Étretat: The Beach and the Falaise d'Amont

Monet visited the dramatic chalk cliffs at Étretat on the Normandy coast repeatedly between 1883 and 1886, producing over forty canvases of the site. This 1885 view of the beach and the Falaise d'Amont — the eastern cliff with its famous needle and arch — captures the location that had also attracted Delacroix and Courbet. For Monet, Étretat was a laboratory for studying light and atmosphere in harsh conditions, often painting directly into the wind and sea spray. The Art Institute of Chicago's version shows the broad beach at low tide, with boats pulled ashore and the towering cliff dissolving into mist.

Monet uses a broad, horizontal palette of soft greys, tans, and pale blues to capture overcast coastal light. The cliff mass is built in thick impasto strokes, while the wet beach foreground is rendered in fluid, reflective passages. Compositional diagonals of boat hulls lead the eye toward the cliff.