Monet noted on September 25, 1869, "I do have a dream, a painting ['tableau'], the baths of La Grenouillère, for which I have made some bad sketches ['pochades'], but it is only a dream. Renoir, who has just spent two months here, also wants to do this painting." Monet and Renoir, both desperately poor, were quite close at this time.

This painting and one in London (National Gallery) are probably the "pochades" Monet mentioned; another painting, now lost but formerly in the Arnhold collection in Berlin, may well have been the "tableau" that he dreamed of. The broad, constructive brushstrokes here are clearly those of a sketch; at this time, Monet sought a more delicate and carefully calibrated surface for his exhibition pictures. (A nearly identical composition by Renoir is in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.)

Monet and Renoir both recognized in La Grenouillère—a spa and working-class resort—an ideal subject for the images of leisure they hoped to sell. Optimistically promoted as a "Trouville-sur-Seine," it was easily accessible by train from Paris and had just been favored with a visit by Emperor Napoleon III and his wife and son.

Inscription: Signed and inscribed: (lower right) Claude Monet; (right) LOCATI[ON] CANOT[S] (boat rental)

?Édouard Manet, Paris (until d. 1883); ?his widow, Suzanne Manet, Paris (1883–86); [Durand-Ruel, Paris, possibly bought from Mme Manet in 1886, definitely by 1891; stock no. 1586; sold on September 27, 1897, for Fr 12,500 to Havemeyer]; Mr. and Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, New York (1897–his d. 1907); Mrs. H. O. (Louisine W.) Havemeyer, New York (1907–d. 1929; cat., 1931, pp. 152–53, ill., as "Landscape—La Grenouillère")

Paris. 11, rue Le Peletier. "2e exposition de peinture [2nd Impressionist exhibition]," April 1876, no. 164 (as "Les Bains de la Grenouillère," possibly this picture).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The H. O. Havemeyer Collection," March 10–November 2, 1930, no. 82 [2nd ed., 1958, no. 172].

New York. Wildenstein. "From Paris to the Sea Down the River Seine," January 28–February 27, 1943, no. 36.

Manchester, N.H. Currier Gallery of Art. "Monet and the Beginnings of Impressionism," October 8–November 6, 1949, no. 38.

New York. Paul Rosenberg. "The 19th Century Heritage," March 7–April 1, 1950, no. 16.

Detroit Institute of Arts. "Thirty-Eight Great Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 2–October 28, 1951, no catalogue.

Art Gallery of Toronto. "Thirty-Eight Great Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 14–December 12, 1951, no catalogue.

City Art Museum of St. Louis. "Thirty-Eight Great Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," January 6–February 4, 1952, no catalogue.

Seattle Art Museum. "Thirty-Eight Great Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," March 1–June 30, 1952, no catalogue.

The Hague. Gemeentemuseum. "Claude Monet," July 24–September 22, 1952, no. 14.

Edinburgh. Royal Scottish Academy Building. "Claude Monet," August–September 1957, no. 16.

London. Tate Gallery. "Claude Monet," September 26–November 3, 1957, no. 16.

New York. Wildenstein & Co., Inc.. "One Hundred Years of Impressionism: A Tribute to Durand-Ruel," April 2–May 9, 1970, no. 7.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries," November 15, 1970–February 15, 1971, not in catalogue.

Paris. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais. "Centenaire de l'impressionnisme," September 21–November 24, 1974, no. 27.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Impressionism: A Centenary Exhibition," December 12, 1974–February 10, 1975, no. 27.

Art Institute of Chicago. "Paintings by Monet," March 15–May 11, 1975, no. 19.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection," March 27–June 20, 1993, no. A389.

Paris. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais. "Impressionnisme: Les origines, 1859–1869," April 19–August 8, 1994, no. 147.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Origins of Impressionism," September 27, 1994–January 8, 1995, no. 147.

Art Institute of Chicago. "Claude Monet, 1840–1926," July 22–November 26, 1995, no. 18.

