Historical masterpiece, the exemplary painting was part of the selection of Monet's canvases represented at the Fourth Impressionist Exhibition in 1879. The work is incredibly fresh to the market, having been held in a single private collection for over 70 years. Christie's Restitution Department was privileged to provide research that helped facilitate a settlement agreement between the current owners and the heirs of Richard Semmel, the dogged collector who owned the painting during the Nazi era.
Claude Monet painted La Mare, effect of snow in the Argenteuil winter of 1874-1875. The ethereal landscape employs tonal hues of blue and white to create an icy snowscape, bordered by houses with snow-dusted roofs. A trio of silhouetted figures, dwarfed by trees, cross the scene. The work is brilliant, captivating and subtle, and is a superb example of Monet's experimentation with the Impressionist style in the mid-70s. During this crucial period of his practice, his increasingly loose brushwork and dense application of paint began to formally convey the more ephemeral and atmospheric effects of the natural world. La Mare, effet de neige was sold a few months after its execution, at an auction in the Hôtel Drouot in Paris. Monet organized this sale with his fellow Impressionist painters, Berthe Morisot, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley, after the poor critical reception of the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874. At this sale, Paul Durand-Ruel, art dealer and champion of the impressionists, bought 18 of the 73 works on offer, including La Mare, effet de neige by Monet. La Mare, effet de neige was first publicly exhibited four years after its completion at the Fourth Impressionist Exhibition or “4th exhibition done by a Groupe d'artistes Indépendants”. Monet had initially been reluctant to participate in the exhibition, however Gustave Caillebotte eventually convinced him to join. Twenty-nine works by the artist were included in the exhibition, three of them winter landscapes from Argenteuil, including La Mare, effet de neige. This group of 29 represented the full range of Monet's mature oeuvre. They were all hung in the fifth and last room of the exhibition space, declaring their importance. As an 1879 article in Le Siècle states, “the last room belongs to the high priests of Impressionism”. Though his work is the jewel in the crown, Monet never visited the exhibition during its month-long run. Regardless, the show was a runaway success, with overwhelmingly positive reviews in the press. Durand-Ruel kept the painting until at least 1879. In 1893, the work had entered the collection of Henri Vever, one of fin-de-siècle France's leading jewelry designers, and a major collector of Japanese prints and impressionist images. In 1898, the painting was in the Holthuse collection, Hamburg, Germany.
,%20La%20mare,%20effet%20de%20neige.jpg)
In the early 30s, La Mare, effet de neige belonged to a German textile industrialist named Richard Semmel, who lived in Berlin with his wife, Clara Cäcilie (née Brück). When the National Socialist government came to power, the Semmels came under fire for their Jewish background and Richard's support for the German Democratic Party. After leaving Berlin for Amsterdam in 1933, Richard put his art collection up for sale, with mixed success. Shortly before the occupation of the Netherlands, the Semmels fled back to New York via Chile.
