(From Museum website)
"The quaint river-town of Argenteuil, on the banks of the Seine River, is a quick fifteen-minute train ride from the center of Paris. During the 1870s and 1880s Argenteuil became an important source of inspiration for the impressionist artists, who immortalized its river views, bridges, streets, and gardens in their paintings—setting it apart from neighboring villages.
"One of the foremost “myths” about Renoir and his work is that he was primarily known for his paintings of human figures—often well-endowed women, and thus contributed very little to plein-air landscape painting. The Seine at Argenteuil, painted in the summer of 1874, clearly dispels any doubt that Renoir was as accomplished a landscape painter as Monet, Sisley, or Pissarro, achieving an utterly personal style. Interestingly, Renoir painted this work alongside his friend Claude Monet, whose painting of the same scene, Sailboats at Argenteuil, 1874, is in a private collection in Switzerland."
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