Snow at Argenteuil

Claude Monet

Oil on canvas

National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo

Snow at Argenteuil is an oil-on-canvas landscape painting by Claude Monet, depicting the Boulevard Saint-Denis in the Parisian suburb of Argenteuil during the severe winter of 1874–1875. The largest of eighteen canvases Monet devoted to that season, it shows figures making their way along a snow-covered road, with cart tracks receding toward the horizon and buildings, including a church, visible in the background. Monet's palette is almost monochromatic—whites, blues, and greys warmed with faint pink tones—and the paint on the road surface is notably thicker, using impasto to evoke the physical weight of deep snow. The composition prioritises atmospheric effect over anecdotal detail, exemplifying the Impressionist commitment to capturing transient conditions of light and weather.