Monet at Argenteuil

by Paul Hayes Tucker

An analysis of the paintings produced by Claude Monet while living in Argenteuil from 1871 to 1878 examines the influence of the French town on his art

Genres: Art

211 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1982

Reviews

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tucker does a great job describing Monet's period in Argenteuil from about 1873 to 1879 when he painted a remarkable 170 paintings before moving to his Vertheuil / Giverny phase. It was a period when he turned away from presenting people in their modern environment to painting his own private space of gardens and water.

[AC · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book. A dissertation written under the supervision (and style) of Robert Herbert, Tucker traces Monet’s gradual disillusionment with Argenteuil as this rustic suburb quickly expands and industrializes — and how, as it does, Monet withdraws into his gardens and finally to the less corrupted Vértheuil. Thus, Tucker, shows that Impressionism (for Monet) was, at heart, an escape from modernity. Very well done.

[Engi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is a 4 overall because there is a lot of detailed information about Argenteuil as a place and Monet’s time there, interesting.
However, inside, I give it max a 3. I HATE when there are books of paintings and some are turned black and white. Is it for the money??? Is it too expensive to print all the paintings in colour??? It makes me very annoyed because I’m here to see the paintings and the colours not a b&w scan of them, especially when you’re describing and comparing and contrasting the colours and shades and light etc in the paintings.