Camille

Monet was 25 and short of money in 1866 when he painted this, reportedly in just four days, to have something ready for the annual Salon in Paris. The woman is Camille Doncieux, his model and by then his companion, who would later become his wife. She is turning away, one arm lifting a dark jacket, and most of the picture is given over to the striped green silk of her dress, laid on in broad, confident strokes. The Salon jury accepted it, and it drew real notice. The young novelist Émile Zola, then making his name as a critic, singled the picture out and wrote admiringly of the life Monet had put into that dress.