The Painting: In the summer of 1867, Monet was spending time with his family at Sainte-Adresse, a seaside resort just north of Le Havre. It was a moment of great uncertainty in the painter’s life, yet we gain very little sense of that from this picture. In fact, this paean to sunlit days at the Normandy shore replete with sailboats, parasols, and flags flying strongly in the breeze tells more about the highly-ordered holiday time of the French bourgeoisie in the 1860s.

A gray-bearded gentleman modeled by Monet’s own father, Adolphe, sits mostly with his back to us in a Panama hat accompanied by a fashionable woman in a black-accented white dress and parasol, also seated in one of the bentwood caned chairs in the foreground. She is often said to represent Sophie Lecadre, the wife of Adolphe-Aimé Lecadre, one of three nephews of Monet’s aunt Marie-Jeanne Lecadre and her then deceased husband, Jacques (Baillio 2010, p. 59 n. 4). The pair look out to the younger couple at the edge of the water, she in another highly fashionable white dress with red trimming and parasol and he more formally dressed than Monet’s father, in a top hat and black jacket. She has been identified as Sophie’s daughter, Jeanne-Marguerite, and he is generally thought to be Sophie’s husband, Dr. Adolphe-Aimé Lecadre, or another male relative (Baillio 2010, p. 57). Both men carry walking sticks. This foursome is surrounded by greenery punctuated throughout by flowers in red and yellow hues and whites that echo the white dresses. Gladiolas, geraniums, and nasturtiums naturally occurring in varying reds unite here in one bright red tone. The French tricolore (the tri-colored red, white, and blue flag of France) flies high at right, while at left is a red and yellow flag, either a local sailing club’s colors or, possibly, the Spanish flag’s colors to honor Maria Cristina de Borbón, the widow of Ferdinand VII of Spain who lived then in a nearby villa (Salinger 1970). Two people sit on a sailboat with three sails near the younger couple, and more boats with sails down are moored at left. Farther out at sea lie larger ships, including steamers that paint the sky with grey smoke. Even in this relatively early work, the painter naturalistically presents smokestacks (the mucky element of then-modern global trade’s steamships), just as he would later show factory smokestacks beyond scenes of bourgeois leisure at Argenteuil in the 1870s. The clear sky gets cloudier as it reaches both the horizon line and the ships’ smoke. The long shadows cast by the sun just beyond the picture frame to the left of the scene betray that the hour presented is a late afternoon languorous one. Still, Monet’s father sits erectly in his seat, alert to any hint he may glean of the nature of the interaction at center.

The picture is organized in three color bands dominated by the light blue sky, darker blue sea, and greens of the foreground, which are complemented by the inclusion of the tricolore. This manner of creating a seaside composition dominated by three-tiered horizontal planes was not new. Monet’s informal teacher Eugène Boudin, whom Monet had met in 1856–57 and from whom he learned to paint out-of-doors, had been painting images of the seaside with a tripartite structure for a few years already. (For example, see Boudin’s On the Beach, Dieppe of 1864 [The Met, 2003.20.1] and Princess Pauline Metternich (1836–1921) on the Beach of 1865–67 [The Met, 1999.288.1].) What was new was the integration of eye-popping colors into and a flatter representation of the three structuring bands. Monet’s source for these kinds of colors was Japanese ukiyo-e prints. His use of an elevated bird’s eye view was also a product of looking at the prints of Utagawa Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai. (The painter appears to have placed his easel next to a second-floor window of a villa to achieve this vantage point.) Later, Monet recalled to an art dealer, "at the time this composition was considered daring" (Gimpel 1966). Specifically regarding his use of color, critic Théodore Duret wrote in 1880, "Among our landscape painters Claude Monet was the first to have the boldness to go as far as the Japanese in the use of color" (Duret 1880).

It was fairly common at this time to conflate Japanese and Chinese sources, and, in a letter to fellow painter Jean-Frédéric Bazille of December 1868–January 1869, Monet requested that Bazille send him several of his own canvases, including "le tableau chinois où il ya des drapeaux" (the Chinese painting with flags), referring to this painting (Wildenstein 1974, vol. 1, p. 426, L 45). In August 1869, Auguste Renoir wrote to Bazille of The Met’s picture as "le Japonais aux petits drapeaux" (the Japanese one with little flags) (Wildenstein 1974, vol. 1, p. 445, L 26). It is clear from both Monet’s and Renoir’s ways of referring to the picture that both the artist and his friends recognized Eastern influences on his Western painting. Japanese prints were avidly collected by Monet, Renoir, Edouard Manet, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Félix Bracquemond, and others in their circle. While Monet’s claim to have begun collecting Japanese prints as early as 1856 may have been an exaggeration (Elder 1924), by 1867 he may well have already owned the print by Hokusai that appears to have inspired this painting (first proposed in House 1986). Japonneries were already circulating among these artists and their writer-friends like Charles Baudelaire and Arsène Houssaye by 1861, according to Stuckey (1995, p. 188), and the artist-writer Zacharie Astruc listed Monet among fellow Japoniste devotees by 1868, calling him a "faithful emulator of Hoksai [sic]" (Astruc, "Le Japon chez nous," 1868, cited in Spate and Bromfield 2001). The print by Hokusai from Monet’s collection remains today in Monet’s home at Giverny; another impression of the same print is in The Met’s collection (JP2984).

