Garden at Sainte-Adresse

From The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide, 1983 page 238.

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148 CLAUDE MONET, French, 1840-1926
Garden at Sainte-Adresse
Oil on canvas; 38%x 511/8 in. (98.1 x 129.9 cm)

A prime mover among the artists who came to be known as impressionists, Monet spent the summer of 1867 at the resort town of Sainte-Adresse on the English Channel. It was there that he painted this picture, which combines smooth, traditionally rendered areas with sparkling passages of rapid, separate brushwork and spots of pure color. The elevated vantage point and relatively even sizes of the horizontal areas emphasize the two-dimensionality of the painting. The three horizontal zones of the composition seem to rise parallel to the picture plane instead of receding clearly into space. The subtle tension resulting from the combination of illusionism and the two-dimensionality of the surface remained an important characteristic of Monet's style. Purchase, special contributions and funds given or bequeathed by friends of the Museum, 1967, 67.241