Dirk’s Comments (group member since Feb 02, 2022)

Dirk’s comments from the Art Lovers part 3 group.

Édouard Manet
(1832 - 1883)

Argenteuil is an 1874 oil on canvas painting by Édouard Manet, first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1875. It is one of Manet's first works to be regarded as a fully Impressionist painting due to its naturalistic style and its bold palette. The painting depicts a sailor and his companion sitting on a mooring dock surrounded by sailboats, the deep blue water of the Seine, and the town of Argenteuil on the far bank.

Manet's brother-in-law Rodolph Leenhoff posed for the figure of the man, who has an expression of intimacy in the painting; the woman, whose identity is unknown, appears less expressive, which the art historian Françoise Cachin attributes to the difficulty of posing for Manet.

Art historians have described Argenteuil as a response to Claude Monet's depiction of similar subject matter.

Manet held the painting until his death. After his death, Henri Van Cutsem purchased it from Manet's widow, Suzzane Manet. Van Cutsem eventually bequeathed his collection to the city of Tournai, Belgium where the painting currently resides in the Musée des beaux-arts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argente...


Argenteuil
1874
Oil on canvas
149 x115 cm
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tournai, Belgium
https://mba.tournai.be/collection/edo...

Claude Monet
(1840 - 1926)

In the same summer Monet also painted a portrait of Manet at work “en plain air”.
Sadly only a poor reproduction is available online, because nobody knows where it is.

Claude Monet’s Manet painting in Monet's Garden, was owned by the German Jewish artist Max Liebermann and his wife Martha. The painting was confiscated from the couple’s apartment at Pariser Platz 7, Berlin, in March 1943 after both Max and Martha’s deaths.
The painting, which Max Liebermann had bought in 1898, has not been seen since it was in the Liebermann apartment. It is suspected that the Nazis sold the work after its confiscation.

https://www.monumentsmenandwomenfnd.o...


Manet painting in Monet's Garden in Argenteuil.
1874
Oil on canvas
41 x 68 cm
Private collection

Édouard Manet
(1832 - 1883)

Claude Monet Painting in his Studio or Monet in his Boat is an 1874 oil on canvas painting by Édouard Manet. It shows his friend Claude Monet painting in his 'studio-boat' with his wife. This was an old boat Monet had bought around 1871 or 1872, from which he observed the light on the Seine – Daubigny also had a studio-boat called the Bottin. With The Monet Family in their Garden and Argenteuil, it was one of a number of paintings produced during a summer Manet spent with Monet.
It is also one of Manet's first works in which he clearly uses impressionist techniques, painted in Argenteuil, 'en plein air'.
The work is now in the Neue Pinakothek in Munich.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_...


Claude Monet painting in his studio boat
1874
Oil on canvas
80 x 98 cm
Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany
https://www.sammlung.pinakothek.de/en...

Claude Monet
(1840 - 1926)

In 1874, the year of the first Impressionist exhibition, Claude Monet painted the Argenteuil Bridge seven times, and the railway bridge which spans the Seine upstream from the village, four times. This shows how attached the artist was to the motif, using the flowing river as a counterpoint for the geometrical mass of the bridge and its piles reflected in the water.
Here the foreground is filled with sailboats at their mooring. The effects of light on the masts and on the roofs of the houses on the bank in the background are an opportunity for the play of complementary colours (orange and blue) which accentuate the glittering light. The Argenteuil Bridge exhibits great variety in treatment: the still firm outlines of the solid or structured elements, such as the sailboats and the bridge, a smooth, even texture for the water in the foreground, and choppy brushstrokes capturing the reflections in the middle ground.

https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artwork...


Le Pont d'Argenteuil (The Argenteuil Bridge)
1874
Oil on canvas
60 x 80 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artwork...

Édouard Manet
(1832 - 1883)

Manet came from a well–to–do family, and this painting provides a glimpse of the sophisticated Parisian world he loved. He was uncomfortable in the countryside, preferring instead the finery of the city. These elegant men and coquettish young women are attending a masked ball held each year during Lent. "Imagine," ran a description in the newspaper Figaro, "the opera house packed to the rafters, the boxes furnished out with all the pretty showgirls of Paris. . . . " There is little doubt about the risqué nature of the evening, where masked young women, likely respectable ladies concealing their identities, scantily clad members of the Parisian demimonde, and well–dressed young men all mingle together.

https://www.nga.gov/artworks/61246-ma...

