The fashionable lady sitting on the beach is Madame Monet. A parasol and veil protect her skin from the sun and wind, but also seem to hide her identity. What might have begun as a portrait of his new bride in the end is as much a painting of the sea. The little boy playing in the surf is probably the Monet's son Jean, who would have been approximately three years old in 1870.

Camille Doncieux and Claude Monet married in June of 1870 and spent their honeymoon in the chic resort town of Trouville on the coast of Normandy. Trouville had been popular with members of the court of Napolean III. The Monet's were definitly not among the wealthy tourists. They stayed  at a modest hotel far from the beach. Happy at last now it would seem, after finanacial troubles and Monet's father's early opposition to their relationship, but political tensions in France must have made the Monet's uneasy even in this idyllic place. In October the Monet's left Trouville for London to escape the siege of Paris and the uprising of the Paris Commune.

Painting Details:
Dimensions: 15 x 18 1/4 in.
signed and dated lower left, Claude Monet 70
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. john Hay Whitney