Claude Monet - The Estuary of the Siene 1868

The Estuary of the Siene 1868
The Estuary of the Siene
1868 48x73cm oil/canvas
Rhode Island School of Design

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From Rhode Island School of Design:
Monet’s first attempts at painting this important and meandering waterway. It presents a quiet bank of the river bordered on one side by a farmhouse and a country road. Atmosphere and light envelop the simple composition, whose main features are the river itself and a blue-grey sky filled with soft, scudding clouds. The stillness of the view is barely ruffled by the barge making its way up the river or by the two flecks representing figures far along on the path.
The River Seine flows from the Burgundy region of France, meandering through Paris and north to its estuary on the Normandy coast. Claude Monet spent much of his youth in Le Havre, not far from Honfleur,where he made some of his first paintings of the Seine. In this view he represents a quiet bank of the river bordered on one side by a farmhouse and a country road. The stillness of the view is barely ruffled by the barge making its way up the river or by the two flecks representing figures far along on the path. Atmosphere and light envelop the simple composition, whose main features are the river itself and a blue-gray sky filled with soft, scudding clouds.