Road of La Roche-Guyon|Claude Monet |Search Collection | The National Museum of Western Art

Updated 18 October 2023

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Currently not on display

Claude Monet

Paris, 1840 - Giverny, 1926

Road of La Roche-Guyon

Date	1880
Materials and Techniques	oil on canvas
Size（cm）	60.5 x 73
Inscriptions	Signed and dated lower left: Claude Monet 1880
Credit Line	Matsukata Collection
Standard ref.	Wildenstein 582; M781
Category	Paintings
Collection Number	P.1959-0156

During the winter of 1878, Monet moved to the cold village of Vétheuil further down the Seine from Argenteuil. Over the course of the four years that he lived in this region Monet lost his wife in 1879 and he had to support the family of his bankrupt friend Ernest Hoschedé. We can imagine that these were the most difficult days of his life. Monet created a series of works depicting the frozen Seine during these years (1879-80) "Foggy Ice", "Flowing Ice", and"Thaw". With the beginning of the 1880s, he once again turned to the brighter palette visible in this work. While Monet did not return to his earlier regatta scenes or decorative landscapes of elegantly dressed people strolling along the river banks, his brush strokes were more freely laid upon the composition in these later works, and his individuality is visible in the palette and compositions he chose in this new period. This work was painted in the small village of La Roche-Guyon, down river a bit from Vétheuil. Another work painted from the same spot depicts the scene facing back toward Vétheuil. (Philips Collection, Washington.) (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no.72)

Provenance

[?] Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, ca. 1882; Roux; Galerie Bernheim Jeune, Paris, 1919; Hermann, 1919; purchased by Kojiro Matsukata, Kobe through Léonce Bénédite or by himself, ca. August 1921 (Fr. 4,500) [see letter from Léonce Bénédite to Suzuki & Co., dated 3 August 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

1880: Monet, La Vie Moderne, Paris, 0 1880 - 0 1880, cat. no. 4
1949: Landscape in French art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 0 1949 - 0 1950, cat. no. 241
1960: The Masterpieces of the Ex-Matsukata Collection, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 14 May 1960 - 10 July 1960, cat. no. 69
1968: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Niigata Prefectural Museum, Niigata, 14 July 1968 - 4 August 1968, cat. no. 10
1968: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Hiroshima Prefectural Museum of Art, Hiroshima, 26 October 1968 - 17 November 1968, cat. no. 10
1969: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Cultural Center of Ibaraki Prefecture, Mito, 22 November 1969 - 21 December 1969, cat. no. 10
1970: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, Nagasaki Prefectural Museum, Nagasaki, 18 October 1970 - 15 November 1970, cat. no. 41
1971: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Toyama Prefectural Center, Museum of Art, Toyama, 2 October 1971 - 24 October 1971, cat. no. 38
1972: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Shinano Museum of Art of Nagano Prefecture, Nagano, 12 October 1972 - 5 November 1972, cat. no. 40
1973: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Cultural Center of Kochi Prefecture, Kochi, 28 October 1973 - 25 November 1973, cat. no. 42
1974: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Cultural Center of Fukuoka Prefecture, Fukuoka, 13 October 1974 - 10 November 1974, cat. no. 41
1974: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Saga Prefectural Museum, Saga, 16 November 1974 - 1 December 1974, cat. no. 41
1975: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Yamagata Museum, Yamagata, 1 November 1975 - 30 November 1975, cat. no. 41
1976: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Tottori Prefectural Museum, Tottori, 9 October 1976 - 7 November 1976, cat. no. 12
1977: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Nara Prefectural Museum, Nara, 15 October 1977 - 13 November 1977, cat. no. 10
1978: [Tour Exhibition] Masterpieces from the National Museum of Western Art, The Art Center of Oita Prefecture, Oita, 20 December 1978 - 31 January 1979, cat. no. 10
1982: Monet, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 9 October 1982 - 28 November 1982, cat. no. 22
1991: , The Urasoe Art Museum, 1 February 1991 - 31 March 1991, cat. no. 4, 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. 6
2007: Gods and Nature: The Essence of European Art from the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Himeji City Museum of Art, 4 November 2007 - 2 December 2007, cat. no. 17
2007: Gods and Nature: The Essence of European Art from the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Matsumoto City Museum of Art, 11 December 2007 - 3 February 2008, cat. no. 17
2010: SHADOWS: Works from the National Museums of Art, The National Art Center, Tokyo, 8 September 2010 - 18 October 2010, cat. no. 048
2012: [Traveling Exhibitions presenting National Art Museum Collections, Fiscal 2012] Modern European Art: From the Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, Ibara Municipal Denchu Art Museum (Okayama), 5 October 2012 - 25 November 2012, 08
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. 21, col. repr.

Bibliography

1955: La Collection Matsukata, Tokyo, Asahi- Shimbun, 1955 (Japanese), no. 14, col. repr.
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-214.
1968: Annual bulletin of the National Museum of Western Art. No. 2 (1967), 1968, Nakayama, Kimio, preface; Kuroe, Mitsuhiko, catalogue. Claude Monet dans les collections japonais, pp. 7-8, no. 9, repr.
1972: Bortolatto, L. R. L'opera completa di Claude Monet, 1870-1889. Milano, 1972, p. 100, no. 192, repr.
1974: Wildenstein, D. Claude Monet, biographie et catalogue raisonné. tome 1, Lausanne/ Paris, 1974, pp. 364, 365, repr., 440 (? lettre no. 189); tome 5, 1991, p. 35.
1975: Les cent chefs-d'œuvre du Musée National d'Art Occidental. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1975 (Japanese), no. 32, 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. 40, repr.
1979: The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo: Catalogue of Paintings. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1979, no. 196, repr.
1990: The Old Matsukata Collection. Kobe City Museum, ed. Kobe, "Matsukata Korekushon Ten" Jikkoiinkai, 1990, cat. no. 1072.
1996: Wildenstein, Daniel. Monet: Catalogue raisonné. vol. 2, Cologne, Taschen, 1996, p. 226, cat. no. 582, repr.
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. 72, 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. 72, col. repr.
2013: MONET, An Eye For Landscapes: Innovation in 19th Century French Landscape Paintings(exh. cat.). Tokyo, TBS, c2013, cat. no. 21, col. repr.
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. 781, col. repr.

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