Manet made his preparatory sketches for it from life at an opera house at 12 rue Le Peletier in the 9th arrondissement of Paris - this building was reduced to rubble by a fire later that year. He then produced the painting in his studio on rue d'Amsterdam, to which he had moved shortly before. Its subject is reminiscent of the same artist's Music in the Tuileries (1863) - several of his friends posed for both works in his studio, notably the art collector Hecht and the composer Emmanuel Chabrier for Ball.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masked_...


Masked Ball at the Opera House
1873
Oil on canvas
59 x 72.5 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
https://www.nga.gov/artworks/61246-ma...

Claude Monet
(1840 - 1926)

The Luncheon (Le déjeuner), originally titled Panneau decoratif (Decorative Panel), is an impressionistic depiction of an uncleared luncheon table and several figures in the painter's flower garden. The painting has been in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris since 1886, on loan from the Louvre.

The actual theme of Le Déjeuner, despite its title, is the floral splendor of Monet's garden, rendered in dominant contrasts and bright tones, predominantly red and green. With dots and short strokes, he suggests the large bushes of fuchsias, geraniums, and roses, playfully varying them with the patches of sunlight that illuminate the garden in the early afternoon. Through the trees, the light falls in dappled shades on the dresses of the strolling ladies, on the path, the coffee pot, and the tablecloth, on some of the bars of the wooden garden bench, on the hat in the tree, and on Jean's outfit. The painting perfectly demonstrates Monet's mastery of creating an almost perfectly harmonious whole from seemingly random strokes and dots, capturing the atmosphere of "an equally perfect moment in the afternoon."

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Déje...


The Luncheon
1873
Oil on canvas
160 x 201 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
https://www.musee-orsay.fr/fr/oeuvres...

Édouard Manet
(1832 - 1883)

The Railway, widely known as Gare Saint-Lazare, is an 1873 painting by Édouard Manet. It is the last painting by Manet of his favourite model, the fellow painter Victorine Meurent, who was also the model for Olympia and the Luncheon on the Grass, among other paintings by Manet. It was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1874 and donated to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. in 1956.

Instead of choosing the traditional natural view as background for an outdoor scene, Manet opted for the iron grating which "stretches across the canvas." The only evidence of the train is its white cloud of steam. Modern apartment buildings can be seen in the background – including the house on the Rue de Saint-Pétersbourg [fr], near the Place de l'Europe [fr], where Manet had rented a studio since July 1872 — and also a signal box and the Pont de l'Europe.

Historian Isabelle Dervaux has described the reception this painting received when it was first exhibited at the official Paris Salon of 1874: "Visitors and critics found its subject baffling, its composition incoherent, and its execution sketchy. Caricaturists ridiculed Manet's picture, in which only a few recognized the symbol of modernity that it has become today".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rai...


The Railway
1873
Oil on canvas
93,3 x 111.5 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
https://www.nga.gov/artworks/43624-ra...

Claude Monet
(1840 - 1926)

Impression, Sunrise (French: Impression, soleil levant) is an 1872 painting by Claude Monet first shown at what would become known as the "Exhibition of the Impressionists" in Paris in April, 1874. The painting is credited with inspiring the name of the Impressionist movement.
Impression, Sunrise depicts the port of Le Havre, Monet's hometown. It is usually displayed at the Musée Marmottan Monet but was on loan at the Musée d'Orsay from 26 March until 14 July 2024, and was at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. from 8 September 2024 until 19 January 2025.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impress...


Impression, Sunrise
1872
Oil on canvas
48 x 63 cm
Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris
https://www.marmottan.fr/notice/4014/

Édouard Manet
(1832 - 1883)

Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets (French: Berthe Morisot au bouquet de violettes) is an 1872 oil painting by Édouard Manet. It depicts fellow painter Berthe Morisot dressed in black mourning dress, with a barely visible bouquet of violets. The painting, sometimes known as Portrait of Berthe Morisot, Berthe Morisot in a black hat or Young woman in a black hat, is in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Manet also created an etching and two lithographs of the same composition.

