Bordighera, 1884 by Claude Monet

Bordighera, painted by Claude Monet in 1884 frames the hillside Italian Riviera town from a high vantage point through the interlaced, serpentine trunks of native pine trees, with the village rooftops and the Mediterranean barely visible beyond the screen of branches. Monet painted the canvas during a nearly three-month stay on the Franco-Italian coast, where he wrote to the sculptor Auguste Rodin that he was “fencing, wrestling with the sun” to capture the region’s unfamiliar, saturated light. Of the three related views Monet painted of the town, this composition is distinguished by how completely its twisting pine branches obscure the distant skyline.

Artist: Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926). Date: 1884.

Bordighera, 1884 by Claude Monet. Italian Riviera Wall Art Canvas Print.