Who Are the Impressionist Record Breakers? Top Auction Results for Monet, Renoir, Manet and More
These paintings define the market and reflect the artists and ideas that shaped the movement
Impressionism has never really been about fixed images. Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Camille Pissarro were artists who were less concerned with defining an outdoor scene than with how it shifts as light changes. Time and season can affect how color reads, forms soften, and the same subject begins to register differently depending on how it is perceived in a given moment. That idea still feels current, especially now, when what we’re seeing can shift depending on context, timing, and who is looking. It may be part of why these works continue to resonate, not just culturally but in the market, where the same artists keep appearing at the highest levels of auction results. The following ten paintings are among the most expensive paintings in Impressionist art, in a selection curated to reflect both the range of the movement and its continued relevance:
1. Claude Monet, Meules (1890)
Claude Monet’s Meules (1890) comes out of the haystack series he developed in Giverny, where a single, unremarkable subject becomes the basis for something much more sustained. Rather than treating the haystack as the focus, Monet uses it to test how far perception can be altered, returning to the same motif again and again as light shifts. Painted between 1890 and 1891, the series marks a turn toward working in sequences, where repetition becomes the point. In this version, the structure begins to give way to color as the light drops, with warm and cool tones pulling against each other. The painting sold for $110.7 million at Sotheby’s in 2019, setting a new high for Impressionist art at auction. Another Monet haystack painting went for $81.4 million at Christie’s in 2018.
2. Claude Monet, Nymphéas en fleur (c. 1914–1917)
Monet’s Nymphéas en fleur (c. 1914–1917) is considered a standout from his Water Lilies series. Painted during the First World War, Monet’s focus on his garden led to some of his most expansive works. After acquiring land near Giverny and constructing a pond, he began a sustained exploration of the subject. Between 1904 and 1909, Monet produced dozens of large-scale canvases of his water garden, often measuring roughly five by six feet, which contributes to their increasingly immersive, almost abstract quality. This work sold for $84.7 million at Christie’s in 2014.
The level of dominance and repetition that Monet holds in the top slots of the auction records is impressive: three other Monet Nymphéas paintings have achieved auction prices of $70.4 million, $54 million, and $36.8 million in the past 15 years.
3. Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Bal du moulin de la Galette (1876)
The Musée D’Orsay version of Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Bal du moulin de la Galette (1876), often translated as Dance at the Moulin de la Galette, is an image that comes to mind when thinking of Impressionism at its most recognizable. Painted during his Montmartre years, it captures a Sunday afternoon at the Moulin de la Galette, where Parisians gathered to eat galette, a round bread, drink, and dance. Renoir, long associated with depictions of feminine beauty, an aspect of his work that has drawn scrutiny from contemporary critics, turns here to composing a crowd rather than a single model. In that sense, the painting is something of an outlier in his oeuvre, shifting the focus from the individual figure to the crowd’s movements. Here, faces blur in and out of focus, and movement takes precedence over precision. What holds it together is not detail, but the way light breaks into sun-flecked fragments, closer to how the eye takes in a crowded outdoor scene than to an exact rendering.
While the D’Orsay Moulin de la Galette has been on public view at various French museums since 1896, the smaller version mentioned here sold for $78.1 million at Sotheby’s in 1990, ranking it among the most expensive works ever sold at auction at the time. It is currently believed to be in a private collection in Switzerland.
4. Édouard Manet, Le Printemps (1881)
Édouard Manet’s Le Printemps (1881), translating to Spring, was the first in a planned series of four paintings representing the seasons. It depicts the French actress Jeanne Demarsy as a personification of spring, shown in profile against a backdrop of blue sky and lush greenery, dressed in a floral gown and holding a parasol. The work is known for its attention to detail and its distinctly modern approach to portraiture, where contemporary fashion and everyday Parisian life take precedence over idealization. Manet died before completing the full series, but Le Printemps remains one of the most celebrated works of his late career. The painting sold for $65.1 million at Christie’s in 2014 to the J. Paul Getty Museum, setting a new record for the artist.
