Regatta at Argenteuil
More than any other sport, yachting was considered the most chic and Argenteuil was the centre of this fashionable sport. To capture the fleeting effects of light on the river Seine at Argenteuil, the Impressionist painter Claude-Oscar Monet (1840-1926) painted the reflections with slabs of cream, blue, orange, red and green. He did not blend the brush strokes, and the taches, patches of colour, gained a hard edged clarity.
The reflection of the buildings in orange-red stand out against the blue of the water. Each colour has the effect of enhancing the character and intensity of the other. The red rooftops are set amongst the green foliage of the trees, and violet figures stand up to creamy yellow sails, providing yet more complementary pairings: red against green, yellow against violet.
Monet experimented with the effects of light in other works.
Timeline
- 16 April 1876 - Monet sold Régates à Argenteuil to his neighbour, the painter Gustave Caillebotte.
- 1894 - Accepted by the state.
- 1929 - musée du Louvre, Paris.
- 1986 - Painting in the collection of the musée d'Orsay, Paris.
