Morning on the Seine, near Giverny

Monet signed and dated this canvas 97 at the lower left, one of the dawn views of the Seine he painted near his house at Giverny, and then he kept it for 12 years. He sold it to his dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, only in June 1909. That October the firm's New York branch sold it to a Chicago buyer, James Viles, who held it for less than a year and a half and sold it back in March 1911. A week later Durand-Ruel sold it again, to Mrs. Walter Scott Fitz of Boston, and by 6 April she had given it to the Museum of Fine Arts. The museum singles out this version for its softness, pinkish mauve, cool blues and greens, laid out in large, simple, rounded shapes. The point of view hangs above the water, so you seem to float there without any weight. The trees and their reflections are almost symmetrical, close enough to unsettle your sense of which way is up, though Monet left enough clues in the paint to settle it.