“Boulevard Saint-Denis, Argenteuil, in Winter”
“Boulevard Saint-Denis, Argenteuil, in Winter” is a beautiful wintry oil on canvas painting by the French Impressionism artist, Claude Monet, from 1875.
1874 was a big year for Monet. He had helped launch the Impressionism art movement, which had its first exhibition that year. He had even inadvertently helped name the movement after a reviewer titled his scathing review, “The Exhibition of the Impressionists” after one of Monet’s paintings titled “Impression, Sunrise”.
Riding that momentum, Monet spent the following winter painting. He created at least eighteen pieces during the winter of 1874 to 1875. He was staying at his home on Boulevard Saint-Denis in Argenteuil, in a suburb just northwest of Paris. His home was blanketed under a cover of snow providing him with a great amount of material and inspiration.
In this painting, Monet depicts a bright winter day. Pedestrians walk down an avenue in town. They are holding up umbrellas to shield themselves from a light snow, seen as dappled spots on the canvas. The sun is visible, shining through the clouds at the top of the scene. Interestingly, Monet made a preparatory sketch that he based this painting on. It highlights the artist’s deliberate composition of what appears to the viewer as a spontaneous painting.
“Boulevard Saint-Denis, Argenteuil, in Winter” is currently on display at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States.
For more on Claude Monet, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