Washington. Phillips Collection. "Impressionists on the Seine: A Celebration of Renoir's 'Luncheon of the Boating Party'," September 21, 1996–February 9, 1997, unnumbered cat.

Stockholm. Nationalmuseum. "Impressionism and the North: Late 19th Century French Avant-Garde Art and the Art in the Nordic Countries 1870–1920," September 25, 2002–January 19, 2003, no. 139.

Copenhagen. Statens Museum for Kunst. "Impressionism and the North: Late 19th Century French Avant-Garde Art and the Art in the Nordic Countries 1870–1920," February 21–May 25, 2003, no. 139.

Budapest. Szépmuvészeti Múzeum. "Monet et ses amis," December 1, 2003–March 15, 2004, no. 68.

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920," February 4–May 6, 2007, no. 85.

Berlin. Neue Nationalgalerie. "Französische Meisterwerke des 19.Jahrhunderts aus dem Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," June 1–October 7, 2007, unnumbered cat.

Paris. Galeries nationales, Grand Palais. "Claude Monet: 1840–1926," September 22, 2010–January 24, 2011, no. 27.

Claude Monet. Letter to Frédéric Bazille. September 25, 1869 [published in Gaston Poulain, "Bazille et ses amis," La renaissance du livre, Paris, 1932, pp. 161–62], refers to a painting of the baths of La Grenouillère, for which he has made some bad sketches; states that Renoir wants to paint the same subject.

Wynford Dewhurst. Impressionist Painting: Its Genesis and Development. London, 1904, ill. opp. p. 40.

Rudolf Adelbert Meyer. "Manet und Monet." Die Kunst Unserer Zeit 19 (1908), ill. p. 63, erroneously dates it 1870.

Georges Grappe. Claude Monet. Paris, [1909], p. 28, ill. opp. p. 54.

Gustave Geffroy. "Claude Monet." L'Art et les artistes, n.s., 2 (October 1920–February 1921), ill. p. 56.

Georges Lecomte. "Claude Monet ou le vieux chêne de Giverny." La Renaissance de l'art français et des industries de luxe 3 (October 1920), ill. p. 405.

André Fontainas, and Louis Vauxcelles. Histoire générale de l'art français de la Révolution à nos jours. 1, Paris, 1922, vol. 1, ill. p. 135.

Gustave Geffroy. Claude Monet: Sa vie, son temps, son œuvre. Paris, 1922, p. 262, ill. opp. p. 52.

Louis Vauxcelles. "Claude Monet." L'Amour de l'art 3 (August 1922), ill. p. 236.

Florent Fels. Claude Monet. Paris, 1925, ill. p. 41.

Camille Mauclair. Claude Monet. London, [1925], p. 47, pl. 17 [French ed., Paris, 1924].

Georges Grappe. "Claude Monet." L'art vivant 3 (January 1, 1927), ill. pp. 20–21.

Léon Werth. Claude Monet. Paris, 1928, pl. 9, dates it 1868.

Frank Jewett Mather Jr. "The Havemeyer Pictures." The Arts 16 (March 1930), p. 479.

H. O. Havemeyer Collection: Catalogue of Paintings, Prints, Sculpture and Objects of Art. n.p., 1931, pp. 152–53, ill.

Paul Jamot and Georges Wildenstein. Manet. Paris, 1932, vol. 1, p. 106, includes "La Grenouillère à Croissy" by Monet in a list of things sold from Manet's home, possibly this picture.

Stephen Gwynn. Claude Monet and His Garden: The Story of an Artist's Paradise. New York, 1934, p. 168.

Wilhelm Uhde. The Impressionists. Vienna, 1937, pl. 69.

Georges Grappe. Monet. Paris, 1941, ill. p. 33.

Maurice Malingue. Claude Monet. Monaco, 1943, pp. 6, 23, 146, pl. 51.

Preface by Edward Alden Jewell in French Impressionists and Their Contemporaries Represented in American Collections. New York, 1944, ill. p. 101 (color).

John Rewald. The History of Impressionism. New York, 1946, pp. 191–92, 196, ill.

