The Apple Tree

In this scene, painted near Vétheuil, Monet captures the fleeting splendor of an apple tree in full bloom against a cloud-filled sky—as promising and ephemeral as the passing clouds. Since the previous year, when he had left Argenteuil and moved to the secluded village on the Seine, Monet had occupied himself with painting the fruit trees at the foot of the hill of Chantemesle with the church of Vétheuil in the background, the village as seen from the other side of the river, and his first garden.