Claude Monet, The Cliff Walk at Pourville, 1882, oil on canvas, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection, Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
Title: The Cliff Walk at Pourville, 1882
Artist: Claude Monet (1840-1926)
WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT MONET? BEGIN A JOURNEY THROUGH HIS ARTISTIC WORLD
Did you know that Claude Monet began his career as a teenager and continued to create until his death at 86 in 1926? Most of us are familiar with Monet’s iconic Impressionist works. However Monet, like any great artist, expressed himself in multiple styles. So for the next month, experience the artistic world of the French master, from the young, aspiring painter to one of the most famous figures of his day.
Here is the ninth part of our series:
#9–We’re high about the ocean. It’s a glorious day! Nowhere on earth would we rather be than here in this heaven of sea and sky.
Two women share our vision. A wind blows against them, rustling their petticoats and parasols, as they stand together amid the richly colored grass. Will they venture much farther on their breathtaking walk?
The Cliff Walk at Pourville above was done by Monet in June of 1882, representing just one of the numerous seascapes that the artist created in his native Normandy during the 1880s. Although his home base would be at Giverny, (where he moved in 1883), Monet took several painting trips to the ocean which nurtured him both artistically and emotionally.
Monet stayed twice at Pourville, a resort town, during 1882: first by himself in the late winter and early spring, then in the summer accompanied by his future wife Alice Hoschede and their combined family of eight children.* For instance, could one of the figures be Alice, along with her daughter? Central players in a classic Impressionist masterpiece, characterized by all the hallmarks of the style that we already experienced earlier in the series (see: WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT MONET, parts 5, 6, 7, and 8).
COMING NEXT: BY THE SEA AT ETRETAT
*Monet had two sons, Jean and Michel while Alice had four daughters by her first husband including Blanche (who later married Jean), Suzanne, Germaine and Martha plus Jean-Pierre and Jacques.
CCO Public Domain Designation
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