The Boat (Claude Monet, with Madame Monet, Working on his Boat in Argenteuil) Édouard Manet (1832-1883)

Description of Edouard Manet’s painting "Claude Monet in his Studio Boat"

The painting "Claude Monet in His Studio Boat" was painted by Édouard Manet in 1874. At the time he made a summer trip to Argenteuil in the company of Claude Monet. There they painted together, and Manet depicts the great master at work in his boat. Although Manet was an Impressionist painter and enjoyed communicating with them (he was particularly interested in their work with lighting), he never considered himself a member of their group. He wanted to be an officially recognized and well-paid artist, entering the Salon from the main entrance, and not exhibiting in some shabby hovel.

Edouard Manet’s style is different from that of the Impressionists, as can be seen in this painting. The Impressionists rejected black; Manet, on the other hand, always uses it. The canvas has long and flowing neat strokes (not the short strokes or dots of the Impressionists). You can see that the colors on the canvas are mixed, the shades are different (Impressionists very rarely mixed colors).

It is impossible to say what genre this painting is. Careful attention is paid to both portraits and landscapes. Claude Monet takes center stage in the composition, working on a portrait of a certain lady. He works afloat in his studio boat, but his work, despite the rocking on the waves, is precise and beautiful. A sketch is visible on his easel, and his brush strokes are dense. Monet is depicted dressed in a light-colored shirt and pants, he is thoughtful and focused on his work. The lady sitter is beautiful, she is also wearing light-colored clothes and she is impatient to finish her work, she wants to look at the result.

Manet draws very clearly the landscape around the characters. The waves and reflections on the water, the sky and clouds, yachts sailing on the horizon with chimneys blowing, a wooden house on the shore. All this successfully frames the artist and the lady sitting in the studio boat.