The painting Dolceacqua (vol. 1, p. 221) portrays the old castle once again. Destroyed by the French and Spanish during the 18th century, the castle contributes to the charm of the small town and the medieval bridge.
The painter once described the small town near Ventimiglia as the ‘Jewel of Lightness’. He was enthralled with the raw beauty of the Italian hinterland, the luminous power of the sun, and the wild nature.
The fascinating originality of the village, which inspired Monet’s series, has not been displaced even to this day.
The observer can recognise the distinct atmosphere of the town and is taken in by Monet’s ability and creativity, and it succeeds in conveying the intrinsic form of lightness and warmth in the motifs.
However, during his trip to Italy, Monet not only worked in this small town, but also in the surrounding areas. In his impressive seascapes, he captured the expansive skies and views of the Alps.
Additionally, he painted views of the city of Ventimiglia and the Nervia Valley, whose atmospheric beauty reveals itself in Monet’s works.
The unparalleled vegetation, the exceptional light that captured the most vibrant colours, and the not-so-distant Mediterranean Sea provide an environment in which the artist found innumerable sources of inspiration.
The painting The Valley of the Nervia (vol. 1, p. 223) depicts a barren landscape, over which the imposing mountain peaks of the Alps hover.
Gardener’s House at Antibes, 1888. Oil on canvas, 66.3 × 93 cm.
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland.
The Esterel Mountains, 1888.
Oil on canvas, 65 × 92. The Courtauld Gallery, London.
The Nervia is adumbrated in the lower left corner, and blends with the blue tones of the surroundings.
Monet painted his works in typical Impressionist style, but under the influence of his own artistic feelings and with the assistance of a brilliant colour palette, which, in a special manner, echoes the Italian Riviera.
Following the end of his time in Italy, Monet again returned to places of his earlier productive periods, as well as new cities, such as London or Rouen, where he completed two of his most famous series.
He again travelled to Italy during the first decade of the 20th century. The purpose of the trip was to visit the lagoon city Venice, where Monet completed another powerful series.
Later Monet visited Antibes on the recommendation of the art dealer Durand-Ruel. In Antibes, Monet spent three months during the winter of 1888, during which time he completed a total of forty paintings.
The city of Monet’s inspiration would later be visited by other artists such as Picasso and Chagall. Fascinated by the light’s play on colours, by the vegetation found on the Mediterranean landscape, and by the impressive coast, every visitor managed to create masterpieces.
The artistic road found there today, which includes the various locations where these great artists worked, renders a glimpse into the landscape which they captured on canvas in various ways.
The painting Cap d’Antibes, Mistral portrays Antibes from afar. A few trees are scattered in the foreground, and in the background is the deep blue of the Mediterranean Sea and the vastness of the clear sky, bordered by the sublime majesty of the Alps. The beauty found in nature is not simply reflected in Monet’s works, but rather is intensified.
The works completed in Antibes portray a range of motifs, which Monet continually repainted at different times of day, capturing a wide array of colourful lighting. Amongst the motifs is the old fort, again, encircled by the blue of the water and by the Alps, or the sparse trees scattered along the coast, as seen in Beach in Juan-les-Pins.
The play of light and shadow are also areas of focus in his works. Monet mostly painted at the exact times of day at which light is equally both intense and contradictory: sunrise, sunset, and noon influenced his works. In this manner, Monet wanted to explore new avenues of art for the Impressionists. The images that appear to absorb the various facets of light illustrate Monet’s focus on painting light, and are therefore precursors to his later great series on haystacks, water lilies, and the Rouen Cathedral.
Villas at Bordighera, 1884.
Oil on canvas, 116.5 × 136.5 cm. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
Fisherman’s House at Varengeville, 1882.
Oil on canvas, 60 × 78 cm. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam.
The Mediterranean (Cap d’Antibes), 1888. Oil on canvas,
65 × 81 cm. Bequest of Frederick W. Schumacher,
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus.
The Petite Creuse River, 1889.
Oil on canvas, 65.9 × 93.1 cm. Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago.
Alongside the aforementioned paintings, Monet portrayed the small region between Menton and Monaco: Cap Martin. In The Cap Martin (1884, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tournai), he illustrates the Mediterranean turf, as the green-blue waves break the rocky, tree-covered coast – a beloved motif for Monet.
He also painted the deep blue sea on the coast, seen in Grande Bleue at Antibes (1888, Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel), and the view of Monaco, seen in La Baie de Monaco (1884, Nouveau Musée national de Monaco, Monaco). In 1883, Monet and Renoir arrived in Monaco, their first stop along the French Riviera, and the city Monet would later describe as the most beautiful place along the coast.
While at the Riviera, Monet intensified his practice of painting the same subject at different times of the day or under different weather conditions, ultimately completing over 125 paintings during his stays at the French and Italian Riviera. Despite Monet’s perpetual doubt in his ability to capture the Mediterranean light on canvas, his friend Theo van Gogh exhibited ten of his paintings from Antibes in 1888.
The southern light attracted many different artists of the most diverse character. The Impressionists were followed by the Pointillists, like Paul Signac and Henri Edmond Cross; later by the Fauvists, like André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck; and later still by Henri Matisse.
The paintings Monet completed in Antibes, and in other cities located in the Mediterranean, reflect, in contrast to his works done in northern France, a new facet of the artist’s oeuvre. One notices how deeply colour and light enraptured Monet, and it easily surmised how intensely his stay in the south would affect his later productive period.
Monet’s unbridled interest in the representation of light in all its diversity could evolve here. The time that Monet spent in southern France and northern Italy is not only based on the vast number of canvasses dedicated to these themes, which comprise a large portion of his oeuvre.
During the 1870s and 1880s, Monet spent much of his time in Brittany. In general the Breton islands were little frequented by artists of the 19th century, but Monet liked Belle-Île especially, the largest Breton island. This was the place where he sought and successfully found new landscapes and a new atmosphere.
Morning on the Seine, 1898. Oil on canvas, 73 × 91.5 cm.
The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo.
Morning on the Seine by Giverny, 1897.
Oil on canvas, 73.2 × 93 cm. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
The rapidly changing weather conditions hindered him from painting