Pioppi lungo l'Epte

In the autumn of 1891 Monet was painting a row of poplars along the Epte, a small river near his home at Giverny, when he learned the trees were about to be cut down. The commune that owned them had put them up for auction as timber. Rather than lose his subject, Monet struck a deal with a local wood merchant, paying him to buy the trees and leave them standing until the series was done. He worked from a broad flat-bottomed boat moored on the river, following the same tall trunks through changing weather and light. The curving line of the poplars as they bend away toward the horizon is the shape he came back for, day after day.