Régates à Argenteuil
Sailing boats and their mirrored reflections on the Seine at Argenteuil — the reach where Monet spent the 1870s.
Argenteuil
The painting depicts a real landscape or cityscape. The precise viewpoint the artist used may be unknown, so the marker shows the general area.
Régates à Argenteuil — at a glance
- Artist
- Claude Monet (1840–1926)
- Year
- c. 1872
- Movement
- Impressionism
- Place
- The Seine at Argenteuil, north-west of Paris
- Viewpoint
- The sailing reach of the river — the reach survives; banks now built up
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- c. 48 × 75 cm
- Now at
- Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Overview
Regattas at Argenteuil is one of the pictures Claude Monet painted soon after moving to Argenteuil in 1871. It shows two or three sailing boats with pale sails on a broad stretch of the Seine, the houses, trees and a boat-shed of the far bank, and — filling the lower half — the reflection of all of it in the almost still water. It is oil on canvas, about 48 by 75 cm, and it hangs in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.
Where was Régates à Argenteuil painted?
Museum interpretation Argenteuil, about 10 km north-west of central Paris, sits on a wide, slow reach of the Seine that made it the main sailing and rowing centre near the capital, with regattas, boat-hire and a basin for pleasure craft. Monet lived there from 1871 to 1878 and painted the river constantly. The reach of the Seine and the sailing tradition remain; the banks are now built up, and the picture shows the water and far bank rather than a fixed point on the shore.
What is in the painting?
White-sailed yachts lie or move on the blue-grey river at the left and centre. The far bank carries red-roofed houses among green trees and a long low shed. The upper half is river, boats and bank; the lower half is their reflection, painted in broad vertical strokes that just miss being a mirror image, so the water reads as gently moving.
Look closely
The blocky reflection
The lower half is painted in broad vertical strokes that don't quite mirror the scene — moving water, not a still glass.
The pale sails
White-sailed yachts on a slow, wide reach — the pleasure-boating that made Argenteuil famous.
The far-bank shed
A long low boat-shed and red-roofed houses among trees line the opposite bank.
Analysis
Composition and technique
The canvas is split across the middle: real scene above, near-symmetrical reflection below.
Scholarship Monet doubles the composition on the waterline, painting the reflection in bold, blocky vertical strokes rather than fine detail, so it holds together as pattern and colour. The boats and their inverted images anchor the design; the whole thing is quick, broad and bright.
Colour and light
Cool blue-grey water, white sails, red roofs and green trees, all echoed in the reflection.
The palette is fresh and high-keyed — river blue, sail white, roof red, foliage green — with the reflected half slightly darker and more broken. The light is that of a bright, calm day.
History & provenance
The painting entered the French national collections (Caillebotte bequest) and hangs in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.
Sources
- Musée d'Orsay, Paris — collection entry for Claude Monet, ‘Régates à Argenteuil’ (c. 1872; oil on canvas; Caillebotte bequest)
- Paul Hayes Tucker, ‘Monet at Argenteuil’ (Yale University Press, 1982)
Related paintings
More by Claude Monet
Impression, Sunrise
Woman with a Parasol – Madame Monet and Her Son
Houses on the Achterzaan
Also connected to Argenteuil
Woman with a Parasol – Madame Monet and Her Son
