Cap Martin, near Menton

Cap Martin, near Menton was painted during Monet's February 1884 visit to the Mediterranean following the Bordighera campaign, when he explored the coast between Menton and Bordighera looking for motifs. Cap Martin, a promontory east of Monaco whose pine-covered cliffs rise steeply from the sea, gave him a subject combining the dramatic cliff scenery he had explored at Étretat with the Mediterranean colour intensity he had discovered at Bordighera. The resulting canvases show him applying his northern coastal technique to a radically different light environment.

The cliff and its pine vegetation are set against an intensely blue Mediterranean sea and sky, the colour contrasts far more saturated than Monet's Normandy coast work. The vertical cliff structure allows him to stack landscape elements in a compressed spatial arrangement. The pine trees recall the motif he used extensively at Antibes four years later.