Morning on the Seine
1897
Monet was so obsessed with capturing the fleeting effects of morning light that he would wake up before dawn and paint from a flat-bottomed boat on the river. This dreamy scene of the Seine is all about the mist dissolving the boundary between the water and the sky, turning the trees into soft, purple ghosts. He painted several versions of this view near his home in Giverny, trying to freeze that exact moment when the sun burns off the fog. It’s less about the trees and more about the feeling of a quiet, chilly morning.
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