Updated 08 April 2025
Currently not on display
Currently not on display
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
- 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
- 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.
- 2023
- Claude Monet: Journey to Series Paintings, The Ueno Royal Museum, 20 October 2023 - 28 January 2024, Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka, 10 February-6 May 2024, cat. no. 23
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.
- 1991
- Europe Kindai Kaiga no Nagare: Millet kara Picasso e (exh. cat.). Endo, Norie, ed. [Urazoe], The Urazoe Art Museum Kaikan 1shunen Kinen Tokubetsuten Jikkoiinkai, 1991, pp. 22, 81, cat. no. 4, col. repr.
- 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.
- 2023
- Claude Monet: Journey to Series Paintings (exh. cat.). Tempel, Benno et al. [Tokyo], Sankei Shimbun, 2023, pp. 73, 164-165, 211, cat. no. 23, col. repr.