Camille Monet sur un banc de jardin

Monet painted his wife, Camille, in the garden of their house at Argenteuil in 1873, and for once the mood is heavy. That autumn Camille's father had died, and this is one of the few pictures where Monet seems to be painting grief rather than light. She sits stiffly on the bench, a note held in her gloved hand, her face turned inward. Behind the hedge a man in a top hat leans in. Monet later said he was a neighbour who had come to offer condolences, and the bouquet resting beside Camille is most likely the flowers he brought. The garden itself blazes with the colour Monet is known for, so the canvas splits in two, a bright world at the back and a quiet sorrow up front. Camille modelled for him again and again over these years, until her early death in 1879, at 32.