Oscar Reuterswärd. Monet. Stockholm, 1948, pp. 45–48, 280, pl. 12.

Curt Schweicher. Monet. Bern, [1949], p. 13.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Miniatures, French Impressionists: Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, and Boudin. 27, Album 51, New York, 1951, unpaginated, ill. (color).

Maurice Catinat. Les Bords de la Seine avec Renoir et Maupassant. Chatou, 1952, pp. 95–98, ill.

Douglas Cooper. The Courtauld Collection. London, 1954, p. 44.

Lionello Venturi. Four Steps Toward Modern Art: Giorgione, Caravaggio, Manet, Cézanne. New York, 1956, p. 56, fig. 21.

Ralph Coe. "Claude Monet in Edinburgh and London." Burlington Magazine 99 (November 1957), p. 382.

Margaretta M. Salinger. Claude Monet: 1840–1926. New York, 1957, unpaginated, colorpl. 17 [see Ref. Sterling and Salinger 1967].

Denis Rouart in Claude Monet. [Lausanne], 1958, pp. 8, 46–47, ill. (color).

Adrian Stokes. Monet. London, 1958, p. 9, pl. 2 [see Ref. Wildenstein 1974].

William C. Seitz. Claude Monet. New York, [1960], pp. 23, 84–85, ill. (color).

Raymond Cogniat. Monet and His World. London, 1966, pp. 45, 134–35, ill.

Charles Merrill Mount. Monet, a biography. New York, 1966, pp. 183–84.

Linda Nochlin. Impressionism and Post-Impressionism 1874–1904: Sources and Documents. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1966, p. 33 n. 8, includes an English translation of Monet's September 25, 1869 letter to Frédéric Bazille and mentions that both Renoir and Monet produced well-known paintings of the subject.

Luigina Rossi Bortolatto. L'opera completa di Claude Monet, 1870–1889. Milan, 1966, pp. 89–90, no. 25, ill.

Joel Isaacson. "The Early Paintings of Claude Monet." PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1967, pp. xiii, 224–37, 326–27 n. 32, pl. 79, compares it to Renoir's painting of the same subject (Nationalmuseum, Stockholm).

Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. "XIX–XX Centuries." French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 3, New York, 1967, pp. 126–27, ill.

Margaretta M. Salinger. "Windows Open to Nature." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 27 (Summer 1968), unpaginated, ill.

Denys Sutton. Claude Monet: The Early Years. Exh. cat., Lefevre Gallery. London, 1969, pp. 12–13, fig. VII.

Douglas Cooper. "The Monets in the Metropolitan Museum." Metropolitan Museum Journal 3 (1970), pp. 281–82, 286–87, 302–5, fig. 6, questions whether it, with its "virtuoso painting," could really be one of the "bad sketches" mentioned by Monet in his letter to Bazille, but does believe that Monet intended to use the three known versions of this subject (W134–36) as studies for a larger, more finished composition; calls this painting "the starting point from which Impressionism proper was to be developed during the 1870s".

Jean Clay. L'Impressionnisme. [Paris], 1971, p. 95, ill. (color).

Carl R. Baldwin. "The Salon of '72." Art News 71 (May 1972), pp. 21–22, ill., claims that it was rejected by the jury for the 1872 Salon [but see Refs. Wildenstein 1974 and House 1986].

Kermit Swiler Champa. Studies in Early Impressionism. New Haven, 1973, pp. 63–66, colorpl. 11.

John Rewald. The History of Impressionism. 4th rev. ed. New York, 1973, pp. 227–32, ill.

John Rewald. "The Impressionist Brush." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 32, no. 3 (1973/1974), p. 21, no. 12, ill. (color detail).

Carl R. Baldwin The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Impressionist Epoch. [New York], 1974, pp. 5, 7, 15–16, ill.

[John House]. "The Roots of the Impressionists." Times Literary Supplement (May 3, 1974), p. 464, in reviewing publications by Champa and Rewald [see Refs. 1973], disagrees with Champa's assertion that the known paintings by Monet of La Grenouillère are not the "bad sketches" mentioned in his letter to Bazille.

