May 28 - August 20, 2000

This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery. Please follow the links below for related online resources or visit our current exhibitions schedule.

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52 paintings depicting scenes in and near the Paris suburb of Argenteuil were included in this exhibition. With special emphasis on canvases by Claude Monet, who as an Argenteuil resident became the focus of the group, the presentation included colorful, evocative works by his avant-garde colleagues, Eugène Boudin, Gustave Caillebotte, Edouard Manet, Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley. In the 1870s, these six influential artists worked in the open air, often side by side, recording scenes in and around Argenteuil. Their innovative paintings made Argenteuil synonymous with the style that became known as impressionism, characterized by broken brushwork and divided light and color.