Fishermen in Poissy
Anglers on the bank of the Seine at Poissy, west of Paris, where Monet lived unhappily for a year.
Seine
The painting depicts a real landscape or cityscape. The precise viewpoint the artist used may be unknown, so the marker shows the general area.
Fishermen in Poissy — at a glance
- Artist
- Claude Monet (1840–1926)
- Year
- 1882
- Movement
- Impressionism
- Place
- The Seine at Poissy, north-west of Paris
- Viewpoint
- A stretch of riverbank — the Seine still runs through Poissy; the town is now a large suburb
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- c. 60 × 82 cm
- Now at
- Various collections
Overview
In 1882 Claude Monet, between his years at Vétheuil and his move to Giverny, rented a house at Poissy on the Seine, a stay he disliked and which produced relatively few pictures. The Poissy canvases show the broad river with anglers on the bank, riverside trees and buildings, and a wide sky. They are oil on canvas, about 60 by 82 cm; examples are in museum and private collections.
Where was Fishermen in Poissy painted?
Scholarship Poissy is a town on the Seine about 25 km north-west of central Paris, downstream of Argenteuil. Monet found it unpromising as a subject and left for Giverny in 1883. The Seine still runs through Poissy and the riverbanks and the old bridge area survive, though the town is now a large western suburb; these pictures show a stretch of the river rather than a marked viewpoint.
What is in the painting?
The river fills the centre, calm and reflecting. On the near bank, one or two anglers sit or stand with rods; trees and a wall edge the path; low buildings or a bridge show downstream. The upper part is a broad, lightly clouded sky. The palette is greens, blue-greys and cream, the touch quick.
Look closely
The anglers
One or two figures sit or stand on the near bank with fishing rods.
The reflecting river
The calm Seine fills the centre and repeats the far bank and sky.
The quick touch
Trees, water and sky are laid in fast, broken strokes.
Analysis
Composition and technique
A horizontal river with bankside figures and trees, under a wide sky.
Scholarship Monet uses the standard river-landscape structure — near bank, water, far bank, sky — and enlivens it with the small figures of the anglers and the reflections. The pictures are competent but, by Monet's own account, made without much enthusiasm for the place.
History & provenance
The Poissy pictures are in various museums and private collections.
Sources
- Wildenstein, ‘Monet: catalogue raisonné’ — the 1882 Poissy pictures
- House, John, ‘Monet: Nature into Art’ (Yale University Press, 1986)
Related paintings
More by Claude Monet
Impression, Sunrise
Woman with a Parasol – Madame Monet and Her Son
Houses on the Achterzaan
Also connected to Seine
