The Ball-Shaped Tree, Argenteuil

The painting shows the lower end of the promenade at Argenteuil as seen from across the river at Le Petit Gennevilliers. Unlike the other Seine views he painted in this location showing bridges and sailboats, here Monet concentrates on the reflections of houses and trees on the surface of the water. The handsome villas bear witness to the prosperity of the Parisian upper middle class, who spent their summer holidays here. Like the Japanese woodcut artists he admired so much, Monet composed the river landscape in zones running parallel to the picture plane.