About this artwork
Monet painted Cliff Walk at Pourville in 1882, during a stay at the fishing village of Pourville on the Normandy coast. He had been there since February, having left Paris to escape the city and to paint the sea. He was 42 years old and had been an Impressionist for eight years, since the first group exhibition in 1874. He was also broke, struggling to support his partner Alice Hoschede and their combined six children, and he was painting at a furious rate to generate work for his dealer Paul Durand-Ruel to sell.
The painting shows a view from the top of a cliff overlooking the English Channel. Two figures, a woman and a child, stand on a path that runs along the cliff edge. The woman wears a white dress and a red parasol, the child walks beside her. Below them, the sea is painted in short, horizontal strokes of blue and green, with whitecaps suggested by flecks of white. The cliff itself is painted in warm greens and browns, with the grass blowing in the wind. The sky fills the upper third of the canvas, painted in soft blues and whites.
Pourville was a small village on the coast between Dieppe and Fecamp, with a population of about 200. Monet stayed at the Hotel Capacchi, a small inn run by an Italian family, and painted from the cliffs and the beach. He produced at least 18 paintings during his stay, working in all weathers and at all times of day. The Cliff Walk is one of the most ambitious of the group, combining a landscape with figures and a wide view of the sea.
The figures in the painting are probably Alice Hoschede and one of the children. Monet rarely painted figures after the 1870s, preferring to focus on landscape and water. When he did include figures, they were usually small, distant, and absorbed into the landscape. In Cliff Walk, the figures are larger than usual, and they are placed at the edge of the cliff, where their white clothing contrasts sharply with the green grass and the blue sea. They are not portraits: they are elements of the composition, painted with the same loose, rapid strokes as the grass and the water.
Oil on canvas, 66 by 82 centimeters. Monet painted with short, broken strokes, building the grass and the sea in patches of color that suggest the movement of wind and water. The figures are painted in a few quick strokes of white and red, with the parasol indicated by a single dot of color. The cliff is painted in warm, earthy greens, with the texture of the grass suggested by the direction of the brushwork. The surface has the fresh, spontaneous quality of a painting made outdoors, in a single sitting, before the light changed.
The horizontal format and cool palette make this print work well in a living room, bedroom, or any room with natural light. The blues, greens, and warm earth tones pair with white walls, natural wood, and rooms with a relaxed mood. The 18x24 size is the best choice, as the composition needs width to read. The painting has a fresh, airy quality that suits rooms with a coastal or summer mood.
The painting entered the Art Institute of Chicago's collection in 1933, as part of the Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection.
This is a public domain artwork, scanned from the original at the Art Institute of Chicago. We print it on archival matte paper at sizes from 8x10 to 18x24 inches, framed or unframed. The image is printed at full resolution with no cropping.
