Lot Essay
When Renoir first visited Argenteuil in 1873, it had already become a popular vacation spot for day-trippers from Paris. It was just twenty-two minutes by train from the capital and afforded the jaded city-dweller fresh air, boating and sailing. A few hundred yards from each other, two bridges spanned the Seine at Argenteuil. The railroad bridge, concrete and steel, symbol of the new age, and the subject of more than one major work by Monet (Le pont du chemin de fer à Argenteuil, 1873; Private Collection; sold, Christie's, London, Nov. 28, 1988), stood in sharp contrast to the highway bridge. Made of wood and cut stone, with romanesque arches, the highway bridge was fifteen meters in height and crossed the two hundred meter wide Seine between Gennevilliers and Argenteuil. Almost identical views of this scene were painted by Boudin (Schmit, no. 392; Coll. Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia) and Monet (fig. 1). Discussing Renoir's Le pont d'Argenteuil in conjunction with Monet's Le bassin d'Argenteuil, Scott Schaefer has observed:
The most panoramic of the views of the boat basin at Argenteuil are Monet's Argenteuil basin of 1872 and Renoir's Bridge at Argenteuil of a decade later. These paintings, in fact, are a veritable catalogue of what the town had to offer the tourist at this time. Top-hatted gentlemen and ladies with parasols stroll along the Promenade, a tree-lined walk on the Argenteuil side of the Seine; other tourists are seated on the bank watching the rowboats, sailboats and a large steamboat (and three guêpes à vapeur in Renoir's painting) in the basin. In the distance is the highway bridge, which had been destroyed in the Franco-Prussian War and quickly rebuilt thereafter, and across the river can be seen the township of Gennevilliers. (exh. cat. op. cit., Los Angeles, 1984, p. 146)
This sweeping vista, representing for Renoir and his contemporaries the virtues of rural simplicity made comfortable by the innovations of modern transport, was quintessentially French. There is, however, an exuberance and a vitality to the color of Le pont d'Argenteuil that echoes the more exotic locales that Renoir had visited in the previous two years. Following the tradition of the salon artists, he commenced many months of travel in 1881, enjoying the energy and warmth of Algeria, Italy, the Mediterranean coast of France and the Channel Islands. Unlike his predecessors, however, who followed Delacroix and Ingres in search of exotic climes, Renoir spoke of his "feverish desire to see the Raphaels" and in Venice tackled impressive architectural subjects like Saint Mark's Place, the Grand Canal and Le Palais des Doges (fig. 2). The lessons he taught himself with such monumental subjects came home to roost most successfully when he found himself painting familiar territory back in Argenteuil.
In conception, scale, composition, brushwork and finesse there are remarkable similarities between Le pont d'Argenteuil and Renoir's Venetian series. Quite apart from the pair of centrally placed white sailboats that in both Le pont d'Argenteuil and Le Palais des Doges first lock the eye and then steer it outward and across the picture plane, there is a force and direction to the paint strokes of foreground, midground (water in both cases) and sky that follows precisely the same rhythm in both works. Although the boisterous autumnal foliage of the trees obscures much of the sky in Le pont d'Argenteuil, the sheer grandeur of this relatively humble vista is, because of Renoir's genius for harmony and atmosphere, quite equal to the majesty of the Venice scene. Although Renoir was aware of the possibility that he would be influenced by the Old Masters whose work he would see on his travels, it was in fact just the challenge of new scenery which so greatly expanded his talents.
Strangely, for an artist so devoted to the figure, Renoir found no inspiration in the models overseas: "Even the ugliest Parisienne is better than the most beautiful Italian...I have a host of models, but all of them, once seated, offer a three quarter view, their hands on their knees, it's sickening." (P.A. Renoir, "Four Letters from Italy, 1881-82," in N. Wadley, ed., Renoir: A Retrospective, New York, 1987, p. 140)
François Daulte will include this painting in the forthcoming volume IV (Paysages) of his Renoir catalogue raisonné.
(fig. 1) Claude Monet, Le bassin d'Argenteuil, 1872
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
(fig. 2) Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Le Palais des Doges, 1881
The Sterling and Francine Clark Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts
The most panoramic of the views of the boat basin at Argenteuil are Monet's Argenteuil basin of 1872 and Renoir's Bridge at Argenteuil of a decade later. These paintings, in fact, are a veritable catalogue of what the town had to offer the tourist at this time. Top-hatted gentlemen and ladies with parasols stroll along the Promenade, a tree-lined walk on the Argenteuil side of the Seine; other tourists are seated on the bank watching the rowboats, sailboats and a large steamboat (and three guêpes à vapeur in Renoir's painting) in the basin. In the distance is the highway bridge, which had been destroyed in the Franco-Prussian War and quickly rebuilt thereafter, and across the river can be seen the township of Gennevilliers. (exh. cat. op. cit., Los Angeles, 1984, p. 146)
This sweeping vista, representing for Renoir and his contemporaries the virtues of rural simplicity made comfortable by the innovations of modern transport, was quintessentially French. There is, however, an exuberance and a vitality to the color of Le pont d'Argenteuil that echoes the more exotic locales that Renoir had visited in the previous two years. Following the tradition of the salon artists, he commenced many months of travel in 1881, enjoying the energy and warmth of Algeria, Italy, the Mediterranean coast of France and the Channel Islands. Unlike his predecessors, however, who followed Delacroix and Ingres in search of exotic climes, Renoir spoke of his "feverish desire to see the Raphaels" and in Venice tackled impressive architectural subjects like Saint Mark's Place, the Grand Canal and Le Palais des Doges (fig. 2). The lessons he taught himself with such monumental subjects came home to roost most successfully when he found himself painting familiar territory back in Argenteuil.
In conception, scale, composition, brushwork and finesse there are remarkable similarities between Le pont d'Argenteuil and Renoir's Venetian series. Quite apart from the pair of centrally placed white sailboats that in both Le pont d'Argenteuil and Le Palais des Doges first lock the eye and then steer it outward and across the picture plane, there is a force and direction to the paint strokes of foreground, midground (water in both cases) and sky that follows precisely the same rhythm in both works. Although the boisterous autumnal foliage of the trees obscures much of the sky in Le pont d'Argenteuil, the sheer grandeur of this relatively humble vista is, because of Renoir's genius for harmony and atmosphere, quite equal to the majesty of the Venice scene. Although Renoir was aware of the possibility that he would be influenced by the Old Masters whose work he would see on his travels, it was in fact just the challenge of new scenery which so greatly expanded his talents.
Strangely, for an artist so devoted to the figure, Renoir found no inspiration in the models overseas: "Even the ugliest Parisienne is better than the most beautiful Italian...I have a host of models, but all of them, once seated, offer a three quarter view, their hands on their knees, it's sickening." (P.A. Renoir, "Four Letters from Italy, 1881-82," in N. Wadley, ed., Renoir: A Retrospective, New York, 1987, p. 140)
François Daulte will include this painting in the forthcoming volume IV (Paysages) of his Renoir catalogue raisonné.
(fig. 1) Claude Monet, Le bassin d'Argenteuil, 1872
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
(fig. 2) Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Le Palais des Doges, 1881
The Sterling and Francine Clark Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts