The Cliff Walk at Pourville

Painted in 1882 during an extended stay at Pourville on the Norman coast and now in the Art Institute of Chicago, The Cliff Walk at Pourville is among Monet's most accessible and beloved coastal paintings. Two female figures — possibly his future wife Alice Hoschedé and her daughter — walk along the cliff path above the sea, their dresses and parasols caught by the coastal wind. The human figures give scale to the cliff's height and introduce warmth against the atmospheric blues and greens of sea and sky. Monet's stay at Pourville in 1882 was particularly productive, resulting in over 80 canvases that captured every state of the Norman coastal light.

Oil on canvas with figures integrated into the landscape through the same broken brushwork that builds up grass, cliff, and sea. The wind-pressed dresses and tilted parasols are indicated with quick directional strokes that convey movement without stopping to delineate costume details — Monet's characteristic subordination of the particular to the optical whole.