The Parc Monceau by Claude Monet

The year is 1878 and the artist continues to develop his impressionistic style, even in the face of his wife's failing health. Camille, who had contracted tuberculosis only two years earlier, would give birth to their second son this year, an ordeal that would ultimately lead to her death in 1879. This was only a few short years before Monet's luck began to turn for the better. It isn't hard to imagine the artist distractedly applying thick globs of paint, casting off established painting techniques for the two-dimensional motifs that would characterize his work for the next twenty years. In portraying the play of summer light and shadow with bold chunks of color, Monet allows the viewer to ascertain the size and shape of the brush he was using. This is what made the Impressionist movement so outrageous to the French art establishment of the day; and what would ultimately establish Monet as one of the great masters of the twentieth century.