5. Gustave Caillebotte, Jeune homme à sa fenêtre (1876)
Gustave Caillebotte’s Jeune homme à sa fenêtre (1876), translating to Young Man at His Window, is one of a small group of oil on canvas paintings depicting scenes from the Caillebotte household. This piece centers on his middle brother, René, who appears lost in contemplation as he looks out the window of his Paris apartment. The work stands apart from many Impressionist paintings of the time for its depiction of bourgeois life. The contrast between the movement of the street below and the figure turned away from the viewer creates a tension that carries through the composition. It sold for $53 million at Christie’s in New York in 2021 to the J. Paul Getty Museum.
6. Claude Monet, Le Grand Canal (1908)
Le Grand Canal (1908) is one of a series of paintings that Monet completed during his stay in Venice, depicting the Grand Canal with views toward Santa Maria della Salute. Like many of his other serial works, it was begun en plein air and shaped by his close attention to shifts in light and atmosphere throughout the day. Compared to others in the series, this version has a more diffused quality, with forms dissolving into ghostly echoes of color. The painting sold for about $35.8 million at Sotheby’s in 2015.
7. Camille Pissarro, Boulevard Montmartre, matinée de printemps (1897)
Camille Pissarro’s Boulevard Montmartre, matinée de printemps (1897) is part of a 14-painting series depicting one of Paris’s grand boulevards under varying light and weather conditions. Painted from an upper-floor window of the Grand Hôtel de Russie, the works capture the same view at different times of day. In this version, Pissarro renders a bright spring morning from a high vantage point, using short, broken brushstrokes to convey the steady movement of pedestrians and carriages below.
Often referred to as the “father” of Impressionism, Pissarro’s role as a mentor to younger artists and his commitment to painting directly from observation continue to shape how his work is valued today. The painting sold for $32.1 million at Sotheby’s in 2014.
8. Gustave Caillebotte, Le Pont d’Argenteuil et la Seine (1874)
Caillebotte’s Le Pont d’Argenteuil et la Seine (1874) might be among the defining works of Impressionism. Argenteuil was a suburban district with approximately 8,000 people at the time, yet its continued association with the movement has firmly anchored it in its history. Painted during the early years of his career, Caillebotte captures the vibrancy that drew visitors to the banks of the Seine. The painting sold for over $18 million at Christie’s in 2011.
9. Berthe Morisot, Après le déjeuner (1881)
Berthe Morisot’s Après le déjeuner (1881), translated as After Lunch, is a significant work for several reasons. Morisot was the only woman to exhibit at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874 and is known for her depictions of the female experience in bourgeois life. She is on a short list of names—Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Leyster, Sofonisba Anguissola, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Angelica Kauffman, and Rosa Bonheur, among them—of women numbering a few per century who defied the odds and achieved recognition on par with the male artists of their eras.
Working across oil, watercolor, and printmaking, Morisot developed a style defined by rapid, fluid brushstrokes that give her paintings a sense of immediacy. Here, she paints a red-haired woman in a striking blue dress seated in a garden filled with lush greenery, rendered with her characteristic touch. The painting sold for approximately $10.9 million at Christie’s in 2013, setting a record for the artist.
10. Alfred Sisley, Effet de neige à Louveciennes (1874)
Alfred Sisley’s Effet de neige à Louveciennes (1874), translated as Snow at Louveciennes, has been named as one of his most important works. Painted after Sisley relocated with his family from Paris to the suburb of Louveciennes following the Prussian Siege, it reflects his focus on the quieter rhythms of the landscape around him. While not as commercially successful as his contemporaries, Sisley’s work shows restraint, balance, and a sense of calm. Here, he depicts a snow-covered path near his home, using short, stippled strokes to capture how light and shadow settle across the snow. The painting sold for $9.1 million at Sotheby’s London in March 2017, setting a record for the artist.