Antibes, Afternoon Effect

Antibes, Afternoon Effect from 1888 at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston was shown to immediate acclaim when Théo van Gogh exhibited the Antibes series at the Boussod et Valadon gallery in Paris in June 1888. Monet had spent three months on the Côte d'Azur — from January to April 1888 — working in Mediterranean light for the first time since his Bordighera visit of 1884, and the experience had transformed his palette. In letters to Alice, Gustave Geffroy, and various dealers, he described the challenge and excitement of the Mediterranean light: it was harder, more saturated, less atmospheric than the Norman light he knew, demanding a palette pushed to extremes he had not previously attempted. Théo van Gogh, who was then running the Boussod et Valadon gallery in Paris and managing his brother Vincent's correspondence and financial affairs, mounted a one-person show of the Antibes canvases that attracted immediate commercial and critical attention. The afternoon effect subject — warm golden light against the cobalt Mediterranean — is the signature image of the series, the pine trees on the coastal point providing strong silhouetted vertical accents against the atmospheric distance.

The canvas exploits the complementary contrast of warm gold afternoon light against cool cobalt and ultramarine sea and sky, pushed to a higher chromatic key than Monet typically used in northern France. Lone pine trees on the point create silhouetted vertical accents against the atmospheric distance. The paint surface is richly worked in directional strokes.