Fishing nets at Pourville

Claude Monet was the undisputed leader of the Impressionist movement that reigned supreme in the modern art world of late nineteenth-century France. Monet painted this work in 1882, when the movement was at its height. The image looks like a vast wedding dress rising up out of the sea. It shows a fragile structure of slender stakes holding up a fishing net above the pounding surf. It is not surprising that Monet was attracted to the sight. The irregular form of the nets stands out against the open sea but is also absorbed into the landscape through its transparency. The rosy evening sky accentuates the purplish glow of the nets and the blue-green sea breaks in white-crested waves on the greyish blue rocks. The paint is applied to the canvas in short, curved brushstrokes, which almost visibly evoke the action of the artist’s hand. The picture is at once a panoramic coastal scene and an ode to light and to paint.