La Grenouillère
by Claude Monet, 1869
StyleImpressionism
Artwork Details
Details
- Year
- 1869
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Size
- 74.6 cm × 99.7 cm
Cite or Embed This Work
APA · MLA · Chicago1-click academic citation and embeddable “On View” museum badge for articles, syllabi, and research.
Working in oil on canvas, Claude Monet painted this La Grenouillère in 1869 alongside his friend Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Both artists set up easels at a popular bathing spot on the Seine near Bougival, just a train ride from Paris. Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie had recently visited, giving the resort fashionable cachet.
The painting shows "Flowerpot Island," a small platform nicknamed "the Camembert," where bathers gathered between dips. Monet's rapid, broken brushstrokes capture sunlight dancing on water, an effect impossible to achieve with traditional techniques. In a letter to Bazille, he called these works "bad sketches" of a dream he hoped to realize properly. Art historians now see them as key steps toward Impressionism.
The canvas measures 74.6 by 99.7 centimeters and belongs to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It came through the H.O. Havemeyer Collection in 1929. A related version hangs at the National Gallery in London.
More by Claude Monet
View all →
Also at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
View all →Sculpture
R
Rolltop desk
David Roentgen, 1776
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Sculpture
L
Lion felling a bull, from a marble pediment
Ancient Greek (Unknown), -500
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Sculpture
M
Marble statue of a lion
Ancient Greek (Unknown), -390
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
S
Supper at Emmaus
Diego Velázquez
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Related Works
Works that share an artist, movement, museum, genre, palette or theme with La Grenouillère.
- Same artist
- Same movement
Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies
Claude Monet, 1899
- Same artist
- Same movement
Water Lily Pond at Giverny
Claude Monet
- Same artist
- Same movement
Water Lily Pond
Claude Monet
- Same movement
- Similar palette
Luncheon of the Boating Party
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1881
- Same movement
- Similar palette
Luncheon of the Boating Party
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1881
- Same movement
- Similar palette
Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1
James McNeill Whistler, 1871
- Same movement
- Similar palette
Two Sisters (On the Terrace)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1881
- Same movement
- Similar palette
Music in the Tuileries
Édouard Manet, 1862
- Same movement
- Similar palette
The Balcony
Édouard Manet, 1869
- Same movement
The Boating Party
Mary Cassatt, 1893
- Same movement
The Child's Bath
Mary Cassatt, 1893
- Same movement
The Cradle
Berthe Morisot, 1872
About La Grenouillère
It's at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Monet painted it in 1869. Renoir painted the same scene from a nearby spot on the same day, and both paintings survive.
It was a popular bathing and boating spot on the Seine near Bougival, west of Paris. The name means 'The Frog Pond.' It attracted Parisian day-trippers of all social classes. The small island in the center (called 'Camembert' or 'the flowerpot') is visible in both Monet's and Renoir's versions.
Many art historians consider it a birthplace of Impressionism. Monet used quick, broken brushstrokes to capture sunlight on rippling water, a technique that would define the movement. He and Renoir worked side by side, pushing each other toward a new way of painting outdoors.
It measures 74.6 cm × 99.7 cm (29.4 × 39.3 inches). Monet considered it only a sketch for a larger, more finished painting that was never completed (or was lost). The 'sketch' turned out to be more important than any finished work could have been.
It's proto-Impressionist. The broken brushwork on the water, the emphasis on natural light, and the everyday leisure subject all point toward what Impressionism would become five years later. The official first Impressionist exhibition wouldn't happen until 1874.
Own Art Like This
Luxury wall art with the same mood and energy. Gallery-quality canvas, no museum crowds.
Browse Collection