# Cliff Walk at Pourville

- By: Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926)
- Date: 1882
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: 66.5 × 82.3 cm (26 1/8 × 32 7/16 in.); Framed: 88.9 × 104.8 × 10.8 cm (35 × 41 1/4 × 4 1/4 in.)
- Culture: France
- Credit line: Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14620)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/b0effb1c-ff23-bbaa-f809-9fd94e31c1a0/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

In February 1882, Claude Monet went to Normandy to paint, one of many such expeditions that he made in the 1880s. This was also a retreat from personal and professional pressures. His wife, Camille, had died three years earlier, and Monet had entered into a domestic arrangement with Alice Hoschedé (whom he would marry in 1892, after her husband's death). France was in the midst of a lengthy economic recession that affected Monet's sales. In addition, the artist was unenthusiastic about the upcoming seventh Impressionist exhibition—divisions within the group had become pronounced by this time—and he delegated the responsibility for his contribution to his dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel.

Disappointed in the area around the harbor city of Dieppe, which he found too urban, Monet settled in Pourville and remained in this fishing village until mid-April. He became increasingly enamored of his surroundings, writing to Hoschedé and her children: "How beautiful the countryside is becoming, and what joy it would be for me to show you all its delightful nooks and crannies!" He was able to do so in June, when they joined him in Pourville.The two young women strolling in Cliff Walk at Pourville…

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0