The Beach at Sainte-Adresse from Monet Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago,

Author

Groom; Gloria ; Shaw; Jill

Year

2014

Publisher

Art Institute of Chicago

Description

In the mid-1860s, Claude Monet returned to the coast of Normandy—a place whose picturesque sites, villages, and vantage points he knew well, having spent much of his childhood in the coastal town of Le Havre (see fig. 13.1). The area had changed dramatically over the course of the nineteenth century, however, due in large part to the expanding rail network and the proliferation of travel guidebooks and illustrated publications. The small, rural fishing villages of the beginning of the century were rapidly transformed into seaside resorts for tourists and vacationers, altering the physical and social landscape in dramatic ways.²...