Bassin de La Villette

Description The Bassin was constructed in the former village of La Villette between 1806 and 1809 to provide a harbor and a reservoir. It was formed from the Canal d'Ourcq connecting the Ourcq, a tributary of the Marne, with the Seine. Lépine produced a number of paintings of this waterway conveniently located east of Montmartre. Here he shows it on a sunny, though hazy and apparently humid day. Flanking the waterway are numerous barges and warehouses. A similar view, "Le Bassin de La Villette," is illustrated in John Couper, "Stanislas Lépine, sa vie, son oeuvre," Paris, 1969, fig. 31.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
9/14/1956	Treatment	cleaned; coated
6/01/1971	Treatment	cleaned
6/01/1971	Treatment	other
9/17/1981	Treatment	other
2/03/1998	Treatment	cleaned
11/15/2007	Treatment	repaired; loss compensation

Exhibitions

• Before Monet: Landscape Painting in France and Impressionist Masters: Highlights from The Walters Collection. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1998.
• The Road to Impressionism: Barbizon Landscapes from the Walters Art Museum. The Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis; The Frick Art & Historical Center, Pittsburgh. 2008-2009.

Provenance Durand-Ruel [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Cyrus J. Lawrence Sale, American Art Association, New York, January 21-22, 1910, no. 61; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1910, by purchase [under alias Henry Chester]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Signature] Lower left: S. Lépine

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1910