Claude Monet, Cliff Walk at Pourville, 1882

Claude Monet, Cliff Walk at Pourville, 1882, oil on canvas, 26-1/8 x 32-7/16 inches / 66.5 x 82.3 cm (Art Institute of Chicago)

(piano music playing)

Beth: I put myself in the
position of these figures

on this cliff and I almost feel that wind

whipping around me and my instability

on this cliff as a result.

Steven: I can hear the cloth
on my shirt just whipping.

I think we're ready for
the sound effects now.

(wind blowing)

Not a good idea. Monet doesn't need it.

We have this brilliant summer day,

we're on a cliff walk in a seaside resort

in northwestern France
on the English Channel,

we see these two women
... This is just a lovely

image of people walking
on a path in nature.

Beth: Well, I think the fact
that we immediately say,

"I know what this moment is like"

is indicative of the
fact that Monet is doing

something that we still do today.

We go on vacation at the seaside.

It's lovely to go for a
walk along the clifftops

and feel the wind and look out to the sea.

Steven: We're still part
of the modern world,

that he lived in and so there
is a real sense of immediacy

and that comes across
in the brush strokes.

So it's his hand moving across the canvas,

but it's also the wind
whipping through the grasses

at the top of this cliff.

Beth: And yet all of
that is also rounded by

these two vertical features
that we see of the rocks

that mimic the verticality of the figures.

Steven: And look how he's
used those cliff faces

to create a sense of the
brilliance of the day.

They are in deep shadow.

The contrast is so sharp,
it reminds us of when

there's sort of a glare from the sun.

But even though the
painting seems completely

spontaneous, in fact, it
was carefully crafted,

we know from Monet's letters that when he

painted these images, and he painted about

a hundred of them ...

Beth: Of these scenes
of the Normandy coast

in the early 1880s.

Steven: He would go back
and go back and go back

to them ... ten ... fifteen,
sometimes even twenty times.

Beth: And so there really
are layers of paint

and when you get up close,
you can see those layers.

There is this conflict
between that the spontaneity,

the momentariness of this
scene and the way that he

really worked to achieve that effect.

Steven: Let's step up. Let's
look really closely at this.

So sometimes you see areas where
the paint is still very fresh.

Remember, this is oil.
It doesn't dry quickly

and you can see how
he's painting wet paint

on top of wet paint.

Beth: So if you paint wet paint over wet,

you're going to smear the under layer.

Steven: And you can see
that, if you look especially

at the women up on the cliff.

Look at their dresses.
Do you see, for instance,

in the woman that's close
to us, the way in which

there's that white at the
bottom of her dress ... I mean,

look at the way that the
bell of the dress is pushed

up against the back of her
legs, really giving you

a sense of that wind.

and then the strokes are actually moving

in that direction, as well,
but look at that way in which

the white pushes down into the
red and picks some of it up.

So this is wet paint that
is pushing other wet paint

across that surface.

Beth: We could see that, too,
in the figure in the background

where the white that
he's added on top of the

red color of the parasol is
smearing that red under layer.

Steven: That's right and that
is really different from,

for instance, the horizon line.

You'll notice that there's a
cool almost jade-like green,

but you'll also notice
that there are areas where

the paint seems to skip
over an under layer

and that under layer of even paler green

was dry and actually
had still ridges in it

and so when he drew his brush across it,

it picked up those ridges.

So this is wet paint over dried.

Beth: It's just this incredible
knowledge of his materials

and what he needs to
do with those materials

for him to achieve the effect
that he wants to achieve.

Steven: Well, that's right.
I think he's there for a

[freed] to really pay
attention to what he's seeing.

Beth: This is a painting that's
about the pleasure of seeing.

It's a tourist moment.

These figures are enjoying
their walk along the cliff.

They're looking out at
this lovely picturesque

landscape of cliffs and sea
and sky and the clouds moving.

We have this visual pleasure
and they're experiencing

visual pleasure.

This is about looking in the modern world,

a kind of experience of
being a middle-class person

at their leisure on holiday,
something that we can all relate to.

Steven: But painted in
a way that brings us in,

in a wonderfully intimate and direct way,

so that we feel the wind, too.

(wind blowing)

(piano music playing)