The Cliffs at Étretat

In the autumn of 1885 Monet based himself at Etretat on the Normandy coast and painted almost 50 views of it in a few months. This one looks toward the Porte d'Aval, a natural arch of chalk reaching out into the sea, with the tall detached needle of rock beyond it. He worked from a spot you could reach only by boat or a steep path, down among the waves, and one day that November a wave caught him, knocking him and his easel into the water and nearly carrying him off. The writer Guy de Maupassant, who watched him that season, described Monet following the sun and the shadows, laying down a few quick strokes to seize a falling ray of light or a passing cloud.