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Introduction | Impressionism | Group Exhibitions | The Paris Suburbs | Impressions of Nature
Impressionist Techniques | Landscapes of Modernity | Leisure | Group Dynamics
The
town of Argenteuil lies on the banks of the Seine eleven kilometers to
the northwest of Paris, a fifteen-minute train ride from the capital's
Gare Saint-Lazare. With its railway line and factories, residences and
river walks, it is in many ways typical of the suburban towns on the outskirts
of Paris. Yet the contribution it made to the evolution of modern French
painting sets it apart from neighboring villages. During the 1870s and
1880s Argenteuil became an important source of inspiration for the impressionist
artists, who immortalized its river views, bridges, streets, and gardens
in their groundbreaking paintings. Their depictions of Argenteuil, fifty-two
of which are gathered together in this exhibition, constitute one of the
most exhaustive representations ever made of a single place and present
a panorama of the predominant themes and quintessential features of impressionist
painting.
Argenteuil
is described in nineteenth-century guidebooks as an agréable petite
ville. Dating back to the seventh century, when a convent was founded
on the site, the community became well known for its superior agricultural
produce--wine grapes and asparagus--and gypsum deposits, a source of the
famous "plaster of Paris." By the 1870s, however, when the impressionists
painted there, the picturesque village had developed into a thriving town.
The transformation began in 1851, when a railway line connected Argenteuil
to Paris, attracting many new factories and businesses and increasing
the town's population. By the second half of the nineteenth century local
industries included tanneries and chemical plants as well as the Joly
iron works, one of the largest iron fabricators in France. Despite these
developments, Argenteuil retained much of its rustic charm and during
the 1850s became a popular destination for day-trippers from Paris, drawn
there by the pleasant riverside promenades and boating activities. This
spectacular stretch of the Seine, where the river reached its widest and
deepest points, hosted a great variety of events, from sailing and steamboat
races to water jousts and recreational boating. Argenteuil was therefore
a town with many facets, a place that combined leisure and labor, fields
and factories, rural beauty and urban life. These contrasts epitomized
the modernity and change that the impressionists sought to embody in their
novel landscape paintings.
Impressionist Techniques | Landscapes of Modernity | Leisure | Group Dynamics