Les Petites Dalles, Pourville, painted by Claude Monet in 1881, depicts a striated cliff of ochre, rust, and grey rising abruptly from the Normandy shoreline, its banded rock face catching pale, diffused daylight. Below, a still turquoise sea meets a foreground beach strewn with dark pebbles and boulders, rendered in loose, textured strokes that emphasize the coast's raw geology. The canvas belongs to the series of chalk-cliff studies Monet produced along the Pourville and Petites-Dalles coastline in the early 1880s, a stretch of the Normandy shore he returned to repeatedly for its dramatic light and rock formations.
Artist: Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926). Date: 1881.
Les Petites Dalles, Pourville, 1881 by Claude Monet. Impressionist Coastal Cliffs Wall Art Canvas Print.