The Seine at Lavacourt

Claude Monet

1880

Oil on canvas

Dallas Museum of Art

Broad horizontal bands of sky and water intersect with clusters of houses and trees, creating a sense of calm and order within the painting. The leafy willow tree in the center, reflected dramatically in the surface of the water, is a harbinger of the play of reflection, symmetry, and repetition that would characterize Monet’s later series paintings of haystacks, poplars, and water lilies. Monet made the first sketches for this painting en plein air (outdoors) directly across the River Seine from Lavacourt. The Seine at Lavacourt is one of two landscapes that Monet submitted to the government-sponsored French Salon in 1880. The pain