Summer

In April and May of 1874, for the first time Monet and his artist friends exhibited their own works rejected by the official “Salon” in rooms belonging to the photographer Nadar on the boulevard des Capucines. A newspaper critic, referring to Monet’s Impression — Sunrise of 1872 mockingly coined the term “Impressionists.” Since these artists were, however, above all concerned to capture the visual appearance of reality, they themselves took this name on. The painters Renoir, Manet, and Monet spent their summers together in Argenteuil on the Seine and worked on perfecting their particular artistic style. Among the works that Monet produced in Argenteuil is this sun-drenched meadow with hazy mountains in the distance; a picture in which his wife Camille and his son Jean have no more visual presence than the wind-blown trees or the colored shadows on the grass. As the critic had correctly real-ized, Monet’s interest was solely in conveying an impression. Later on, Paul Cézanne was to say to Ambroise Vollard that “Monet is simply an eye, but — by God — what an eye.” The painting Summer was shown at the second exhibition at Nadar’s in 1876. In his review of the exhibition, the writer Emile Zola singled out this work by Monet for particular praise.