Snow at Argenteuil 1874

Claude Monet made this painting, Snow at Argenteuil, with oil on canvas. It captures the town of Argenteuil under a blanket of snow, a scene reflecting everyday life in 19th-century France. Monet's impressionistic style, with its focus on light and fleeting moments, was radical for its time. The art institutions of the day often favored more polished, academic styles. Impressionism challenged those norms by celebrating the subjective experience of the artist and, in this case, drawing attention to the experiences of the newly urbanized middle class. To understand this painting more fully, we can look into archives of exhibition reviews and art criticism. Such resources reveal how Monet and his peers shifted cultural values, broadening our understanding of what art could be. This approach makes visible the web of social and institutional forces that shape our aesthetic experiences.