Claude Monet

From 1871 to 1878 Monet lived in Argenteuil, a town about ten kilometers from Paris on the Seine River. Other painters such as Gustave Caillebotte, Édouard Manet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley were also fascinated by this location, and over the course of the 1870s it became a center for the growing Impressionist movement, whose members rejected the Salon aesthetic and the conventions of academic painting with increasing self-confidence.

Stylistically, the years in Argenteuil were a turning point in Monet’s career: the matte, earthy tones of his early work gave way to the dynamic brushwork and more intense color of his mature Impressionist idion. At the same time, his depictions of Argenteuil are characterized by an interest in modern life that distinguishes them from the rural landscape pictures he would later execute in Vétheuil or Giverny.

Argenteuil, Late Afternoon belongs to a group of closely related compositions in which Monet depicted the same topography over and over again at different times of the day and under different lighting conditions. To the right, a footpath on the bank of the Seine is flanked by the luxuriant green of a towering row of trees, contrasting with the white and blue hues of river and sky. The main axis of the composition is a promenade, leading the viewer’s eye from the foreground of the image toward the silhouette of the distant steel factory Pierre Joly, where an elegant building in Louis XIII style stands between towering factory smokestacks. This clash of old and new architecture was typical of the burgeoning industrial town of Argenteuil, where Monet lived and whose rapidly changing character fascinated him.

In the four-volume catalogue raisonné of Monet’s paintings compiled by Daniel Wildenstein, Argenteuil, Late Afternoon is listed as no. 224 (vol. 2, p. 99). The same view of the Seine appears in Argenteuil, also painted in 1872 and now in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

Daniel Zamani

Collection Maurice Masson, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, February 27–March 15, 1911, no. 22 (Argenteuil)

Claude Monet: Seasons and Moments, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, March 9–May 15, 1960; Los Angeles County Museum June 14–August 7, 1960, no. 12

Olympia's Progeny, Wildenstein, New York, October 28–November 27, 1965, no. 11

Claude Monet, Acquavella Galleries, New York, October 27–November 28, 1976, no. 11

Monet and Renoir: Two Great Impressionist Trends, Prefectural Art Museum, Hiroshima, November 1, 2003–January 15, 2004; Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, February 7–May 9, 2004, no. 1

Monet, la Senna, le ninfee: Il grande fiume e il nuovo secolo, Museo di Santa Guilia, Brescia, October 23, 2004–March 20, 2005, no. 57

Impressionism: The Art of Landscape, Museum Barberini, Potsdam, January 21–May 28, 2017

Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature, Denver Art Museum, October 20, 2019–February 2, 2020

Monet: Orte, Museum Barberini, Potsdam, February 22–July 19, 2020, no. 39

Impressionism: The Hasso Plattner Collection, Museum Barberini, Potsdam, from September 5, 2020

1872, Galerie Durand-Ruel, probably purchased from the artist as Soleil couchant, Argenteuil
n.d., Maurice Masson, Paris
June 22, 1911, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Maurice Masson Collection, lot 22
Galerie Durand-Ruel and Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, acquired at the above sale
n.d., Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, acquired from the above
n.d., probably Isidore Montaignac, Paris
1912, Comtesse Joachim Murat (Thérèse Bianchi), Paris
n.d., Marquis de Frolois, Paris, probably inherited from the above
n.d., Comte de Chaumont Quitry and Valentine Marie Claude de Chaumont Quitry, Paris, inherited from the above
1955, Wildenstein, New York, acquired from the above
1956, Bernard F. and Pamela (née Woolworth) Combemale, New York
November 27, 1964, Christie’s, London, Woolworth Combemale Collection, lot 42
Wildenstein, New York, acquired at the above sale
1964, Jack Ladson, New York
n.d., Acquavella Galleries, New York
n.d., Lawrence Lever, New York
May 15, 1979, Christie’s, New York, Lawrence Lever estate, lot 12
n.d., Mr. and Mrs. Ralph C. Wilson, Jr., Michigan
November 14, 1990, Christie’s, New York, Lot 13
Private collection, Switzerland, acquired at the above sale
November 4, 2002, Phillips, de Pury & Luxembourg, New York, lot 28, unsold
February 8, 2011, Sotheby’s, London, lot 15
Private collection, acquired at the above sale
May 8, 2013, Christie’s, New York, lot 17, consigned by the above

Collection Maurice Masson, exh. cat. Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris 1911, no. 22, p. 26 (Argenteuil), ill. p. 27

Camille Mauclair, Claude Monet, London 1927, p. 61 (Argenteuil), ill. p. plate 13

Claude Monet: Seasons and Moments, exh. cat. The Museum of Modern Art, New York 1960, no. 12, p. 60

Olympia's Progeny, exh. cat. Wildenstein, New York 1965, no. 11

Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné, vol. 1, Lausanne 1974, no. 224, p. 210, ill. p. 211

Claude Monet, exh. cat. Acquavella Galleries, New York 1976, no. 11

Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné, vol. 5, Lausanne 1991, no. 224, p. 26

Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue Raisonné. Werkverzeichnis, vol. 2, Cologne 1996, no. 224, p. 99/100, ill. p. 99

Monet and Renoir: Two Great Impressionist Trends, exh. cat. Prefectural Art Museum, Hiroshima 2003, no. 1, p. 149, ill. p. 26

Richard Kendall, Monet by Himself: Paintings, Drawings, Pastels, Letters, London 2004, no. 52, p. 213, ill. p. 52

Monet, la Senna, le ninfee: Il grande fiume e il nuovo secolo, exh. cat. Museo di Santa Guilia, Brescia 2004, no. 57, p. 256, ill. p. 257

Mary Tompkins Lewis, Critical Readings in Impressionism and Post-Impressionism: An Anthology, Berkeley 2007, p. 127

Impressionism: The Art of Landscape, exh. cat. Museum Barberini, Potsdam 2017, no. 31, p. 49, 130, ill. p. 128, 137 and frontispiece

Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature, exh. cat. Denver Art Museum, Denver 2019, no. 39, ill. p. 144

Monet: Orte, exh. cat. Museum Barberini, Potsdam 2020, no. 39, ill. p. 144