Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/claude-monet-1652" aria-label="More by Claude Monet" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Claude Monet</a>
Seine at PortVillez
Purchased 1953
cities, towns, villages (non-UK)
countries and continents
France
hill
landscape
mist
natural features (non-UK)
natural phenomena
places
Port-Villez
reflection
river
River Seine
water: inland
weather
wooded
<p>Monet executed several scenes of the Seine near his house at Giverny. He probably began each canvas in a specially adapted flat-bottomed boat, but would have continued working on paintings in his studio over a period of time. Monet has stripped this scene of physical detail, focusing, instead, on recording the all-enveloping light and atmosphere of the river. In 1891 he said, 'For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life - the air and the light, which vary continuously. For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value.'</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
5 March 1997
5 March 1997
1997-03-05
National Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk
1997-03-05
Long Loan to the National Gallery
Loan-out
11 October 2009 – 28 February 2010
2010-02-28
11 October 2009 – 28 February 2010
2010-02-28
2009-10-11
Von der Heydt Museum (Wuppertal, Germany)
2009-10-11
Claude Monet
Loan-out
26 October 2014 – 29 January 2015
2015-01-29
26 October 2014 – 29 January 2015
2015-01-29
2014-10-26
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Houston, USA)
http://www.mfah.org
2014-10-26
Monet and the Seine: Impressions of a River
Loan-out
22 January 2017 – 28 May 2017
2017-05-28
22 January 2017 – 28 May 2017
2017-05-28
2017-01-22
Fondation Beyeler (Riehen/Basel, Switzerland)
http://www.beyeler.com
2017-01-22
Monet - Reflections and Shadows
Loan-out
26 June 2018 – 30 September 2018
2018-09-30
26 June 2018 – 30 September 2018
2018-09-30
2018-06-26
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza (Madrid, Spain)
2018-06-26
Monet / Boudin
Loan-out
8 June 2021 – 14 January 2024
2024-01-14
8 July 2021 – 14 November 2021
2021-11-14
2021-07-08
Museum of Art Pudong (Shanghai, China)
20 December 2021 – 8 May 2022
2022-05-08
2021-12-20
Buk-Seoul Museum of Art (Seoul, South Korea)
15 June 2022 – 13 November 2022
2022-11-13
2022-06-15
ACMI (Melbourne, Australia)
25 February 2023 – 25 June 2023
2023-06-25
2023-02-25
Auckland Art Gallery (Auckland, New Zealand)
12 July 2023 – 2 October 2023
2023-10-02
2023-07-12
National Art Center (Tokyo, Japan)
26 October 2023 – 14 January 2024
2024-01-14
2023-10-26
Nakanoshima Museum of Art (Osaka, Japan)
2021-06-08
Light
Tate partnerships & programmes
1 May 2025 – 1 May 2026
2026-05-01
1 May 2025 – 1 May 2026
2026-05-01
2025-05-01
National Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk
2025-05-01
National Gallery Bicentenary
Loan-out
The Seine at Port-Villez
support: 654 × 1003 mm
frame: 864 × 1216 × 88 mm
Purchased 1953
<p>Monet executed several scenes of the Seine near his house at Giverny. He probably began each <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a> in a specially adapted flat-bottomed boat, but would have continued working on <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> in his studio over a period of time. Monet has stripped this scene of physical detail, focusing, instead, on recording the all-enveloping light and atmosphere of the river. In 1891 he said, 'For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life - the air and the light, which vary continuously. For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value.'</p>
Display caption
2004-08-31T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>Claude Monet</b><span> 1840-1926 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/monet-the-seine-at-port-villez-n06182" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N06182</span></a> </span><b>La Seine à Port-Villez</b><span> (The Seine at Port-Villez) 1894 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Inscribed 'Claude Monet 1885' b.l.</span>
<br/><span>Oil on canvas, 25 ¾ x 39 ½ (65 x 100)</span>
<br/><span>Purchased from the Wildenstein Gallery (Grant-in-Aid) 1953</span>
<br/><i>Prov:</i><span>
With Durand-Ruel, Paris and New York (purchased from the artist, 30 October 1911, for 1,200 frs.); André Weil, Paris; with Wildenstein, New York and London, 1947</span>
<br/><i>Exh:</i><span>
</span><i>Paintings by French Impressionists</i><span>, Detroit Museum of Art, November 1915 (28) as 'The Seine at Lavacour' (sic); </span><i>Monet and Renoir</i><span>, Durand-Ruel, New York, December 1915 (18); </span><i>Paintings by Modern French Masters</i><span>, Worcester Art Museum, December 1917 (11); </span><i>Summer Exhibition of Selected Works from the Leading Exhibitions of 1918-1919 and a Group of Modern Spanish and French Paintings</i><span>, Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, July-October 1919 (53); </span><i>Claude Monet</i><span>, Kunsthaus, Zurich, May-June 1952 (65)</span>
<br/><i>Lit:</i><span>
Lionello Venturi, </span><i>Les Archives de l'Impressionnisme</i><span> (Paris-New York 1939), Vol.1, p.429; Daniel Wildenstein, </span><i>Claude Monet: Biographie et Catalogue raisonné</i><span>
(Lausanne-Paris 1979), Vol. 3, No.1373, p.174, repr. p.175 as 'La Seine à Port-Villez, Harmonie bleue' 1894 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>This picture raises problems of two kinds. In the first place it was bought (and appears in the Durand-Ruel records) as 'Morning on the Seine at Lavacourt' but represents a motif at Port-Villez, close to Giverny. In the second it is dated 1885, but appears on style to be a work of the 1890s. There are four other very similar <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> the same size of this motif, all, like this, effects of morning mist on the river and all clearly painted at the same time as this work. Three bear the date 1894. The <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photograph</span></a> of the present work in the Durand-Ruel files has an annotation: 'Painting executed by Monet in 1894 but dated by error by the artist: 1885'. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>This work remained in the artist's possession until 30 October 1911, when it was purchased by Durand-Ruel. On 23 October of that year Monet wrote to him that he had finished retouching the pictures which Durand-Ruel was buying from him and would send them as soon as the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvases</span></a> were dry. It seems more than likely that he signed and dated this picture then and, as it was painted long before, could not remember the date or the motif. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>J.-P. Hoschedé, the artist's stepson, said he thought that these pictures were painted from a boat (letter of 30 June 1954). </span>
<br/></p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><span>Ronald Alley, </span><i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i><span>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, p.539, reproduced p.539</span>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-21T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
cities, towns, villages (non-UK) countries and continents France hill landscape mist natural features (non-UK) natural phenomena places Port-Villez reflection river River Seine water: inland weather wooded