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La Rue Montorgueil by Monet
La Rue MontorgueilOil on canvas, 1878 This picture, La Rue Montorgueil, could have almost been painted by one of the Fauves, Vlaminck or Derain. It does not, as once thought, commemorate the first 14 July celebrations, but the International Exhibition of 30 June 1878, symbol of the renaissance of France after the defeat of 1870. Monet was staying in Paris at the time and was struck by the mood of rejoicing in the flag-hung streets. His colleague Manet chose to stay in the elegant seventeenth arrondissement, where he painted Rue Mosnier Decked Out With Flags, but Monet went to the working class area of Les Halles, and stationed himself on a balcony which afforded a prospect of the rue Montorgueil aflutter with tricolours. As he told Rene Gimpel, he had simply asked the tenant’s permission to set up his easel. It is highly probable that he painted the companion picture Rue Saint-Denis Decked Out with Flags on the same day. The two pictures are similar in style, with rapid, energetic brushwork. La Rue Montorgueil passed through many hands and was much in demand by collectors. Shown for the first time at the forth Impressionist exhibition, in 1879, it was bought initially by Dr de Bellio and then passed to the collection of the Prince de Wagram, a young officer descended from Marechal Berthier, whose taste for avant-garde art appalled his family. When he was killed in the last days of the 1914-18 War, his heirs lost no time in selling off the paintings, and today these form the nucleus of one of the great French collections. This particular painting, La Rue Montorgueil, was bought by the playwright Alfred Savoir. Its companion piece enjoyed equal success. It was snapped up by Ernest Hoschede against considerable competition, and later came into the hands of the composer Emmanuel Chabrier, who had the happy notion of using the inheritance left by his wife to build up a collection of modern painting. In this way the man best known for writing Espana became the proud owner of Manet’s The Bar at the Folies-Bergere, three Renoirs, six Monets, two Sisleys and a Cezanne! Own An Original Re-Creation
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Hand-painted in oils by a professional artist
