Boats on the beach – Monet

Boats on the Beach at Étretat, Monet, 1885

In the autumn of 1885, French painter Claude Monet visited Normandy. That trip was marked by grey and rainy days, prompting him to spend his time indoors at Hôtel Blanquet. This painting is special in that it was painted indoors, Monet choosing to use his window as a viewfinder, rather than moving outdoors to paint like so many of his Impressionist colleagues. In a letter to his wife Alice Hoschedé, Monet wrote “In the afternoon, I worked on my sketches in the rain…and afterwards from my window I tried to paint the departing boats.” The artist used shades of blue, pink, purple and green to give the sense of a soaked ground at a low elevation. He infused the boats with saturated colors to create a dynamic effect.

Category: Monet Painting

Original size: 66 x 82.3 cm
© The Art Institute of Chicago

Boats on the Beach at Étretat – Monet, 1885

In the fall of 1885, French painter Claude Monet took a trip to Normandy. Unfortunately, his time there was marked by rainy, gray days – prompting him to stay indoors at the Hôtel Blanquet. This painting is unique because it was made inside, Monet opting to use his window as a viewfinder instead of painting the scene from life, which was so popular among his Impressionist peers. In a letter to his wife Alice Hoschedé, Monet wrote “In the afternoon, I worked on my sketches in the rain…and afterwards from my window I tried to paint the departing boats.” He used a range of blues, pinks, purples, and greens to create a sense of a wet ground at a low level. He then boosted color saturation to depict the dynamic feel of the departing boats.

Category: Monet Painting

Original size: 66 x 82.3 cm
© The Art Institute of Chicago