Sunset on the Seine at Lavacourt, in winter

The winter of 1879 into 1880 was brutal around Paris. The Seine froze under nearly 50 centimetres of ice, and when the thaw came the breaking floes tore away two bridges downstream. Monet was living at Vetheuil, on the river, and had lost his wife Camille that September. He went out into the cold and painted the ice and the low sun over and over, some 20 canvases in a few months. This is one of them, the water still choked with pale floes under a burning sky. For the 1880 Salon he offered a calm, tidied view of the same stretch of river, which the jury accepted, and a thaw picture much like this one, which they turned down. Lavacourt was the small village on the far bank, directly across the water from the house where he was working.