Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Boulevard des Capucines
Claude Monet French
Not on view
In late 1873 or early 1874, Monet painted this view from the very rooms that he knew would be used for the first Impressionist exhibition the following spring. He also painted a horizontal version of the scene (Pushkin Museum, Moscow), which is the one he eventually exhibited. The response of the critic Ernest Chesneau applies to both works equally: "At a distance, one hails a masterpiece in this stream of life. . . . But come closer, and it all vanishes. There remains only an indecipherable chaos of palette scrapings. Obviously, this is not the last word in art, nor even of this art. It is necessary to go on and transform the sketch into a finished work. But what a bugle call for those who listen carefully, how it resounds far into the future!"
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