MORGAN RUSSELL (1886-1953)

American artist Morgan Russell visited Paris for a second time in 1908 where he met Gertrude and Leo Stein as well as artists Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Auguste Rodin. Russell settled in Paris one year later and eventually developed the Synchromist movement along with fellow expatriate Stanford-Macdonald Wright a few years later.

Marilyn Kushner writes of the present work, "Not only does this painting resemble Monet's art in technique, but the image is an Impressionist one, for French countryside scenes picturing modes of transportation were important in Impressionist iconography. Russell's patchy brushstrokes and the spots of yellow that reflect sunlight in the blue waters are clearly reminiscent of Monet." (Morgan Russell, exhibition catalogue, Montclair, New Jersey, 1990, p. 36)