Boat Moored on the Seine at Argenteuil

Original Language TitleBateau au mouillage sur la Seine, à Argenteuil

Artist Gustave Caillebotte (French, 1848 - 1894)

Dateca. 1886-1891

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 25 3/4 x 21 3/8 inches (65.41 x 54.29 cm)
Framed: 35 3/4 x 31 1/2 x 2 3/4 inches (90.81 x 80.01 x 6.99 cm)

Credit LineGift of Henry W. and Marion H. Bloch

Object number2015.13.5

SignedIndistinctly signed lower right: Caillebotte

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

DescriptionThis vertically formatted marine depicts a sailboat with a blue and pink hull and white, furled-up sail moored on the Seine river in the Parisian suburb of Argenteuil. A grassy bank with thin tree branches occupies the foreground. The river Seine and sailboat dominate the middle ground, occupying about half of the composition. Low, nondescript white and yellow buildings and a smokestack occupy the opposite bank under a cloudless blue-gray sky. The painting’s surface is animated by short, rapidly applied, directional brushstrokes; thick areas of impasto are visible throughout, particularly in the boat’s scintillating reflections on the water.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Exposition Rétrospective d’Œuvres de G. Caillebotte , Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, June 1894, no. 24, as Bateau à Argenteuil.

Probably Salon d’Automne Caillebotte Exposition Rétrospective, Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées, Paris, November 1‒December 20, 1921, no. 2734 or 2735, as Bateau.

Rétrospective Gustave Caillebotte au Profit du Musée de Rennes , Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Paris, May 25‒July 25, 1951, no. 68, as Bateaux à Argenteuil.

Gustave Caillebotte, 1848 ‒ 1894: a loan exhibition of paintings , Wildenstein and Co., New York, September 18‒October 19, 1968, no. 61, as Le Bateau.

Manet to Matisse: Impressionist Masters from the Marion and Henry Bloch Collection, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, June 9‒September 9, 2007, no. 13, as Boat Moored on the Seine at Argenteuil.

Gallery Label

In addition to working as a leading Impressionist painter, Gustave Caillebotte developed a serious passion for sailing. He was not only a national sailing champion, but also one of France’s leading yacht designers.

In this work, the subject is one of Caillebotte’s lightweight sailboats moored on the Seine in front of his home. Caillebotte devoted marked attention to capturing the brilliant reflection of light dancing on the water, rendered in thick strokes of white paint.

Provenance

Gustave Caillebotte (1848‒1894), Paris and Petit-Gennevilliers, France, ca. 1886‒February 21, 1894;

Inherited by his brother, Martial Caillebotte (1853‒1910), February 21‒June 15, 1894;

Purchased from Martial Caillebotte by Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, stock no. 3072, as Bateau à Argenteuil, June 15‒16, 1894 [1];

Purchased from Durand-Ruel by Jean Blum, June 16, 1894‒1967;

Purchased from Blum by Wildenstein and Co., New York, 1967 [2];

Purchased from Wildenstein by George I. Friedland (1901‒1984), Philadelphia, 1967‒1984;

Purchased from his posthumous sale, Impressionist and Modern Paintings and Sculpture, Part 1, Sotheby’s, New York, May 14, 1985, lot 16, by Marion (née Helzberg, 1931‒2013) and Henry (1922‒2019) Bloch, Shawnee Mission, KS, 1985‒June 15, 2015;

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2015.

NOTES:

[1] See email from Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel et Cie, Paris, to Nicole Myers, NAMA, January 11, 2016, NAMA curatorial files. See also label fixed to backing board verso: “Dur[an]d-R[uel]/ Paris 16 Rue La[ffit]te/ [Ne]w York 315, Fifth Avenue/ [Caille]botte N^o 3[072] / Bateau [Argenteuil ?] / [SS ?]”

[2] See letter from Eliot Rowlands, Wildenstein and Co., New York, to Meghan Gray, NAMA, May 12, 2011, NAMA curatorial files.

Published References

Exposition Rétrospective d’Œuvres de G. Caillebotte , exh. cat. (Paris: Galeries Durand-Ruel, 1894), 4, as Bateau à Argenteuil.