Manet became acquainted with Berthe Morisot in 1868. She was the grand-niece of Fragonard, and also a painter; Morisot and Manet influenced each other's work. He painted her portrait many times, including his earlier work The Balcony. She married Manet's brother Eugène in 1874.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berthe_...


Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets
1872
Oil on canvas
55.5 x 40.5 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artwork...

Claude Monet
(1840 - 1926)

Monet and Camille were often in financial straits during this period (1870-1880)—they were unable to pay their hotel bill during the summer of 1870 and likely lived on the outskirts of London as a result of insufficient funds. An inheritance from his father, together with sales of his paintings, did, however, enable them to hire two servants and a gardener by 1872. Following the successful exhibition of some maritime paintings and the winning of a silver medal at Le Havre, Monet's paintings were seized by creditors, from whom they were bought back by a shipping merchant, Gaudibert, who was also a patron of Boudin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_...


Ships Riding on the Seine at Rouen
1872
Oil on canvas
37.7 x 46 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
https://www.nga.gov/artworks/52187-sh...

Édouard Manet
(1832 - 1883)

The next painting is a portrait of the artist Berthe Morisot, a regular model, who was married to Manet's brother, Eugène. She is wearing a white dress as she sits with a fan in her right hand on a red sofa, beneath a then-fashionable Japanese print (in this case The Dragon King Pursuing the Ama with the Sacred Jewel by Utagawa Kuniyoshi). Her gaze seems meditative and absent. There is a striking contrast between the light tone of her dress and the dark tones of the furniture and the serenity of the subject with the violent activity on the print that is exhibited above her head.

Manet himself described the work as a study in physical and psychological repose — “not at all in the character of a portrait.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repose_...


Le repos (Repose - Portrait of Berthe Morisot)
1871
Oil on canvas
150 x 114 cm
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, Rhode Island, US
https://risdmuseum.org/art-design/col...

Claude Monet
(1840 - 1926)

Monet moved to Argenteuil, a suburban town on the right bank of the Seine River northwest of Paris, in late December 1871. Many of the types of scenes that he and the other Impressionists favored could be found in this small town, conveniently connected by rail to nearby Paris. In this painting, Monet was less interested in capturing a likeness than in studying how unblended dabs of color could suggest the effect of brilliant sunlight filtered through leaves.
During the early 1870s, Monet frequently depicted views of his backyard garden that included his wife, Camille, and their son, Jean. However, when exhibited at the Second Impressionist Exhibition in 1876, this painting was titled more generically, "Woman Reading."

https://artsandculture.google.com/ass...


Springtime
1872
oil on canvas
52 x 65 cm.
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, US
https://art.thewalters.org/object/37.11/

Édouard Manet
(1832 - 1883)

Luncheon in the Studio (or The Luncheon) is an 1868 oil painting by Édouard Manet. Partially a portrait of 16-year-old Léon Leenhoff — the son of Suzanne Leenhoff before her 1863 marriage to Manet, and possibly the son of Manet or Manet's father Auguste — it is also an enigmatic work that has received limited attention within Manet's oeuvre. Critic Nan Stalnaker notes that "despite continued questions about its meaning, the work is acknowledged to be brilliantly painted and a major Manet work".

The painting was exhibited in the 1869 Paris Salon along with Manet's The Balcony, another work that lacked a simple genre affiliation, and in which at least one of the figures seems to confront the viewer as if challenging the "fourth wall". Both pieces were found wanting by art critics of the day; by this time a common criticism of Manet was that his goal was to "attract attention at any price".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luncheo...


Luncheon in the Studio
1868
Oil on canvas
118.3 x 154 cm
Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany
https://www.sammlung.pinakothek.de/de...
https://www.pinakothek.de/en/exhibiti...

Claude Monet
(1840 - 1926)

Le Pont de bois was painted in 1872, the year that Monet created his famous L’Impression, soleil levant, now in the Musée Marmottan, Paris.

