''Boating on the River Epte'' (also known as ''The Canoe on the Epte'') is an 1890 oil painting by

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

artist Claude Monet. It is currently housed at the

São Paulo Museum of Art The São Paulo Museum of Art ( pt, Museu de Arte de São Paulo, or ') is an art museum located on Paulista Avenue in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. It is well known for its headquarters, a 1968 concrete and glass structure designed by Lina Bo B ...

. Between 1887 and 1890 Monet concerned himself with portraying scenes from the River Epte, which skirted his property at Giverny. The sisters Suzanne and Blanche Hoschedé posed for this series of pictures, their late father being banker

Ernest Hoschedé Ernest Hoschedé (18 December 1837 – 19 March 1891) was a department store magnate in Paris.Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...

, who became Monet's second wife. This series began with ''La Barque Rose'' (private collection) and also worthy of mention are canvases ''La Barque à Giverny'' (

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art ...

, Paris) and ''En Barque'' ( National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo). The São Paulo Museum of Art picture, which also has a preparatory study, was mentioned by the artist himself on a letter to critic and friend Geffroy, dated June 22, 1890: “I am again vexed by things that are impossible to do: water with undulating vegetation on the bottom”.Lobello, 2008, pp. 256-257. In fact one of the more singular characteristics of ''The Canoe on the Epte'' in the Monet context is the proximity of the water, which assumes at the lower part of the composition an almost tactile reality, as if the painter for once did not want to depict the luminous reflections of its surface, but its depth. Although it belongs to a series, the São Paulo work is in this particular a unique case. Monet here announces materiality: this new visual dimension of water will only be obtained again over thirty years later in his paintings of the 1918-1924 period. His friendship with photographer Nadar and his genuine interest in photography explain the framing of the composition as well as the out-of-focus effect produced by the movement of the boat on the water to be seen in the Hoschedé sisters. In addition, a possible source of the São Paulo Museum of Art composition, as has been detected, is the

Harunobu Harunobu (written: 春信 or 晴信) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: * (1567–1612), Japanese ''daimyō'' * (born 1969), Japanese fencer * (1725–1770), Japanese Ukiyo-e artist * (born 1965), Japanese po ...

engraving, titled ''Woman Collecting Lotus Flowers''.

Notes

References

*Lobello, Marino (edit). ''Catalogue of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand: French Art, Northern Europe, Eastern Europe''. São Paulo: Prêmio, 2008, pp. 256–257. Paintings by Claude Monet 1890 paintings Paintings in the collection of the São Paulo Museum of Art Maritime paintings {{19C-painting-stub

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