(Paris 1832 - Paris 1883)
1874
Oil on canvas - 148,5 x 114,5 cm
The Musée des Beaux-Arts in Tournai owns the only two works by Édouard Manet that remain in Belgium. Both are true masterpieces of French Impressionism.
Argenteuil is also an important work, as it was one of the artist's first Impressionist canvases. In the summer of 1874, Claude Monet invited his friend Édouard Manet to join him in capturing the incessant interplay of light on the water. The boater is shown in the guise of Rudolf Leenhoff, the artist's brother-in-law, while the identity of the woman accompanying him remains unknown.
During his lifetime, Édouard Manet always refused to part with this masterpiece. It was only after his death in 1889 that Henri Van Cutsem managed to purchase it from his widow, Suzanne Manet, before bequeathing his collection to the City of Tournai.