National Gallery of Art

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FIRST EXHIBITION EXPLORING ARGENTEUTIL AND ITS
HISTORIC ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF IMPRESSIONISM
AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART MAY28, 2000 -AUGUST 20, 2000

  Washington, D.C. - Bringing together more than fifty paintings, including many rarely seen outside private collections, The Impressionists at Argenteuil is the first exhibition to examine the seminar rote of the small suburban town of Argenteuil in the development of the impressionist movement. The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, where it will be on view May 28-August 20, 2000, and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, where it will be shown September 9-December 3, 2000. With special emphasis on canvases by Claude Monet, who as an Argenteuil resident became the focus of the group, the presentation includes colorful,evocative works by his avant-garde colleagues, Euge'ne Boudin, Gustave Caillebotte, Edouard
Manet, Auguste Renoir. and AIfred Sisley. In the 1870s, these six influential artists worked in the open air, often side by side, recording scenes in and around Argenteuil. Their innovative paintings made Argenteuil synonymous with the style that became known as impressionism, characterized by broken brushwork and divided tight and color.

The exhibition is made possible by United Technologies Corporation.

"The dazzling, lyrical paintings that make up this exhibition reflect the richness of the impressionists' responses to the Argenteuil site and the complex dialogue that developed among them as they studied and depicted similar motifs and subjects," said Earl A. Powell Ⅲ, director　National Gallery of Art. ''We are extremely grateful to United Technologies Corporation for its　support."

"The works of Monet, Manet, and Renoir are as recognized as any in our　world today. We are pleased to sponsor this exhibition of the paintings of these and other renowned impressionist　masters, including many works held in private collections and rarely seen by the public､" said George David, chairman of United Technologies Corporation. "We hope and intend the show to appeal to a wide and interested audience."

The Impressionists at Argenteuil will be the sixth exhibition sponsored by UTC at the National Gallery of Art. Previous exhibitions include The Victorian : British Painting the Reign of Queen Victoria 1837-1901 in 1997 and Johannes Vermeer in 1995/1996.

Monet first settled in ArgenteuiI, a fifteen-minute train ride from the Gare Saint-Lazare in the heart of Paris, in 1871. During his six years there, his impressionist colleagues came to visit,commune, and paint alongside him. Their broken brushwork, heightened color, irregular surfaces,and a sense of fleeting effects, gave physical expression to ArgenteuiI's towpaths and railway bridges, gardens and factories, sailboats and regattas, and each other and their families. Frustrated by the traditional system of judging and exhibiting works of art in the official Salons each year, the avant-garde artists placed shared goals ahead of individual differences, meeting at Monet's house to lay plans for the independent group show that introduced impressionism in 1874. Examples of their
finest canvases highlight the present exhibition.

Monet was not only the central figure in the movement but also the most prolific painter in ArgenteuiI, completing more than sixty canvases in 1872 alone. Time and again during these pivotal years Monet stood beside one of his artist friends rendering the same scene, such as the Boulevard H'eloise with Sisley or a regatta with Renoir. Among the most celebrated pairs in the exhibition, two version s of Sailboats at Arenteuil were painted by Monet and Renoir, each from the same vantage point in 1874, but differing in details that reflect the individual artist's personality and ideas. Another shared theme is the clump of trees that appears both in Boudin's riverfront view,
The Seine at Arenteuil (c. 1866), and at the end of the towpath in Monet's painting from upriver, The Promenade
Arenteuil  (c. 1872).

 Other highlights include CaiIIebotte's imaginative rendering o f Richard Gallo and his Dog Dick at Petit Gennevilliers (1 884) and his characteristically forthright image of a distillery,Factories at Arenteuil (1888). Equally meticulous depictions by Caillebotte and Monet of the highway bridge that crosses the Seine into Argenteuil are also on view. Monet's two sunlit views of The Railroad Bridge at Arenteuil (both 1874), a structure that was expeditiously rebuilt after being destroyed in the Franco-Prussian War, contrast with several lush canvases in which he documented his house, garden, and family in the smll town. Particularly memorable is his celebrated
Woman with a Parasol-Madame Monet and Her Son (1875), from the National Gallery of Art's collection. Several
paintings by Renoir of Monet and his family are among the notable portraits. Manet's view of Monet in his studio boat is an aquatic version of Renoir's portrait of Monet painting in his garden.

Guest curator for The Impressionists at Argenteuil is noted Monet scholar Paul Hayes Tucker. Philip Conisbee, the National Gallery's senior curator of European paintings, coordinated the exhibition in Washington.

The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.