Monet, Claude (1840-1926)
Le pont du chemin de fer à Argenteuil (The Railway Bridge at Argenteuil)
1873
Oil on canvas, 60 x 98.4 cm
Private collection
Two men are standing by a sunlit river, as boats pass by, with a bridge in the background: these are ingredients, it would seem, for an idyllic rural view. And it was a type of view that had often been painted before; a canvas such as Corot‘s Le Pont de Mantes, painted in the late 1860s, is a classic example, with its picturesque medieval bridge and shaded riverbank–a serene image of a seemingly timeless refuge. But Monet‘s canvas is nothing like this. The riverbank is bald and open, fringed by a low man-made barrier; the only trees are relegated to the far distance; and, most strikingly, the bridge, cutting boldly across the whole composition, is a rigid, geometrical metal structure, crossed by two railway trains. Monet‘s riverbank is expressly, unashamedly modern. His two figures stand confidently, at ease with the scene; the boats that pass are recreational sailing boats, for Argenteuil was a centre for amateur sailors; and the bridge, with its trains, was the umbilical link that joined the place to Paris, only eight miles away to the south east. The train to the right in Monet‘s canvas, its funnel proudly puffing smoke into the open sky, is heading for the city. Moreover, the bridge was absolutely new–rebuilt after its destruction during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1; the contrast between its ruined and restored state could not be more striking. Viewed in this light, Monet‘s canvas appears optimistic; its image of sunlit leisure intersecting with new technology can be seen as a celebration of France‘s rapid revival after the country’s disastrous defeat in the war. However, the picture has another context, too–its context in the world of art. In fine art paintings at the time, the role of landscape was to offer a mental escape, to invite the viewer to imagine taking refuge from the city in the unspoilt natural world, an idea that became still more urgent after the destruction wrought in and around Paris by the recent war and the Paris Commune of 1871. Critics of the Impressionist exhibitions of the 1870s lamented their decision to paint the tainted scenery of the environs of Paris rather than ‘true nature’. Viewed from this point of view, Monet‘s canvas was an affront to the whole idea of landscape. For Monet and his fellow Impressionists in the 1870s, this traditional idea of landscape and ‘nature’ was anathema; for them, the world to be painted was the world around them, a world that visibly carried the marks–or scars–of both disaster and progress. In Le Pont du chemin de fer à Argenteuil, Monet produced one of his grandest and most ambitious depictions of this new world, Close examination of its making reveals the extreme care that Monet took in its conception and execution, but the resulting canvas has an immediacy and informality that makes it one of the most vivid of all the Impressionists’ evocations of this modern landscape. John House Walter H Annenberg Professor Courtauld Institute of Art, London. (Christie’s)
See also:
• Argenteuil (France)