The Port of Honfleur

Monet painted this view of the port of Honfleur in October 1917, during a trip to Normandy. He was 77 and had been painting for over 50 years, and his eyesight was beginning to fail. Sailing boats fill the harbor at Honfleur, their masts rising against a grey sky. The boats are painted in quick strokes of blue, white, and brown, their sails a mix of white and cream. The water is a field of blue and grey, with the reflections of the boats breaking into short, vertical strokes. The buildings of the harbor are visible in the background, a band of grey and pink. The canvas is small, roughly 20 by 24 inches, landscape format. The colors are muted: blues, greys, and the warm tones of the sails. Monet had been painting at Honfleur since the 1860s. He returned in 1917, during the last years of World War I, and painted several views of the harbor. This version, sometimes called Boats in the Port of Honfleur, is in the Musee Marmottan Monet in Paris. The painting is a sketch: Monet was working quickly, capturing the light and the movement of the boats before they changed. By 1917 Monet was working almost exclusively at Giverny, painting the water lilies that would occupy him for the last decade of his life. His trip to Honfleur was a rare departure. The paintings he made there are looser and more abstract than his earlier work, with the forms dissolving into patches of color. They point toward the late water lilies, which would be just as abstract. Oil on canvas, 50 by 61 centimeters. Monet painted with a cool palette of blues and greys, building the water in short, horizontal strokes. The boats are sketched in quick dabs of color, with no detailed rigging. The sky is a thin wash of grey and white, barely covering the canvas. This painting works in a living room, study, or coastal home. The cool palette and harbor scene suit a room with blue accents, white walls, or natural light. The 16x20 framed version in a white frame is the most versatile size. The painting is in the Musee Marmottan Monet, Paris. This is a public domain artwork, sourced from Wikimedia Commons. We print it on archival matte paper at sizes from 8x10 to 24x36 inches, framed or unframed. The image is printed at full resolution with no cropping.