Bordighera

1884

Monet created this painting in 1884 when he traveled to Bordighera, a town on the Italian Riviera. In a letter to sculptor Auguste Rodin, he described his efforts to capture the brilliant Mediterranean light, declaring that he was “fencing, wrestling, with the sun.” In this light-drenched composition painted from a hilltop vantage point, the sea is barely visible through the interlaced trunks of pine trees.

Public domain · CC0
Free to download and reuse. Image courtesy of Art Institute of Chicago.

Artist

Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926)

Date

1884

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

65 × 80.8 cm (25 5/8 × 31 13/16 in.); Framed: 80.4 × 96.6 × 8.3 cm (31 5/8 × 38 × 3 1/4 in.)

Origin

France

Collection

Art Institute of Chicago

Credit

Potter Palmer Collection