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Monet spent the summer of 1867 with his family at Sainte-Adresse, a seaside resort near Le Havre. Claude Monet’s Garden at Sainte-Adresse initially appears to be a painting of leisure. The painting’s charming subject and brilliant colours disguise the more complex issues of pictorial depiction that Monet introduces (The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2000). Such that his piece does not only share the delight of looking–a passive or subconscious activity–but it also allows the audience to see–an act of devoting one’s undivided attention (McKnight 2016). Painted in 1867, this work comes towards the end of a decade in which Monet was critically exploring the relationship between the artist’s observation of nature and the methods by which that observation was translated into paintings.
Monet painted this work from an upper story window (The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2000). As a result of this orientation, his perception of space–as perceived in this work–is flattened. From the slightly elevated point of view the relationship and distances between the elements in this painting are disrupted. In constructing this painting, Monet recognized that in european art, the audience often read a picture directionally from what they perceive to be the foreground at the bottom of the canvas towards what is seen as the horizon. He deliberately included motifs that undermine the work as a picture and alternatively emphasize Garden at Sainte-Adresse as a painting. For example, the seated woman in the center of the terrace is partially concealed by her parasol–a parasol is a light umbrella that every respectable late 19th century french lady should carry to shield her from the sun. Since the audience sees the top of the parasol, it initially seems as though they were looking down on the scene–and yet, since it appears the parasol is tilted towards the audience, they can’t be certain of the accurate angle of their own position. The lady standing at the fence holds her parasol so that it is seen from the side. Set amongst the sailboats, her parasol reads as a sail. Even the parasol’s poll follows an identical angle as the sailboat to her left. This establishes a line connecting her and the boat, consequently collapsing the space between them as if the boat were directly over her shoulder. The tall flagpoles on the left and the right are another factor that complicates our reading of the painting. These poles encourage a vertical reading of the painting. As straight lines, they visually flatten the area of the sea and the sky. As strong vertical lines standing parallel to the literal sides of the painting, the flagpoles subvert perspective and establish a vertical reading of the upper half of the painting. Monet’s treatment of the sea and the sky cleverly and deliberately erases spatial queues. Although the garden overlooks the sea, the spatial relationship between the terrace and the water
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