Interpretive Resource

Claude Monet undertook one of his most arduous painting campaigns in the spring of 1889, spending three months working near the remote village of Fresselines, in central France, where the Grande Creuse and the Petite Creuse rivers converge. The area is rugged and rocky, with deep valleys and steep hillsides; the climate is harsh, windy, rainy, and cold.

Monet completed twenty-four canvases at Fresselines, each one a struggle against the elements and against his own growing sense of physical vulnerability. He simplified the forms that he observed day after day, rendering the hills monumental, almost primeval. At the same time, he allowed strong, brooding colors to express not only what he observed but also something of the complex feelings of exhilaration and frustration that this challenging site aroused in him. Although the sky in the Art Institute’s painting is a cold white, strokes of bright blue, yellow-green, and even lavender animate the craggy slopes; only the outcropping in the left foreground consists of conventional browns and mossy greens. Even the trees seem overwhelmed by the strong shapes and colors of this landscape.

The Creuse campaign was a turning point for Monet. He had a goal—to create a series of works representing a scene at different times of day—but when he returned to the spot to resume work on a composition, he found the motif transformed by factors beyond his control, such as the river’s changing levels and the trees’ sprouting of leaves. Realizing that he had to find a place to pursue his aims more efficiently, the artist turned his attention homeward, to the environment of Giverny.