The Pyramids of Port-Coton

Oil on canvas, 65.5 x 65.6 cm

Inscribed and dated on the lower right-hand side: "86 Claude Monet"

In 1886 Claude Monet travelled from Giverny to Brittany, to the island of Belle-Île-en-Mer. He stayed for several months. Fascinated by the raging sea and the steep needles of rock exposed to the movement of the waves, he even set up his easel during storms in order to observe the lighting conditions. He painted this dramatic landscape time and again. Here he approaches the subject from a bird's-eye view. The strip of horizon is correspondingly narrow. The composition and two-dimensional painting style are inspired by Japanese art, which Monet himself collected. He was therefore probably familiar with the Japanese artist Hiroshige's (1797–1858) woodcut "The Cliffs of Bo-no-ura".

Claude Monet was born in 1840 in Paris and died in Giverny in 1926.