The Beach at Trouville

Monet painted this on the beach at Trouville in the summer of 1870, and grains of sand are still stuck in the surface, blown onto the wet canvas by the sea wind. He had just married Camille, the woman seated on the left, over his family's objections, and the two figures are cropped close like a snapshot. The holiday mood is deceptive. France had declared war on Prussia that July, and by the end of the season Monet slipped away to England to avoid the fighting, held up only because he could not settle his hotel bill. Camille shades herself under a parasol while the second woman, in black, sits beside an empty chair. Near the edges the quick, bare strokes leave patches of raw canvas showing through.