Bathers at La Grenouillère

In the summer of 1869 Monet was broke and painting outdoors next to his friend Renoir at La Grenouillère, a floating café and bathing spot on the Seine about 12 kilometres from Paris, where Parisians came on weekends to swim and be seen. The two men set up their easels side by side and painted the same jetty and boats, and between them they made six views of the place. Monet meant this one as a rough study for a big picture he hoped to show at the official Salon the next year. He never painted that grand version. What survives is the quick sketch, the water laid in with flat, broken dashes of paint, done fast in front of the thing itself.