Manet, Édouard (1832-1883)
Monet sur son bateau (Monet in his Boat)
1874
Oil on canvas, 82.7 x 105 cm
Neue Pinakothek, Munich
Manet painted this picture in the bright light of a sunny summer’s day and depicted Monet doing the same on board his small barge. Seemingly by chance, the gaze has captured the boat, the boyfriend and his wife, the glittering water, shores, boats and a strip of sky in delicate blue – the painting style is so relaxed, so sketchy. This looseness of the brushstroke, in combination with the bright light, the bright colours and the curved shape of the boat with a sun sail, gives the picture a cheerful character, in which the sitter in his summer clothes also participates. In that summer of 1874, many of the Impressionists had gathered in Argenteuil, including Gustave Caillebotte, Alfred Sisley and Auguste Renoir. Manet had accommodated Claude Monet, whom he supported financially from time to time, in 1871 in the small town on the Seine north of Paris. In 1874 he visited him several times from Gennevilliers, which is on the other bank of the Seine; he also painted the Monet family in the garden at the time, at the same time as Renoir. At that time, Monet painted the painting “Bridge over the Seine at Argenteuil” (inv. no. 8642). (Neue Pinakothek)
See also:
• Argenteuil (France) | Monet, Camille (1847-1879) | Monet, Claude (1840-1926)