The carefully nuanced pinks, yellows, greys and blues in the water and the sky mark very short-lived, fleeting moments of an evening. They come and go in a matter of minutes. Yet they are recorded with a deftness, rapidity, and sense of authority that is unmistakably the hand of Monet. As a compositional foil, he used the beams and scaffolding surrounding the bridge that was under reconstruction in the months following the Franco-Prussian War. The bridge itself had been destroyed by the French Army as it retreated from the advancing Prussian soldiers who occupied the town of Argenteuil. The scaffolding, bridge and reflections of the architecture in the water anticipate forms and shapes that would later reappear in the art of the twentieth century. One is reminded of Pierre Soulages, Franz Kline, and George Bellows. There are also echoes of bridges depicted in Japanese prints that we know Monet admired.  

Charles S. Moffett
Vice Chairman, Impressionst, Modern and Contemporary Art, Sotheby's 


LE PONT DE BOIS (The Highway Bridge under repair)
1872
54 x 73 cm
Oil on canvas
National Gallery of Canada
https://www.gallery.ca/magazine/in-th...

Édouard Manet
(1832 - 1883)

The Balcony (French: Le balcon) is an 1868–69 oil painting by the French painter Édouard Manet. It depicts four figures on a balcony, one of whom is sitting: the painter Berthe Morisot, who married Manet's brother Eugène in 1874. In the centre is the painter Jean Baptiste Antoine Guillemet. On the right is Fanny Claus, a violinist. The fourth figure, partially obscured in the interior's background, is possibly Léon Leenhoff, Manet's son.
It was exhibited at the 1869 Paris Salon, and then kept by Manet until his death in 1883. It was sold to the painter Gustave Caillebotte in 1884, who left it to the French state in 1894. It is currently held at the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.
In 1950, René Magritte made a wry diversion of it in which coffins replace the characters: Perspective II, Manet's Balcony.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bal...


The Balcony
1868-69
Oil on canvas
170 x 124.5 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artwork...

Claude Monet
(1840 - 1926)
Immediately after the Franco-Prussian War, during which Claude Monet had sought exile in London, the artist travelled to the Netherlands. He and his family sojourned in a small town near Amsterdam called Zaandam, which was popular with tourists. “One would be busy for an entire painter’s life,” he wrote to his friend Camille Pissarro. While Paris lay in ruins, Monet depicted happy scenery. The soft light of a summer’s day is shimmering on the picturesque houses, which are reflected in the water on the bank of the Zaan River. The artist captures the carefree atmosphere of this idyllic location with Impressionist brushstrokes.

https://sammlung.staedelmuseum.de/en/...


Houses on the Zaan River at Zaandam
1871 -72
Oil on canvas
47 x 73.7 cm
Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
https://sammlung.staedelmuseum.de/en/...

Édouard Manet
(1832 - 1883)

On January 1, 1867, Zola published in La Revue du XIXe siecle a second important article on Manet. "What a splendid New Year's present," wrote Manet, thanking him. The following year he expressed his gratitude to the writer by painting this portrait and presenting it to him. Zola posed for the painting in Manet's studio in the rue Guyot, but he is shown working at his desk in his own surroundings. Manet has pinned up on the wall a reproduction of Olympia and a Japanese print; there is also a Japanese screen. The picture radiates an astonishing freshness, and, as with Degas's portrait of Duranty or Cezanne's of Gustave Geffroy, one feels that the artist is in sympathy with his subject.

https://www.manet.org/portrait-of-eml...


Portrait of Emile Zola
1868
Oil on canvas
146.5 x 114 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
https://www.musee-orsay.fr/fr/oeuvres...

Of his experience as a sitter, Zola wrote in L'Evinement illustre, May 10, 1868:

I remember posing for hours on end.With limbs numb from remaining motionless and my eyes weary from staring at the light, the same thoughts kept murmuring in the back of my mind. The foolish chatter one hears everywhere, the lies of some and the platitudes of others, all that human noise that flows idly by like dirty water, was far away. It seemed to me that I had left the earth for a higher sphere of truth, and I was filled with pity and disdain for the poor wretches stumbling along down below.

Now and again, half-dozing off as I sat there, I looked at the artist standing at his easel, his features taut, his eyes bright, absorbed in his work. He had forgotten me; he no longer realized that I was there.

