À propos de l’œuvre
Le Boulevard de Pontoise à Argenteuil, neige, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · The snowy boulevard towards the Porte de Pontoise · Kunstmuseum Basel
Boulevard de Pontoise in Argenteuil, snow W359hand painted reproduction
The snowy boulevard opens between two rows of low buildings and bare trees. Several passers-by advance along the axis of the street, while the brown traces of wheels and footsteps pierce the snow. Monet transforms this Argenteuil route into a study of gray, mauve and white, where the modern architecture of the suburb dissolves into the winter atmosphere.
Look at the work
The snowy street becomes a perspective of light, traces and silhouettes
The roadway occupies the center and widens sharply in the foreground. On the left, a long dark construction leads to a higher building; on the right, houses and a line of young trees accompany the escape. The figures, concentrated around the middle, give a human scale to this still poorly urbanized road.
Snow does not erase traffic: furrows, damp earth and small shadows cross it. The low sky takes up the pinkish grays of the facades and the purple blues of the ground. This chromatic continuity reduces the contours and lets the cold air connect each plane.
The boulevard is not described stone by stone: it appears through the light which lands on the snow and blurs the distances.
Composition, touch and light
What Monet builds behind the impression of snapshot
Three precise elements allow us to understand this composition and the essential difficulties of faithful reproduction.
A central perspective made flexible
The edges of the street, facades and trees lead towards passers-by. Monet retains the geometric depth of the boulevard, but the irregular touches and open contours prevent any rigid effect.
Snow reveals the city instead of hiding it
The white areas bring out the roofs, trunks and silhouettes. They also highlight the earth and traces of movement, reminding us that this winter landscape is a daily route.
A limited range rich in temperatures
Warm grays, mauves, blues and ochres circulate from the sky to the ground. The few darker accents are reserved for figures, trunks and openings, which maintains the general impression of luminous mist.
Reference image
Read this specific version
The image corresponds to inventory 2320 of the Kunstmuseum Basel and Wildenstein number 359. The high definition file was limited to 3,000 × 2,233 px then encoded in WebP, without artificial enlargement.
The furrows organize the foreground
Their browns, grays and purples advance in fragments in the snow. Continuous or too dark lines would transform these soft tracks into rails and harden the entire perspective.
The trees on the right form an irregular rhythm
The thin trunks are not equally spaced and their branches mingle with the sky. This variation preserves the spontaneity of the pattern observed on site.
Buildings lose contrast with distance
The building on the left and the houses in the background take on the colors of the sky. This gradual decrease in values creates the atmospheric depth essential to the work.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
Painted in 1875, this 60.2 × 81.2 cm oil on canvas is signed Claude Monet lower left. It is kept at the Kunstmuseum Basel under number 2320 and classified Wildenstein 359.
The old boulevard de Pontoise seen towards the Porte de Pontoise
The Kunstmuseum Basel identifies the route, today called boulevard Alsace-Lorraine, as well as the direction of the gaze. The painting therefore documents a specific sector of Argenteuil in the 1870s.
A work by the group painted in 1874 -1875
The museum notice links the painting to the vast set of snow scenes created in and around Argenteuil during the winter of 1874 -1875. Monet studies several moments, places and states of snow.
Purchased by the Kunstmuseum Basel in 1953
After having belonged in particular to Durand-Ruel, Denys Cochin then Alfred and Eva Cassirer, the work was acquired for the Basel collection. The institution publishes this provenance with inventory 2320.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- Maintain central boulevard opening.
- Build snow with grays, blues, mauves and ochres.
- Keep passersby small but legible.
- Gradually make the facades disappear into the low sky.
Work sheet
| Title | Boulevard de Pontoise in Argenteuil, snow W359 |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | 1875 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 60.2 × 81.2 cm |
| Orientation | Horizontal |
| Conservation | Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel, Switzerland |
| Inventory | 2320 · Wildenstein 359 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
This horizontal format and this very soft palette are suitable for a living room, bedroom or office in natural tones. An ash oak, off-white or purple gray frame highlights the traces of the boulevard without weighing down the winter light.
