Argenteuil is a 149 x 131 cm (58.6 x 51.5 in) oil on canvas by the distinguished artist Edouard Manet. The artwork was part of a group of pictures that Manet created in the years that he was closest to Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, both personally and artistically. The image's palette is brighter than usual, and the theme itself, exploring pictorial effects of the sea and lighting, shows the most intense flirt between Manet and Impressionism. Later, when critics tried to label him along with the group, he distanced himself from the term, fearing that his affiliation with the younger painters could damage his participation in Salons.

Argenteuil was first was exhibited in 1875 as part of that year's Salon. The man posing is Rudolf Leenhoff, Manet's brother-in-law, while the woman's identity is unknown. Most of the background was done in a very intense blue, depicting the Seine river with broken color to show the sea's movement. The boats were painted in contrasting hues of light yellow and blue with the shadows done with browns and blacks. The couple is the closest element to the viewer. While Rudolf looks to the side, the woman is staring at the audience. They wear striped clothes, the man red and white and the woman blue and pink.

By 1859, Manet opened his atelier and gathered the support of a varied group: the poet Charles Baudelaire and the Romantic painter Eugene Delacroix. Later, the writer and novelist Émile Zola and poet Stéphane Mallarmé. Through his writings and art critics of Salons, both Baudelaire and Zola were fierce supporters of Manet, who was at times ridiculed by the local press.

Throughout the 1860s, despite the critical reception which sometimes despised his work, Manet was capable of establishing himself as an innovative and respected figure. Soon, he had advocates who were writers, and a group of painters who had the same aspirations started to form around Manet, being known as the Batignolles painters. In 1874, Manet was living in the area of Gennevilliers, close to Monet's family. They frequently painted together during that summer. Manet allowed himself to be inspired by Monet's themes and manner, giving birth to a group of beautiful pictures with a very Impressionistic quality while maintaining the distinctive Manet manner. Even though later, Manet refused to be part of the Society of Artists, run by the Impressionists, and their exhibitions, these works show that he was also affected by the younger generation while maintaining a key influence in developing the movement.