Boats moored on the Seine at Argenteuil

Painted in 1892, one of Caillebotte's last years—he died in 1894—this view of moored boats at Argenteuil belongs to the extensive series of river paintings he produced at Petit-Gennevilliers and the surrounding Seine reach. Argenteuil was the defining Impressionist river location, immortalised by Monet and Renoir in the 1870s; Caillebotte, himself an avid sailor, brought an intimate technical knowledge of boats and rigging that distinguished his treatment of these motifs. By 1892 his style had softened from the razor-sharp perspectives of his 1870s Paris work into a more lyrical, atmospheric engagement with water and vessels.

Reflections on the water are rendered through horizontal flecks of blue, grey and white that dissolve form while maintaining spatial coherence. The boats are rendered with structural precision, their rigging a network of fine lines against the open sky.