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We look across the water at two sailing ships with cream-white sails and dark rigging floating in a shimmering, ice-blue river against a distant shore lined with trees, hills, and buildings in this nearly square landscape painting. The horizon comes about halfway up the painting, and the ships’ masts and sails are silhouetted against a topaz-blue sky with wispy white clouds. The scene is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes throughout so many of the details are indistinct. One boat floats near the left edge of the painting and the second is situated a little father back, to our right of center. Both have rust-orange anchors painted near the pointed bows, which face us. Tall, narrow, asparagus-green trees line the far riverbank between the boats. Tall spires and towers of buildings rise in a cluster to our left near that edge of the canvas, and boats cluster near the distant shore to our right. Oatmeal-brown hills rise beyond the trees and town. The trees and boats are reflected in the water, which is painted with horizontal dashes and squiggles. The artist signed the painting in the lower left, “Claude Monet.”

Claude Monet

Ships Riding on the Seine at Rouen, 1872/1873

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 87

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 37.7 x 46 cm (14 13/16 x 18 1/8 in.)

framed: 59.7 x 68 x 10.2 cm (23 1/2 x 26 3/4 x 4 in.)

Credit Line

Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection

Accession Number

1970.17.43

Artists / Makers

Claude Monet (artist) French, 1840 - 1926

Image Use

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Inscription

lower left: Claude Monet

Provenance

Ernest Hoschedé [1837-1891], Paris; (Hoschedé sale, Paris, 5 June 1878, no. 48); purchased by A. Dachery, Paris; (Dachery sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 30 May 1899, no. 40). Ernest Cognacq [1839-1928], Paris; by inheritance to his grand-nephew Gabriel Cognacq [1880-1951], Paris; (Cognacq sale, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 14 May 1952, no. 49); acquired by (Alex Reid & Lefevre, London) probably for Capt. Edward H. Molyneux [1891-1974], Paris;[1] sold 15 August 1955 to Ailsa Mellon Bruce [1901-1969], New York;[2] bequest 1970 to NGA.

[1]Acquired by Molyneux after the 1952 United States exhibition of his collection. See letter from Molyneux to Ailsa Mellon Bruce dated 30 July 1955 in Gallery Archives RG39, copy in NGA curatorial records.

[2]See Ailsa Mellon Bruce notebook now in NGA Gallery Archives.

Associated Names

Bruce, Ailsa Mellon, Mrs.
Cognacq, Ernest
Cognacq, Gabriel
Dachery, A.
Drouot, Hôtel
Galerie Charpentier
Hoschedé, Ernest
Molyneux, Edward H., Captain
Reid & Lefèvre, Ltd, Alex

Exhibition History

1940: Exposition du Centenaire Monet-Rodin, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, 1940, no. 1

1961: French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century from the Collection of Mrs. Mellon Bruce, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1961, no. 28, repro., as Ships at Havre.

1966: French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, no. 82, repro

1978: Small French Paintings from the Bequest of Ailsa Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978, no. 32.

1986: Capolavori Impressionisti dei Musei Americani, Museo e Gallerie Nazionali di Capodimonte, Naples; Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, 1986-1987, no. 29, repro.

1986: Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad; State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, 1986, no. 17, repro.

1989: Impressionisti della National Gallery of Art di Washington, Ala Napoleonica e Museo Correr, Venice; Palazzo Reale, Milan, 1989, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1999: Around Impressionism: French Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1999, no cat.

1999: Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art; Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 1999, no. 39, repro.

2006: Monet in Normandy, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh; Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006-2007, no. 12, repro.

2010: A City for Impressionism: Monet, Pissarro and Gauguin in Rouen, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, 2010, no. 8, repro.

2014: Monet and the Seine: Impressions of a River, Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2014-2015, no. 5, repro.

2015: Monet and the Birth of Impressionism, Städel Museum, Frankfurt, 2015, no. 41, repro.

Bibliography

1968: Bodelsen, Merete. "Early Impressionist Sales 1874-94 in the light of some unpublished 'procès-verbaux.'" The Burlington Magazine (June 1968):340

1974: Wildenstein, Daniel. Claude Monet: biographie et catalogue raisonné. 5 vols. Lausanne and Paris, 1974-1991: 1:no. 210.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 244, repro., as Ships at Anchor on the Seine.

1978: Small French Paintings from the Bequest of Ailsa Mellon Bruce. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978: 32, repro. (continuing exhibition beginning in 1978).

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 487, no. 721, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 280, repro.