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Impressionist Techniques | Landscapes of Modernity | Leisure | Group Dynamics
Leisure
The
impressionists' interest in scenes of modern life also led them to focus
on Argenteuil's leisure activities and urban visitors. Its pleasant river
walks, recreational boating, and famous sailing races were depicted in
many of their works. Renoir's vibrant Sailboats at Argenteuil,
which shows the boat basin filled with activity,
suggests the popularity of these events. The impressionists often set
up their easels along the paths that lined the banks of the Seine. From
such vantage points Monet painted expansive views that presented the range
of Argenteuil's attractions: its broad, sunlit
promenades, its tall avenues of trees, its calm waters. Monet, according
to the contemporary novelist, Emile Zola, "brings Paris to the country....He
loves with particular affection nature that man makes modern." Other
artists, including Manet and Caillebotte, also focused on visitors from
the city, who had become a ubiquitous feature of the Argenteuil landscape
by the 1870s. In Manet's radiant painting, a mother and child stand on
the banks of the river with their backs to the viewer, alone before an
array of unmanned sailboats and low-lying laundry houses. Caillebotte
depicted one bourgeois gentleman in his black hat and long coat striding
purposefully along the Seine with his spirited dog
at Petit Gennevilliers (just across the river from Argenteuil), where
the artist owned a house.
Impressionist Techniques | Landscapes of Modernity | Leisure | Group Dynamics