How Much Is Snow at Argenteuil Worth?

Painted in 1875 during Monet’s celebrated Argenteuil period, this canvas embodies early-mature Impressionism at a moment when the artist was refining his treatment of light and atmosphere. The winter subject is a connoisseur favorite for its subtle tonalities and technical difficulty, and the National Gallery identifies this picture as the largest of Monet’s Argenteuil snow scenes. Together, period, subject, and scale signify a work that is not only representative of Monet’s core practice but also an elevated specimen within a tightly collected subset. This art-historical stature supports robust demand from both seasoned Impressionist collectors and cross-category buyers seeking canonical 19th‑century anchors.

Argenteuil (circa 1872–78) is a premium Monet period prized for its immediacy and innovation. Within it, snow scenes from the winter of 1874–75 occupy a distinct niche, admired for their atmospheric nuance and rarity relative to summer river views. Market evidence shows top-tier Argenteuil snow compositions can command mid‑ to high‑eight figures, while lower-complexity variants sell materially lower. This painting’s winter setting, complexity of light effects, and strong narrative of daily life in modernizing Argenteuil make it especially appealing to collectors who value both Monet’s early Impressionist breakthroughs and the poetic minimalism of snow imagery.

At roughly 28 × 36 inches (71.1 × 91.4 cm), the work offers a substantial horizontal format that maximizes Monet’s orchestration of sky, snow, and architecture. The composition’s balance—foreground snowfield, village architecture, figures, and receding perspective—delivers a complete Impressionist experience at a size that anchors a wall. The painting’s status as the largest among Monet’s Argenteuil snow scenes is a critical differentiator: collectors consistently pay premiums for greater scale when paired with fully realized compositions. The crisp yet delicate handling of frost and light further indicates a picture of high aesthetic ambition, warranting pricing in the upper band of winter-scene comparables.

The painting’s chain—from early ownership by the critic-collector Théodore Duret to acquisition by Simon Sainsbury and bequest to the National Gallery—confers exceptional credibility and prestige. Museum-held works with such pedigrees often benefit from an intangible ‘validation premium’ when they re-enter the market, due to their exhibition exposure, scholarly citations, and public familiarity. Although deaccession is unlikely, institutional provenance generally enhances buyer confidence and can catalyze stronger bidding, especially among collectors who prioritize documented, high-caliber histories. This factor meaningfully supports a valuation at or above the top end of recent Argenteuil winter comparables, assuming a competitive sale context.