The extreme horizontality, the sweeping arc of the riverbank, and the types of the brushstrokes used in the foreground and sky of this painting are characteristic of Monet's work of the early 1880s. Monet had abandoned his Impressionist manner of the previous decade and had begun to experiment with new compositional formats, a different palette, and a variety of brushstrokes and surface effects.

Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right): Claude Monet 1880

Erwin Davis, New York; [Durand-Ruel, New York, by 1890–95, sold for $1,800 on November 12, 1895 to Davis]; Theodore M. Davis, Newport, R.I. (1895–d. 1915; his estate, on loan to the MMA, 1915–30)

New York. Durand-Ruel. "Monet," January 12–27, 1895, no. 18 [see Ref. Wildenstein 1996].

Boston. St. Botolph's Club. "Monet," February 1895, no. 9 [see Ref. Wildenstein 1996].

Copley Hall. "Loan Collection of Paintings by Claude Monet and Eleven Sculptures by Auguste Rodin," March 1905, no. 33 (as "Coteaux de Vétheuil," lent by Theodore M. Davis, Esq.).

Pensacola Art Center. "Opening exhibition," October 26–November 30, 1955, no catalogue.

Jacksonville Art Museum. December 15, 1955–January 30, 1956, no catalogue.

Art Gallery of Toronto. "Comparisons," January 11–February 3, 1957, no. 7.

Ann Arbor. University of Michigan Museum of Art. "Monet at Vétheuil: The Turning Point," January 25–March 15, 1998, unnumbered cat.

Dallas Museum of Art. "Monet at Vétheuil: The Turning Point," March 28–May 17, 1998, unnumbered cat.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "Monet at Vétheuil: The Turning Point," May 30–July 26, 1998, unnumbered cat.

Luigina Rossi Bortolatto. L'opera completa di Claude Monet, 1870–1889. Milan, 1966, p. 101, no. 202, ill.

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, p. 131, ill.

Douglas Cooper. "The Monets in the Metropolitan Museum." Metropolitan Museum Journal 3 (1970), pp. 301, 304–5, fig. 31.

Daniel Wildenstein. "1840–1881: Peintures." Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné. 1, Lausanne, 1974, pp. 115, 370–71, no. 599, ill., describes the location depicted; lists Erwin Davis as owning it before 1890.

Tetsuro Miura and Chuji Ikegami. Mone [Monet]. Tokyo, 1977, unpaginated, fig. 29 (color).

Daniel Wildenstein. "1887–1898: Peintures." Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné. 3, Paris, 1979, p. 66 n. 1278, lists it as being included in exhibitions at Durand-Ruel, New York, and St. Botolph's Club, Boston, in 1895.

Charles S. Moffett. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1985, pp. 126–27, 252, ill. (color).

Monet: A Retrospective. New York, 1985, ill. p. 92.

Daniel Wildenstein. "1899–1926: Peintures." Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné. 4, Lausanne, 1985, p. 44 n. 412.

Daniel Wildenstein. "Catalogue raisonné–Werkverzeichnis: Nos. 1–968." Monet. 2, 2nd ed. Cologne, 1996, pp. 230–31, no. 599, ill. (color).

Daniel Wildenstein. Monet or the Triumph of Impressionism. 1, 2nd ed. Cologne, 1996, p. 164.

Annette Dixon in Monet at Vétheuil: The Turning Point. Exh. cat., University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor, Mich., 1998, colorpl. 6.

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. 117.

Monet painted a second, very similar, version of this subject (W600), which Wildenstein lists as in a private collection in France in about 1969.