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Painting an Impression

Featuring Claude Monet’s Chemin de halage à Argenteuil (Towpath at Argenteuil, Winter), 1875–76

Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926). Chemin de halage à Argenteuil (Towpath at Argenteuil, Winter), 1875-76. Oil on canvas, 23 5/8 x 39 3/8 inches (60 x 100 cm). Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; Gift of Charles Clifton, 1919 (1919:8).

Lesson Plan Details

Conceptual Basis

Impressionist paintings are categorized by bright colors and loose brushstrokes meant to represent the impression a viewer has on a moment. The effects of light on a scene are also a characteristic of many Impressionist paintings. Claude Monet’s Chemin de halage à Argenteuil (Towpath at Argenteuil, Winter), 1875–76, gives the viewer an impression of a cold gray winter’s day in a suburb of Paris. In this lesson, students will become inspired by Impressionism and create their own technique and styled landscape painting.