Stormy Weather a Etretat, Rough Sea - Claude Monet Postcard

Stormy Weather at Etretat, Rough Sea - The prevailing gloominess in Poissy, combined with the political insecurity in Paris following Gambetta's death, led Monet to embark upon another journey to the Normandy coast in 1883. After a short stay in Le Havre, the rain chased him towards Etretat, a place he knew well. He was completely overwhelmed yet again by this famous location. He stayed in a hotel called "Au rendez-vous des artistes" (The Artists' Meeting Place); from there he was able to paint subjects without any need to move around: 'I have my subjects on the doorstep of the hotel, and in fact a superb one from my window.' So he could paint there without having to worry about inclement weather, as in this picture, where the storm has forced the fishermen to drag their boats out of reach of the waves. Thus Monet was able to reproduce the violent movements of the waves, which he echoes in the vibrating effect of the natural stratifications in the cliffs. Claude Monet (1840 – 1926) was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. The term Impressionism is derived from the title of his painting Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant).