Rowing and yachting scenes to which Monet and Renoir turned from 1869 are novel images of a new world: that of the modern suburbs, wrought by social habits and sporting practices that had recently appeared. In 1872, Monet painted the Régates à Argenteuil, a pivotal work in which the play of reflections is depicted by means of broad disjointed brushstrokes. He worked regularly on the banks of the basin during the years that followed, focusing beyond the apparent stability of the motif to suggest the permanent transformation of light. En norvégienne (1887), created later at Giverny, with its view slightly from above, foreshadows, the experiments he would continue in his Nymphéas series.

Renoir painted landscapes only occasionally, but the plein air scenes he made along the banks of the Seine are crucial. With La Yole (1875), he painted an icon of Impressionism: the radiant image of time suspended which transcends the register of a simple chronicle.

A fascination with the boating repertoire made Sisley, who went to England to work in 1874, determined to visit Hampton Court. He brought back from there Les Régates à Oseley, where all the forms are moving, described by an extraordinarily nervous manner. Caillebotte, who was passionate about nautical sports, analysed the optical accidents of reflections in strongly geometrical compositions, inspired by his kayak trips on the Essonne. Living opposite Argenteuil during the 1880s, he painted a series of canvases there that are marked by the memory of Monet’s masterpieces. Forain, on the other hand, distancing himself from Monet’s aesthetic, found effects that are close to printmaking in his famous Pêcheur, or pastel, in the portrait of his wife fishing; his admiration for Degas can be seen here.