Probably Salon d’Automne Caillebotte Exposition Rétrospective, exh. cat. (Paris: Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées, 1921), 335‒36, as Bateau.

Rétrospective Gustave Caillebotte au Profit du Musée de Rennes , exh. cat. (Paris: Galerie des Beaux-Arts, 1951), unpaginated insert, Clark Art Institute Library, Williamstown, MA, as Bateaux à Argenteuil.

Marie Bérhaut, Gustave Caillebotte, 1848‒1894: Catalogue des peintures et pastels (Paris: Wildenstein, 1951), no. 256, unpaginated, as Bateaux à Argenteuil.

A Loan Exhibition of Paintings: Gustave Caillebotte, 1848‒1894 , exh. cat. (New York: Wildenstein, 1968), unpaginated, as Le Bateau.

Marie Berhaut, Caillebotte: The Impressionist, trans. Dana Imber (Lausanne: International Art Book, 1968), 49, (repro.), as The Yacht at Argenteuil.

Marie Berhaut, Caillebotte, Sa Vie et Son Œuvre: Catalogue Raisonné des Peintures et Pastels (Paris: Fondation Wildenstein, 1978), no. 360, pp. 2, 202, (repro.), as Bateau au mouillage sur la Seine, à Argenteuil.

Impressionist and Modern Paintings and Sculpture, Part 1 (New York: Sotheby’s, May 14, 1985), unpaginated, (repro.), as Bateau au mouillage sur la Seine à Argenteuil.

Patrice Bachelard, ed., De Manet à Caillebotte: Les impressionnistes à Gennevilliers (Paris: Éditions Plume, 1993), 144, as Bateau au mouillage sur la Seine à Argenteuil.

Burl Stiff, “To life! (This one and others!),” San Diego Union-Tribune (June 19, 1994): D-4.

Marie Berhaut, Gustave Caillebotte: catalogue raisonné des peintures et pastels (Paris: Wildenstein Institute, 1994), no. 348, pp. 203, 296, as Bateau au mouillage sur la Seine, à Argenteuil.

Anne Distel et al., Gustave Caillebotte: 1848‒ 1894, exh. cat. (Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1994), 30 [repr., Anne Distel et al., Gustave Caillebotte: Urban Impressionist, exh. cat. (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1995), 24, 26n49; and repr., Gustave Caillebotte: The Unknown Impressionist, exh. cat. (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1996), 22, 24n49].

Bobbie Leigh, “Magnificent Obsession,” Art and Antiques 29, no. 6 (June 2006): 65, (repro.), as Boat Moored on the Seine at Argenteuil.

“Inaugural Exhibitions Celebrate Kansas City,” Member Magazine (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (Fall 2006): 3.

Pierre Sanchez, Dictionnaire du Salon d’automne: répertoire des exposants et liste des ɶ uvres présentées, 1903 ‒ 1945 (Dijon: L’Échelle de Jacob, 2006), 271, as Marine.

Richard R. Brettell and Joachim Pissarro, Manet to Matisse: Impressionist Masters from the Marion and Henry Bloch Collection , exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2007), 12, 74, 78‒81, 158, (repro.), as Boat Moored on the Seine at Argenteuil (Bateau au mouillage sur la Seine, à Argenteuil).

“Lasting Impressions: A Tribute to Marion and Henry Bloch,” Member Magazine (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (Fall 2007): 11.

Steve Paul, “Pretty Pictures: Marion and Henry Bloch’s Collection of Superb Impressionist Masters,” Panache 4, no. 3 (Fall 2007): 20.

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Brigid M. Boyle, “Gustave Caillebotte, Boat Moored on the Seine at Argenteuil, ca. 1886‒1891,” catalogue entry and Diana M. Jaskierny, “Gustave Caillebotte, Boat Moored on the Seine at Argenteuil, ca. 1886‒1891,” technical entry in French Paintings and Pastels, 1600–1945: The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, ed., (Kansas City: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2022), https://doi.org/10.37764/78973.5.612.

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