Charles S. Moffett in Impressionism: A Centenary Exhibition. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1974, pp. 145–49, no. 27, ill. (color, and black and white detail) [French ed., "Centenaire de l'impressionnisme," Grand Palais, Paris, 1974].

Denis Rouart in Monet, Water-Lilies: Or the Mirror of Time. New York, 1974, pp. 42–43, ill. (overall and detail) [French ed., 1972].

Daniel Wildenstein. "1840–1881: Peintures." Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné. 1, Lausanne, 1974, pp. 45, 48, 178–79, no. 134, ill., suggests that it may have belonged to Manet, and that Durand-Ruel may have acquired it in 1886 from his widow.

George Heard Hamilton. "The Philosophical Implications of Impressionist Landscape Painting." Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Bulletin 6 (Spring 1975), pp. 6–7, fig. 2.

Grace Seiberling in Paintings by Monet. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago, 1975, pp. 25–26, 28, 73, no. 19, ill.

Alice Bellony-Rewald. The Lost World of the Impressionists. London, 1976, pp. 99, 102, 104–5, ill. (color).

Frederick S. Wight. The Potent Image: Art in the Western World from Cave Paintings to the 1970s. New York, 1976, p. 267, ill.

John House. Monet. Oxford, 1977, p. 6, colorpl. 8, assumes that Monet's known paintings of La Grenouillère, including this work, were studies for a larger composition, actually completed but now lost, and that "in retrospect, the studies have acquired far greater status than Monet meant for them".

Tetsuro Miura and Chuji Ikegami. Mone [Monet]. Tokyo, 1977, unpaginated, fig. 2 (color).

Anthea Callen. Renoir. London, 1978, pp. 11–12, fig. 5.

Joel Isaacson in "'La Débâcle' by Claude Monet." Bulletin, Museums of Art and Archaeology, The University of Michigan 1 (1978), p. 6, fig. 9.

Joel Isaacson. Observation and Reflection: Claude Monet. Oxford, 1978, pp. 17–19, 22, 77–78, 201–2, colorpl. 29, pl. 30 (detail).

Lionello Venturi. Cézanne. Geneva, 1978, p. 56, ill.

Impressionism in Perspective. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1978, pp. 6, 153, fig. 2.

Brian Petrie. Claude Monet, The First of the Impressionists. Oxford, 1979, pp. 34–35, 37, colorpl. 28.

Hélène Adhémar. Hommage à Claude Monet (1840–1926). Exh. cat., Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais. Paris, 1980, pp. 11, 20.

Jacques Dufwa. Winds from the East: A Study in the Art of Manet, Degas, Monet and Whistler 1856–86. Stockholm, 1981, pp. 135–36, 207 n. 28, fig. 112.

Michael Wilson. "Monet's 'Bathers at La Grenouillère,' From Plein-air to Impressionism: Monet at La Grenouillère." National Gallery Technical Bulletin 5 (1981), p. 14, fig. 2.

Joel Isaacson. "Impressionism and Journalistic Illustration." Arts Magazine 56 (June 1982), pp. 97, 100, 102, 114 n. 38, p. 115 n. 93, fig. 3.

Robert Gordon, and Andrew Forge. Monet. New York, 1983, pp. 43–44, 289, ill. (color).

Richard R. Brettell in A Day in the Country: Impressionism and the French Landscape. Exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles, 1984, p. 88, under no. 14, calls it "an icon in the history of Impressionism" and accepts Wildenstein's suggestion that it once belonged to Manet.

Ronald Pickvance. "La Grenouillère." Aspects of Monet. New York, 1984, pp. 36–51, ill. (color).

Anne Distel in Renoir. Exh. cat., Hayward Gallery. [London], 1985, p. 192, ill. [French ed., p. 88, ill.].

John House in Claude Monet: Painter of Light. Exh. cat., Auckland City Art Gallery. Auckland, New Zealand, 1985, p. 10.

Horst Keller. Claude Monet. Munich, 1985, pp. 58, 65, colorpl. 21 (overall and detail).

