Monet - Antibes Seen from La Salis, 1888

The shimmering light of mid-afternoon infuses Claude Monet ’s painting of the old fortified coastal town of Antibes in the south of France. Monet traveled there in January of 1888 and was dazzled by the light and the striking scenery of the legendary Côte d’Azur (Azure Coast). However, he sometimes struggled with how to represent it on canvas, writing to his friend the sculptor Auguste Rodin, “I’m fencing and wrestling with the sun. And what a sun it is!