Regatta at Argenteuil

Regatta at Argenteuil

Monet, Claude

Oil on Canvas

19 x 29 inches

1872

Claude Monet was born on November 14, 1840, in Paris France.  After an art exhibition in 1874, a critic insultingly dubbed Monet’s painting style “Impression,” since it was more concerned with form and light than realism, and the term stuck.  Monet struggled with depression, poverty, and illness throughout his life.  He died in 1926.

http://www.biography.com/people/claude-monet-9411771 1926.

Two years before the Impressionist movement officially came into existence, Monet painted this scene which has all its features, in particular the famous fragmented brushstroke. Regattas at Argenteuil was painted in natural light, because tin tubes and portable easels allowed artists to leave their studios and paint outside. Monet sought to capture the fluidity of air and water and the way they changed with the light. He explained what he was trying to do: "I want to do something intangible. It's appalling, this light that drifts off and takes the colour with it".

http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/painting/commentaire_id/regattas-at-argenteuil-3036.html?cHash=514c2d0e72

All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them