The Bridge at Argenteuil was painted by which artist and in what year?

• A. Claude Monet, 1874
• B. Vincent van Gogh, 1889
• C. Paul Cézanne, 1875
• D. Paul Signac, 1880

Answer: (A)

This question tests your knowledge of a specific artwork and its date, tying the image to the artist’s moment in time. The Bridge at Argenteuil is a work by Claude Monet created around 1874. Monet was living in Argenteuil on the Seine during the early 1870s, a period when he and fellow painters were intensively studying light and atmosphere and portraying contemporary scenes outdoors. The painting exemplifies his Impressionist approach—loose, quick brushwork and a focus on how light plays across water and structures—characteristics that were central to his work in that year. The date also lines up with the era of the first Impressionist exhibitions, which helps place this piece in Monet’s Argenteuil phase. The other artists listed were active in different times or contexts (van Gogh later in the 1880s, Cézanne in the 1870s with different subjects, Signac in the 1880s), so their works don’t match this combination of artist and year.