松の下、夕暮れ

Early in 1888 Claude Monet went south to Antibes, on the Mediterranean, and spent about four months chasing a light he found almost impossible to paint, brighter and rosier than anything on the northern coasts he knew. This canvas looks out from the Cap d'Antibes at the end of day, the low sun catching the undersides of the pines and the ground in pale pink strokes while the treetops stay cool and green. He complained in letters that the beauty of the place was maddening, that no one would believe such colours were real. He brought back around 30 canvases from the trip and showed ten of them in Paris that summer.