Where Is La Grenouillère? Museum Location

Q: Where can I see La Grenouillère by Monet?

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.

Q: What is La Grenouillère?

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.

Q: Why is this painting historically important?

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.

Q: How big is the painting?

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.

Q: What style is La Grenouillère?

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.

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.

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.

La Grenouillère

Details

Where to See It

The Artist

More by Claude Monet

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About La Grenouillère

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