attackers — as happened in 2012 to Claude Monet’s “Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat.” Painted in 1874, it was  punched by an angry madman  as it hung in Ireland’s National Gallery.

The team tasked with repairing the artwork had their work cut out for them. The assailant had left a massive triangular tear in the middle of the canvas, and some of the paint had been so badly pulverized that it couldn’t be reattached. Over the course of two years, conservators worked carefully to repair the painting and restore it to its original condition. A true labor of love, the project was recently documented on the museum website and has been reproduced here with its permission. Take a look.

After the painting was removed from the wall, conservators laid the painting flat to remove it from its frame.

Conservators then tested the paints and varnish Monet used to figure out which modern materials would be the most compatible with their 19th-century counterparts.

The conservators had to spend a good deal of time researching Monet’s painting technique and how other institutions had approached similar projects before embarking on the restoration itself.

The major repairs were made to the back of the painting. Before turning it over, conservators applied a temporary tissue cover to protect its surface. They used a special water-soluble glue that temporarily makes the painting stronger and is easily removed. Once this was done, the tacks were painstakingly removed from the stretcher.

The tears in the canvas had sharp, jagged edges which had to be flattened, aligned and rejoined together with the help of a powerful microscope and tiny tools. Conservators bound them together with an adhesive first developed in Germany more than 40 years ago.

These are a few of the conservators’ tools and materials: a mini hot spatula for applying heat, a warming plate, and glass containers for holding glue.

After the tear was repaired, the canvas was turned upright and its protective tissue removed. The surface was cleaned, lightening the canvas and bringing it closer to how it originally looked.

Because the painting had been so badly damaged, conservators had to add a secondary canvas to support the original.

Once this was completed, the canvas was returned to the stretcher and tacked on with as many original tacks as possible.

Next, conservators reinserted what fragments of paint they could, though many had been pulverized into a fine dust that was impossible to reapply.

In the holes that remained, conservators inserted a reversible, pigmented gesso made from chalk and a tiny amount of animal gelatin glue. Finally, they retouched the painting with watercolor.

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Laura C. Mallonee

Laura C. Mallonee is a Brooklyn-based writer. She holds an M.A. in Cultural Reporting and Criticism from NYU and a B.F.A. in painting from Missouri State University. She enjoys exploring new cities and... More by Laura C. Mallonee

6 replies on “How to Fix a Monet After Somebody Punches It”

I think you mean Conservationists, not “Conversationists.”

Actually (misspelling aside), it’s the term that is wrong. Conservationists are into wildlife. Conservators take care of objects. I’m a museum conservator (plural, conservators, never ever ever conservationist or conservationists) so you can take my word for it. A nice article though! 🙂

We corrected the mistake soon after it was published. Why are these comments coming now? Are you seeing an old version?

digg is to blame

It was indeed a good article and thanks for the distinction Ally! I sent this to a friend who is a newly trained conservator and she mentioned that the photos were very important. Thanks again.

the link to the article still says “conversationists”. Love the article!

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Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat

Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat is an oil on canvas autumn scene of the basin at Argenteuil , painted by French Impressionist artist Claude Monet in 1874. [1]

• 2.1 Vandalism and restoration
• 3 References
• 4 External links

The piece was created during Monet's residence at Argenteuil, a town on the banks of the Seine , on the outskirts of Paris . Here Monet purchased a boat to be used as a floating studio and painted many scenes of the surrounding area. [1]

National Gallery of Ireland

The painting was purchased by Irish playwright and activist Edward Martyn in 1899, on the advice of his cousin, George Moore . It was bequeathed to the National Gallery of Ireland in 1924. [2] It is valued at €10m. [3]

Vandalism and restoration

At around 11am on 29 June 2012 a visitor to the gallery, Andrew Shannon, punched the painting causing "huge damage, shocking damage" [4] with "an extensive three-branched tear". [5]

After 18 months of restoration work, on 1 July 2014, the painting was re-hung in the gallery, behind protective glass. [3] The restoration saw 7% of the damaged area being lost, in a process that involved sewing microscopic threads back together. [4]

Shannon was jailed for 5 years for the attack. [6]

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External links

• [1] , National Gallery of Ireland information
• [2] , National Gallery of Ireland restoration process

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