Antibes, Afternoon Effect

Antibes, Afternoon Effect was painted during Monet's three-month campaign at Antibes and Juan-les-Pins on the French Riviera in spring 1888 — one of his most productive concentrated campaigns. Working in Mediterranean light for the first time since Bordighera in 1884, he produced thirty-nine canvases in ten weeks, exploring how the intense southern sun transformed his colour palette. The afternoon light at Antibes — gold against blue sea and sky, the profile of the distant Alps — became the definitive image of this campaign, exhibited at Theo van Gogh's gallery Boussod et Valadon in June 1888.

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.