Monet, Claude (1840-1926)
La Seine à Vétheuil (The Seine at Vétheuil)
1880
Oil on canvas, 60.3 x 100.3 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Monet experimented with a variety of brushstrokes and simplified, horizontal forms in order to evoke the changing skies over the Seine River near his home in the village of Vétheuil, outside Paris. When this painting was made, in the early 1880s, Monet was expanding his stylistic repertoire of color combinations, brushwork, surface effects, and compositional arrangements. Even though he was already famous as the leader of the Impressionists, his drive to innovate remained strong. (MET)