The Monet Family in Their Garden at Argenteuil

In the summer of 1874, Monet and Manet were neighbours in Argenteuil, and this Metropolitan Museum painting records a remarkable moment of artistic solidarity. Manet painted Monet working en plein air in his garden, with Camille Monet seated sewing nearby. Renoir was also present that day and painted a similar scene. This image of one great Impressionist painting another, outdoors in a bourgeois garden, is both a document of the movement's social world and a meditation on the act of painting itself. Manet, who never exhibited with the Impressionists, was paradoxically one of their greatest supporters and influences.

Manet captures the scene in his characteristic fluid, high-contrast manner, with Camille's white dress gleaming in the garden light. The brushwork for the surrounding garden foliage is unusually free and broken, approaching Monet's own technique. The composition is warm and domestic, unusual for the typically more formal Manet.