Charles S. Moffett. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1985, pp. 10, 112–13, 251, ill. (color).

Shunsuke Kijima. Monet. Tokyo, 1985, unpaginated, fig. 8 (color).

Monet: A Retrospective. New York, 1985, p. 12, ill.

Michael Clarke. Lighting up the Landscape: French Impressionism and its Origins. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Scotland. Edinburgh, 1986, pp. 72–73, under no. 87.

Hollis Clayson in The New Painting: Impressionism 1874–1886. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington. San Francisco, 1986, pp. 145, 147, 157, 163, fig. 1 (color).

John House. Monet: Nature into Art. New Haven, 1986, pp. 51, 53, 59, 77, 136, 147, 161, 205, 235 n. 5, p. 242 n. 38, colorpl. 71, believes that this work and the version now in London (W135) are the "bad sketches" referred to by Monet; suggests that W136 (formerly Arnhold collection, Berlin), which he states is destroyed, was the planned finished composition as well as the "landscape" rejected from the 1870 Salon.

Ronald Pickvance in The New Painting: Impressionism 1874–1886. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington. San Francisco, 1986, p. 254.

Frances Weitzenhoffer. The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America. New York, 1986, pp. 117, 257, colorpl. 76.

Douglas Skeggs. River of Light: Monet's Impressions of the Seine. New York, 1987, pp. 57–60, ill. (color).

Robert L. Herbert. Impressionism: Art, Leisure, and Parisian Society. New Haven, 1988, pp. 212–15, colorpls. 211, 213 (overall and detail).

Francesco Arcangeli. Monet. Bologna, 1989, p. 43, fig. 23.

Jack Flam. "In a Different Light." Art News 88 (Summer 1989), pp. 114, 116–17, ill. (color).

Monet by Himself. London, 1989, ill. p. 51 (color).

David Bomford et al. Art in the Making: Impressionism. Exh. cat., National Gallery. London, 1990, p. 120, colorpl. 81.

L'art du XIXe siècle, 1850–1905. Paris, 1990, fig. 39 (color).

Karin Sagner-Düchting. Claude Monet, 1840–1926: Ein Fest für die Augen. Cologne, 1990, pp. 43, 45–47, 65, ill. (color).

Sylvie Patin. Monet: 'Un Œil... Mais, Bon Dieu, Quel Œil!'. [Paris], 1991, pp. 30–31, ill. (color).

Virginia Spate. Claude Monet: Life and Work. New York, 1992, pp. 57–59, fig. 63 (color).

Marianne Alphant. Claude Monet: Une vie dans le paysage. [Paris], 1993, p. 188.

Charles Harrison. "Impressionism, Modernism and Originality." Modernity and Modernism: French Painting in the Nineteenth Century. New Haven, 1993, pp. 160, 167, 170, 174–75, 258, colorpls. 153, 156 (overall and detail), dates it 1869; suggests that Monet's three works were sketches for a single panoramic view, with this work forming the right-hand section.

Chuji Ikegami. "Period of Impressionism." New History of World Art. 22, Tokyo, 1993, p. 173, colorpl. 101.

Jacques G. Laÿ and Monique Laÿ. "Rediscovering La Grenouillère: 'Ars longa, vita brevis'." Apollo 137 (May 1993), p. 282, pl. I.

Susan Alyson Stein in Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 222.

Gary Tinterow in Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 33, colorpl. 33.

Gretchen Wold in Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, pp. 361–62, no. A389, ill.

Impressionist and Modern Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture (Part I). Christie's, New York. November 9, 1994, pp. 44, 46, fig. 5.

Richard Covington. "Impressionism's Lively Beginnings." Art & Antiques 17 (October 1994), pp. 86–87, ill. (color).

Jack Flam. "The New Painting." New York Review of Books (November 17, 1994), pp. 50, 52–53, ill.

Henri Loyrette in Origins of Impressionism. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1994, pp. 291, 297, 323, 457 [French ed., Paris, 1994].

