Red Boats at Argenteuil by Claude Monet Wooden Jigsaw Puzzle 475 Pieces from Nautilus Puzzles 16in x 13.5in Pre-owned

This is a preowned jigsaw puzzle I put together 2 times. All the pieces are intact. It is a really fun puzzle, perfect for cold winter quilting puzzle lovers!

Retail price new: $124.95.

This wooden jigsaw puzzle version of Red Boats was painted around 1875, and perfectly captures the warmth of the summer day, with fishing boats bobbing on the Seine, puffy little white clouds in the sky, and the wealthy promenading along the shore. Although less than 10 miles northwest of  Paris, Argenteuil was completely removed from the hustle and bustle of city life, and although starting to industrialize it was at this point still quite quaint and picturesque.

Claude Monet lived in Argenteuil for over four years during the early 1870s, after returning from London, and it became one of his favorite subjects for a while. He created several versions of this idyllic scene which were sometimes at odds with reality. In actuality, the river was getting somewhat polluted, as the stresses of industrial Paris were beginning to make their way downriver. Argenteuil was becoming an industrial town, and a suburb of Paris, and Monet also doesn't show the smokestacks that were likely appearing in the distance.

But it was here that Impressionism gained ground, as Renoir, Manet, and Sisley all decamped here along with Monet, and together developed the characteristic style that they would all become famous for. Very much a frat boys club of the time, they rented country houses, and subscribed to an idealistic version of what life was like. Between them they painted nearly one hundred paintings of this sleepy little commune, developing the studies that impressionism would become famous for.