On the Boat|Claude Monet |Search Collection | The National Museum of Western Art

Updated 09 April 2025

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Claude Monet

Paris, 1840 - Giverny, 1926

On the Boat

Date	1887
Materials and Techniques	oil on canvas
Size（cm）	145.5 x 133.5
Inscriptions	Signed and dated lower left: Claude Monet 1887
Credit Line	Matsukata Collection
Standard ref.	Wildenstein 1152; M773
Category	Paintings
Collection Number	P.1959-0148

Monet painted several images of his family boating along the Epte River, just before he finally settled in Giverny. This work is one of the most highly finished of a series of paintings entitled Boating. The blue and rose coloration that suffuses the scene contrasts with the freshness of green and vermilion to create a rich, dreamlike figural image. The figures shown are Suzanne and Blanche, two of Mrs. Hoschedé's children. The composition of boldly slicing the boat in half indicates Monet's study of the art of photography and Japanese ukiyoe prints.

Provenance

Purchased from the artist by Kojiro Matsukata, Kobe, ca. December 1921 [see letter from Léonce Bénédite to Suzuki & Co., dated 11 December 1921, in the Bibliothèque centrale des musées nationaux, Paris (copy in NMWA curatorial file)]; sequestered by French government, 1944; vested in French government under San Francisco Peace Treaty, 1952; transferred from French to Japanese government, 23 January 1959; entered into NMWA, April 1959.

Exhibition History

1924: Exposition Claude Monet, organisée au bénéfice des Victimes de la Catastrophe du Japon, Galeries Georges Petit, Paris, 4 January 1924 - 18 January 1924, cat. no. 10
1947: De David à Cézanne, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussel, 0 November 1947 - 0 January 1948, cat. no. 113, pl. 59, repr.
1948: Gli impressionisti alla XXIV Biennale di Venezia, Venezia, 0 1948 - 0 1948, cat. no. 7
1952: Monet, Kunsthaus, Zürich, 0 1952 - 0 1952, cat. no. 71
1952: Monet, Dienst voor Schone Kunsten, Den Haag, 0 1952 - 0 1952, cat. no. 55
1958: Paysages de France, Musée de Rouen, 0 1958 - 0 1958, cat. no. 136
1979: French paintings at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century in Japanese collections, Hermitage, Leningrad, 0 1979 - 0 1979, Vilnius Museum, Vilnius; Puschkin Museum, Moscow, 1979, cat. no. 4, col. repr.
1982: Monet, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 9 October 1982 - 28 November 1982, cat. no. 35
1983: Claude Monet at the time of Giverny, Centre Culturel du Marais, 6 April 1983 - 31 July 1983, cat. no. 18, repr. color.
1988: Japonisme, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 17 May 1988 - 15 August 1988, cat. no. 248, col. repr.
1995: Claude Monet 1840-1926, The Art Institute of Chicago, 22 July 1995 - 26 November 1995, cat. no. 93, col. repr.
1996: The Crossing Visions: European and Modern Japanese Art from the Collections of The National Museum of Western Art & The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 20 July 1996 - 8 September 1996, cat. no. 7
2007: Monet: l'art de Monet et sa postérité, The National Art Center, Tokyo, 7 April 2007 - 2 July 2007, cat. no. 46, col. repr.
2013: Monet, An Eye for Landscapes: Innovation in 19th Century French Landscape Paintings, Pola Museum of Art, 13 July 2013 - 24 November 2013, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 7 December 2013-9 March 2014, cat. no. 71, col. repr.
2015: Japan's Love for Impressionism: From Monet to Renoir, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, 8 October 2015 - 21 February 2016, cat. no. 17, col. repr.
2017: Hokusai and Japonisme, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 21 October 2017 - 28 January 2018, cat. no. 65, col. repr.
2018: Claude Monet: A Floating World, Albertina Museum, Vienna, 21 September 2018 - 6 January 2019, cat. no. 72
2019: The Matsukata Collection: A One-Hundred-Year Odyssey: Upon the 60th Anniversary of the NMWA, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 11 June 2019 - 23 September 2019, cat. no. 109, col. repr.
2022: Renoir—Monet—Gauguin: Images of a Floating World: the Collections of Kōjirō Matsukata and Karl Ernst Osthaus, Museum Folkwang, 6 February 2022 - 15 May 2022
2022: In Dialogue with Nature - from Friedrich, Monet and Van Gogh to Richter, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 4 June 2022 - 11 September 2022, cat. no. 26