Gary Tinterow in Gary Tinterow and Henri Loyrette. Origins of Impressionism. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1994, pp. 251, 257, 259, 439–40, no. 147, fig. 322 (color), ill. pp. 257 (color detail), 439 [French ed. "Impressionnisme: Les origines, 1859–1869," Paris, 1994].

Joachim Pissarro. "Monet at the Art Institute of Chicago." Apollo 142 (December 1995), p. 63.

Charles F. Stuckey. Claude Monet, 1840–1926. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago, 1995, p. 194, no. 18, ill. p. 40 (color), suggests that Monet hoped to show it at the Salon of 1870.

Paul Hayes Tucker. Claude Monet: Life and Art. New Haven, 1995, pp. 42–44, colorpl. 52.

Götz Adriani. Renoir. Exh. cat., Kunsthalle Tübingen. Cologne, 1996, pp. 29–30, 100, ill. (color).

"Documentation: Volume I, Reviews and Volume II, Exhibited Works." The New Painting: Impressionism 1874–1886. San Francisco, 1996, vol. 2, p. 41.

Stephan Koja. Claude Monet. Exh. cat., Österreichische Galerie, Vienna. Munich, 1996, pp. 19, 22–23, 54, 60, 185, ill. (color, overall and detail).

Charles S. Moffett. "An Icon of Modern Art and Life: Renoir's 'Luncheon of the Boating Party'." Impressionists on the Seine: A Celebration of Renoir's "Luncheon of the Boating Party". Exh. cat., Phillips Collection. Washington, 1996, p. 133.

Alexandra R. Murphy. "Renoir: A Seine Landscape." Christie's International Magazine (January/February 1996), p. 42.

Eliza E. Rathbone in Impressionists on the Seine: A Celebration of Renoir's "Luncheon of the Boating Party". Exh. cat., Phillips Collection. Washington, 1996, pp. 20, 23–24, 255, colorpl. 2.

Barbara Ehrlich White. Impressionists Side by Side: Their Friendships, Rivalries, and Artistic Exchanges. New York, 1996, pp. 64–65, ill. (color).

Daniel Wildenstein. Monet or the Triumph of Impressionism. 1, 2nd ed. Cologne, 1996, pp. 76–78, ill. (color).

Daniel Wildenstein. "Catalogue raisonné–Werkverzeichnis: Nos. 1–968." Monet. 2, 2nd ed. Cologne, 1996, p. 65, no. 134, ill. (color).

Caroline Durand-Ruel. "Quand les Havemeyers aimaient la peinture française." Connaissance des arts no. 544 (November 1997), p. 108.

Carla Rachman. Monet. London, 1997, pp. 79–82, 152, fig. 56 (color), notes several elements that indicate a change in technique from Monet's earlier work, including stronger color, wider brushstrokes, and a sketchier amount of detail to the figures.

Gary Tinterow in La collection Havemeyer: Quand l'Amérique découvrait l'impressionnisme. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 1997, pp. 63, 108, fig. 25.

Susanne Weiss. Claude Monet: Ein distanzierter Blick auf Stadt und Land Werke, 1859–1889. Berlin, 1997, pp. 128–29, fig. 32.

Matthias Arnold. Claude Monet. Hamburg, 1998, pp. 38, 101–2, ill.

Kermit Swiler Champa in Monet & Bazille: A Collaboration. Exh. cat., High Museum of Art. Atlanta, 1998, pp. 91–92, fig. 52 (color), discusses Monet's use of figures as elements within the overall landscape, rather than the focus of the painting.

Dianne W. Pitman. Bazille: Purity, Pose, and Painting in the 1860s. University Park, 1998, pp. 122, 154, 174, 205, fig. 99.

Richard Shiff in Classic Cézanne. Exh. cat., Art Gallery of New South Wales. Sydney, 1998, p. 17, fig. 3 (color).

Richard R. Brettell. Impression: Painting Quickly in France, 1860–1890. Exh. cat., National Gallery, London. New Haven, 2000, pp. 115–16, fig. 69 (color), asserts that the composition was begun with the vertical orientation reversed, then flipped.

