At Cap d'Antibes, Mistral wind

At Cap d'Antibes, Mistral Wind was painted during the 1888 Antibes campaign when a mistral — the powerful north-westerly wind that periodically sweeps the French Mediterranean coast — interrupted Monet's work and gave him a new meteorological subject. The mistral bends vegetation, whitens the sea with foam, and transforms the atmosphere from the usual Mediterranean clarity to a driving, energetic turbulence. Monet worked in these conditions, noting in letters the difficulty of painting in high wind, and produced a group of canvases specifically recording the mistral's effect on sea, sky, and the bent coastal pines.

Monet conveys the wind through the directional lean of the pine tree, whose branches stream to one side, and through vigorous horizontal brushwork in the churned sea surface. The sky is rendered with rapid, diagonal strokes suggesting atmospheric movement. The palette is cooler and more agitated than his calm Antibes canvases.