Bibliography

1927: Duc Édouard de Trévise. Le pèlerinage de Giverny. Revue de l'Art ancien et moderne. tome 1, 1927, p. 49, repr.
1955: La Collection Matsukata, Tokyo, Asahi- Shimbun, 1955 (Japanese), no. 15, col. repr.
1959: Zusetsu Sekai Bunkashi Taikei.vol. 10, Tokyo, Kadokawa Shoten, 1959, pp. 145-146, col. repr.
1959: Mizue: a monthly review of the fine arts. no. 656, December 1959, p. 28, repr.
1960: Grenier, Jean. La révolution de la couleur. XXe siècle. vol. 22, no. 15, Noël 1960, p. 5, col. repr.
1961: Tominaga, Soichi. Inshouha no Gaka tachi. Sekai Bijyutsu Zenshu. vol. 36, Tokyo, Kadokawa Shoten, 1961, p. 181, pl. 30.
1961: Catalogue du Musée National d'Art Occidental, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1961 (Préface and Catalogue Général in Japanese and French), P-206.
1968: Annual bulletin of the National Museum of Western Art. No. 2, 1968, p. 11, no. 16, repr.
1971: Les cent chefs-d'œuvre du Musée National d'Art Occidental. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1971 (Japanese), no. 49, repr.
1972: Bortolatto, L. R. L'opera completa di Claude Monet, 1870-1889. Milano, 1972, p. 108, no. 316, repr.
1972: Rouart, D.; Rey, J. D. Monet Nymphéas. Paris, 1972, pp. 56-57, repr.
1973: Tanaka, Hidemichi. L'inspiration artistique de Nymphéas de Monet. Bulletin Annuel du Musée National d’Art Occidental. No.6 (1971), 1973, pp. 33- 43.
1975: Les cent chefs-d'œuvre du Musée National d'Art Occidental. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1975 (Japanese), no. 33, repr.
1978: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1978 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 41, repr.
1979: Wildenstein, D. Claude Monet, biographie et catalogue raisonné. tome 3, Lausanne/ Paris, 1979, p. 98, no. 1152, repr.; tome 5, 1991, pp. 45, 110, D341, 215 (lettre no. 3061).
1979: The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo: Catalogue of Paintings. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1979, no. 189, repr.
1985: Stuckey, Charles F. Monet: A Retrospective. New York, 1985, p. 152, repr. color.
1988: Le Japonisme (exh. cat.). Galeries nationales du Grand Palais (France); Musée national d'art occidental, Tokyo; Musée d'Orsay. Paris, Ministère de la culture et de la communication; Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1988, pp. 192, 323, cat. no. 248, col. repr.
1990: The Old Matsukata Collection. Kobe City Museum, ed. Kobe, "Matsukata Korekushon Ten" Jikkoiinkai, 1990, cat. no. 1064.
1993: Alphant, Marianne. Claude Monet: Une vie dans le paysage. Paris, Hazan, 1993, p. 371.
1994: Levine, Steven Z. Monet, Narcissus, and Self-reflection: The Modernist Myth of the Self. Chicago, 1994, pp. 128, 131, 212, 277, fig. 67.
1995: Claude Monet: 1840-1926 (exh. cat.). Stuckey, Charles F.; Shaw, Sophia. New York, Thames and Hudson; Art Institute of Chicago, 1995, p. 114, cat. no. 93, col. repr.
1996: Wildenstein, Daniel. Monet: Catalogue raisonné. vol. 3, Cologne, Taschen, 1996, p. 436, cat. no. 1152, repr. color.
2006: Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2006 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 73, col. repr.
2007: Monet: l'art de Monet et sa postérité. Lemoine, Serge; Takashina, Shuji; Mabuchi, Akiko; Yusuke, Minami; The National Art Center; Département des affaires culturelles du Yomiuri Shimbun, eds. Tokyo, Le Yomiuri Shimbun, 2007., cat. no. 46, col. repr.
2009: Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2009, no. 73, col. repr.
2013: Masterpieces: The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2013 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 87, col. repr.
2013: MONET, An Eye For Landscapes: Innovation in 19th Century French Landscape Paintings(exh. cat.). Tokyo, TBS, c2013, cat. no. 71, col. repr.
2015: Japan's Love for Impressionism: From Monet to Renoir (exh. cat.). Marks-Hanssen, Beate, ed. Bonn, Bundeskunsthalle, 2015, pp. 47, 245, cat. no. 17, col. repr.
2017: Hokusai and Japonisme (exh. cat.). Hakamata, Hiroyo; Ikeda, Yuko, eds. Tokyo, Yomiuri Shimbun; The National Museum of western Art, Tokyo, 2017, pp. 110, 384, cat. no. 65, col. repr.
2018: Claude Monet: A Floating World(exh. cat.). Vienna, The Albertina Museum, 2018, cat. no. 72, col. repr; cover.
2018: The Matsukata Collection: Complete Catalogue of the European Art. Kawaguchi, Masako; Jingaoka, Megumi, eds. vol. 1: Paintings, Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2018, cat. no. 773, col. repr.
2019: The Matsukata Collection: A One-Hundred-Year Odyssey (exh. cat.). Jingaoka, Megumi, ed. Tokyo, The National Museum of the Western Art, Tokyo; Yomiuri Shimbun; NHK; NHK Promotions, 2019, pp. 198, 200-201, 367, cat. no. 109, col. repr.
2022: Renoir—Monet—Gauguin: Images of a Floating World: the Collections of Kōjirō Matsukata and Karl Ernst Osthaus (exh.cat.). Engel, Nadine; Herlemann, Rebecca, eds. Berlin, Hatje Cantz, [2022], pp. 281, 366, col. repr.
2022: In Dialogue with Nature: from Friedrich, Monet and Van Gogh to Richter (exh. cat.). Jingaoka, Megumi; Shinfuji, Atsushi; Yomiuri Shimbun, Museum Exhibition Department, eds. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo; Yomiuri Shimbun; NHK; NHK Promotions, 2022, pp. 90, 256, cat. no. 26, col. repr.
2023: Mabuchi, Akiko; I, Yeonsik. Japoniseum. Seoul, Sigongsa, 2023, pp. 122, 242, cat. no. 98

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