Claude Monet
(1840 - 1926)

In the fall of 1 870, Monet traveled to London and this painting is one of a series of works he created while based in the British capital. This view is of the Thames and the Houses of Parliament - covered in other pieces - as seen from Victoria Quay. Like many of Monet's other works, it has a photographic quality to it despite its Impressionist style. Again, Monet uses a fragmented brushstroke to create his magical movement in the river. He also, once again, alludes to the fog and smog that gripped London in the later part of the 19th century. The composition is made up of gray tones, with a pink hue that appears on the horizon. It was while in London that Monet met Paul Durand-Ruel who was to become his most supportive patron.

https://www.claude-monet.com/the-tham...



The Thames below Westminster
1871
Oil on canvas
47 x 73 cm
The National Gallery, London
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/pa...

Monet was captivated by London’s fog during his first stay in the capital from 1870 to 1871. Later in life he told the art dealer Rene Gimpel: ‘Without the fog, London would not be a beautiful city. It’s the fog that gives it its magnificent breadth.’ This misty composition is anchored by carefully positioned horizontal and vertical structures – the jetty in the foreground, Westminster Bridge marking the horizon, and the Houses of Parliament.
Every architectural element in the picture was new at the time. The Houses of Parliament had only just been finished, as had the Victoria Embankment on the right. St Thomas’ Hospital, the low rectangular shape on the far left, was also nearing completion before opening in the summer of 1871, and Westminster Bridge had been reconstructed in 1862. However, Monet is more interested here in broad effects than architectural detail; indeed he has exaggerated the height of the towers of the Houses of Parliament, making the building seem like a fairy tale palace.

https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/pa...

Édouard Manet
(1832 - 1883)

The Execution of Emperor Maximilian is a series of paintings by Édouard Manet from 1867 to 1869, depicting the execution by firing squad of Emperor Maximilian I of the short-lived Second Mexican Empire. Manet produced three large oil paintings, a smaller oil sketch and a lithograph of the same subject. All five works were brought together for an exhibition in London and Mannheim in 1992–1993 and at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2006.

Maximilian was born in 1832, the second son of Archduke Franz Karl of Austria of the House of Habsburg and Princess Sophie of Bavaria. After a career in the Austrian Navy, he was encouraged by Napoleon III to become Emperor of Mexico following the French intervention in Mexico. Maximilian arrived in Mexico in May 1864. He faced significant opposition from forces loyal to the deposed president Benito Juárez throughout his reign, and the Empire collapsed after Napoleon withdrew French troops in 1866.
Maximilian was captured on Cerro de las Campanas in May 1867, sentenced to death at a court martial, and executed, together with Generals Miguel Miramón and Tomás Mejía, on 19 June 1867.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exe...


The Execution of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, June 19, 1867
1868
Oil on canvas
252 x 305 cm.
Kunsthalle Mannheim, Germany
https://www.bildindex.de/document/obj...

The link to the site of the Mannheim Kunsthalle leads to a very dark version of the painting. I haven't been to Mannheim myself so I cannot judge about the accuracy but here is a detail from the MoMA website:


https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibit...

Claude Monet
(1840 - 1926))

Monet left London and his friend Whistler in 1871 and traveled to Holland, where he was much more productive, possibly because he was joined by his wife Camille and son Jean.

In the same year Monet painted this most untypical work depicting Camille reclining on a highly patterned sofa in an elegant room. Although Monet pointed Camille frequently, he rarely painted with such attention to detail. He has borrowed much from the work of Whistler, who painted a number of pictures in a similar style, showing a single figure seated within a strongly structured background. The dark, tonal treatment of the figure and the use of weighty background tones also recall the work of Monet's friend Manet, in turn, influenced by Velazquez.

In stark contrast to Monet's painting is a work of the same subject by Renoir several years later. Renoir's is oil airy lightness, with the figure of Camille more Impressionist in style and wrought in pale, pastel tones.

https://www.claude-monet.com/meditati...


Méditation. Madame Monet au canapé
1871
Oil on canvas
48.2 x 174.5 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
https://www.musee-orsay.fr/fr/oeuvres...