Walk (Road of the Farm Saint-Siméon)

Monet created this work during his stay from the summer to the fall of 1864 in Honfleur in Normandy with Boudin, Jongkind and Bazille. This work is one of the few extant examples of his early work and was created along the farm road that connects Honfleur with Trouville. Farm buildings appear in the distance on the left of the composition. With its subdued tone and dark brown, green and blue coloration, the composition of the 17th-century Dutch landscapes and the works of the Barbizon school artists. The black silhouettes of the trees and the sparkle of light in the viscous brush work on the road indicate a material sensibility like that of Courbet and Diaz. This work was painted in the work of Monet's painter friend Frédéric Bazille, Studio in Furstenberg Street (1866, Musée d'Orsay, Paris), and Monet may have finished the work in Bazille's studio. Monet painted this same motif many times, and two other versions, one that completely reproduces this composition and another work of the same subject in a horizontal composition, are known. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no.70)