John Goodman in The Oxford History of Western Art. Oxford, 2000, p. 330, ill. (color).

John House. "London, Amsterdam and Williamstown: Impression." Burlington Magazine 143 (February 2001), p. 106.

Torsten Gunnarsson in Impressionism and the North. Late 19th Century French Avant-Garde Art and the Art in the Nordic Countries 1870–1920. Exh. cat., Nationalmuseum. Stockholm, 2002, pp. 15–16, 296 n. 4, p. 307, no. 139, ill. (color).

George T.M. Shackelford et al. Impressions of Light: The French Landscape from Corot to Monet. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston, 2002, pp. 20, 290, fig. 8 (color), notes that it was among a series of riverside paintings "executed at the scale of canvases intended for the marketplace" that were probably meant as studies for larger studio compositions.

Dominique Lobstein in Monet et ses amis. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest. Budapest, 2003, pp. 262–65, ill. (color, overall and detail).

James H[enry]. Rubin. Impressionist Cats & Dogs: Pets in the Painting of Modern Life. New Haven, 2003, pp. 72, 83, fig. 59 (color, overall and detail).

Lin Arison in Lin Arison and Neil Folberg. Travels with Van Gogh and the Impressionists: Discovering the Connections. New York, 2007, p. 74.

Joseph Baillio and Cora Michael in Claude Monet (1840–1926): A Tribute to Daniel Wildenstein and Katia Granoff. Exh. cat., Wildenstein & Co., Inc. New York, 2007, p. 157.

Akiko Mabuchi in L'Art de Monet et sa postérité. Exh. cat., National Art Center, Tokyo. Tokyo, 2007, pp. 25, 241, fig. 6.

Gary Tinterow in Masterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 137, 281, no. 126, ill. (color and black and white).

Gary Tinterow in The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. New York, 2007, pp. 16, 121, 238–39, no. 85, ill. (overall and detail, color and black and white).

Eric M. Zafran in Claude Monet (1840–1926): A Tribute to Daniel Wildenstein and Katia Granoff. Exh. cat., Wildenstein & Co., Inc. New York, 2007, p. 84.

Sylvie Patry in Claude Monet: 1840–1926. Exh. cat., Galeries nationales, Grand Palais. Paris, 2010, p. 237.

Richard Thomson in Claude Monet: 1840–1926. Exh. cat., Galeries nationales, Grand Palais. Paris, 2010, pp. 118, 366, no. 27, ill. p. 128 (color).

La Grenouillère was a popular restaurant and boating and bathing establishment on the Seine at Bougival, just west of Paris. The tiny island (nicknamed the "Camembert" or the "Pot à fleurs") seen at the center of Monet's canvas was connected by wooden walkways to the Île de Croissy on the left and the floating café on the right. Guy de Maupassant included descriptions of La Grenouillère in his novels "La Femme de Paul" of 1881 and "Yvette" of 1885. The café burned down before the turn of the century, and the "Camembert" disappeared when the river was dredged to widen and deepen it for larger boats.

Wildenstein [see Ref. 1974, pp. 178–79] catalogues three paintings by Monet of this subject: W134 (the MMA work), W135 (National Gallery, London), and W136 (destroyed; formerly Arnhold collection, Berlin). W134 he tentatively identifies as the picture listed in the 1883 inventory of Manet's estate; W135 he suggests may have been the version lent by Charles Ephrussi to the 1889 Monet-Rodin exhibition at the Galerie Georges Petit; and W136 he believes may have been the work rejected from the 1870 Salon, bought by Durand-Ruel from Monet in 1873, and included in the second Impressionist exhibition of 1876.

Most scholars believe that this painting and the one in London are the "mauvaises pochades" to which Monet refers in his letter to Bazille [see Ref. Monet 1869], but disagree as to whether the lost Berlin picture was a third sketch, or in fact a painting which he may have actually completed.

Renoir is also known to have painted several versions of La Grenouillère. His picture now in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, portrays the subject from the almost identical viewpoint seen in this composition, and it is assumed that the two painters worked side-by-side.