Vetheuil, Monet

In 1878, Monet and Camille moved to Vétheuil, a small town in the countryside surrounding Paris. Things were going poorly for the Monets, and the main impetus for the move was to escape creditors in the capital. In the preceding years, the Monets had enjoyed a relatively comfortable life thanks to their patron, Ernest Hoschedé, a department store owner who bought Monet’s paintings and provided him with artistic supplies and accommodation in his mansion. Ernest’s business empire collapsed in 1878, and the Hoschedés became just as destitute as the Monets. In September of that year, the two families moved together to a small house in the village.

Camille’s health began to deteriorate. Since 1876, she had been suffering from an unknown disease, but after the birth of their son Michel, her health declined rapidly. Monet, perhaps as a distraction, threw himself into his work. The winter of 1878-79 was particularly harsh, and provided a great opportunity for Monet to explore the effect of sunlight on snow.

The scene above is a lovely example of that winter’s work. The painting is divided sharply in two: the hills and frozen river in the background catch the dawn light, with little splashes of soft pinks and creams among the cold blues and whites. Meanwhile, in the foreground, the colours are colder, the weak winter sunlight reflects blue on the pure white snow, and the dark little row of farmhouses seems to hang on to the night. We get a sense of the silence and calm of a cold early morning, and though dawn is promised on the horizon, there’s a real loneliness to the picture. Nobody is awake at this hour, only Monet, distracting himself from his many troubles by exploring the almost infinite colours hidden in a winter morning. 

In 1879, Camille passed away. That year, Monet painted some of his most haunting canvases. Sunset on the Seine at Lavacourt, with its bare, skeletal trees, shows a late winter scene, the frozen river thawing after a period of bitter cold. The colours here are meticulous; the reflections of the small island on the right, the sun fracturing through the ripples, the soft gradient in the sky. Monet examines the effects of light filtering through fog, using small, quick brushstrokes to show its distorting effect. When he painted this canvas, his money troubles had forced him to swallow his pride and submit his views of the river to the Salon. Though this impressionistic canvas was rejected, other views were accepted, giving the family a little relief.

As the months and years passed, the family began to recover. In 1881, Monet painted the sun-drenched canvas above. The Artist’s Garden at Vétheuil centres on Monet's son Michel, and, in the background, the Hoschedé children, hinting at the eventual merging of the two families. After Camille’s death, Monet and Alice Hoschedé, Ernest Hoschedé’s wife, began living together as a couple, having fallen in love in the preceding years. The pair shared an intense early relationship, and, when Alice’s husband came home for one of his occasional visits, Monet would leave the house and become quite literally sick and feverish with jealousy. Monet would later marry Alice, and the couple would remain married until Alice’s death in 1911.

I finish my long walk through Vétheuil and arrive at a bend in the Seine. Looking across the waters, gently sparkling in the sun, I’m reminded of a picture Monet made of Camille in the early years of their relationship. In On the Banks of the Seine, Bennecourt, Camille, just 21 years old, sits in the shade of a tree, gazing over the river. This painting, too, was set during a difficult period in the couple’s life; they were about to be thrown out of their accommodation because of lack of funds. Once again, Camille’s features are blank and obscure and we can’t really get a sense of how she’s handling such a tough time. She remains an enigmatic figure to me, hard to know on her own terms despite the many, many pictures we have of her. What is certain is that she and Monet shared a strong bond, and, of the few canvases that the painter kept and never sold, most feature Camille or his children.