It has been noted of Monet’s and his contemporaries’ representations of current ladies’ fashions in the 1860s that they were attempts at "an expression of the timeliness and ephemeral nature of a moment in the vie moderne" (modern life) (Haase 2012, p. 99). In The Met’s picture, there is more focus on the fashion worn by the figures at the water’s edge than in their facial features; in fact, the artist has left the woman’s face completely free of features and barely hinted at eyes and a mouth on the male figure. The seaside promenade ensemble with a scalloped-edged jacket and full skirt worn by the woman was most probably made of cotton piqué, as that was the fabric most recommended for comfort while walking at the seaside (Haase 2012, p.90, cat. 36). As Birgit Haase has explained, "white dresses both occasioned and expressed a leisurely, refined existence, revealing a feminine ideal"; white dresses meant the wearer stayed far from physical work and dirt (Haase 2012, p. 104).

Monet exhibited this picture at the fourth Impressionist exhibition in 1879 as "Jardin à Sainte-Adresse" (Garden at Sainte-Adresse). By 1915, it was exhibited in San Francisco under the title "Le Havre: terrasse au bord de la mer" (Le Havre: Terrace at the Seaside) and at the New York World’s Fair in 1940 as "Harbor near Havre." Both "terrace" and "Le Havre" stuck in the title until "Le Havre" was replaced by the original "Sainte-Adresse" when on exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1960. The return to "Garden" rather than "Terrace" came with the unearthing of the catalogue for its original exhibition in 1879 with research for the groundbreaking exhibition "The New Painting: Impressionism 1874–1886" in 1986. The painting has been called "the single most important seascape from the first decade of his career" (Orr 2006).

The Picturesque and the Bourgeoisie: Monet had spent time during many summers since his childhood along the shores of Sainte-Adresse, the site of the family summer villa. The villa still exists today in a rebuilt form (Orr 2006). The villa from which Monet painted must not have been his aunt’s, though, as it is impossible to see the water from that site; instead, period maps and photographs have led scholars to identify the site as a terrace previously situated near the modern Alphonse-Karr path (Wildenstein 1996 and Orr 2006). Rather than paint from the family villa that lacked a waterfront view, Monet chose to paint facing southwest from the hillside looking across (at left) to the distant hills of Calvados. That this more famous Sainte-Adresse seaside view was a picturesque one with restorative powers for summer inhabitants and tourists alike was not lost on Monet, who explored the locale in other canvases that summer as well. The Met’s own Regatta at Sainte-Adresse (51.30.4) and Woman in the Garden. Sainte-Adresse (see fig. 1 above) both were painted at the seaside village that season, the latter showing a similarly dressed woman in a promenading costume and parasol in the well-tended family flower garden and the former filled with sailboats and beach dwellers along the shore. Monet surely knew that such images had real sales potential, tapping into the vogue for picturesque land- and seascapes for the homes of the Parisian bourgeoisie (not to mention much of Europe in the period). Two others from that summer are Adolphe Monet Reading in a Garden (private collection), in which his father wears the same Panama hat, and Flowering Garden (Musée d’Orsay, Paris).

While Monet’s family members seem to be enjoying an idyllic moment at the seaside, the biographical record reveals an undercurrent of family strife. Monet’s mistress Camille was pregnant that summer, and the painter’s family strongly disapproved of the situation. His father had made an ultimatum regarding the funding of Monet’s young existence as a painter, stating that he must forget Camille and the baby. The younger Monet dutifully came to Sainte-Adresse that summer in an effort to appease his family, but he was uncertain of how he would reconcile his family’s wishes and his own desire to recognize both Camille and his future child. (Jean-Armand-Claude Monet was born on August 8, 1867.) In this canvas, though, there is no hint of this dilemma. All is serene and in keeping with bourgeois appearances. The sheer force of bourgeois convention overwhelms the image, bringing the artist to the regimented tripartite composition and figures who remain decorously distant from one another. Whether each figure is to be firmly identified as a particular member of Monet’s family or not, "all of these figures are merely actors, punctuating the scene with their presence," according to one scholar (Tinterow 1994). Indeed, the ignominious facts of Monet’s life in the summer of 1867 might as well have been a distant tale played out by others.

Jane R. Becker 2016

Citations:

Théodore Duret, Le peintre Claude Monet. Notice sur son oeuvre, Galerie de la vie moderne, Paris, 1880, p. 9. Reprint. New York, 1981. Translated in Spate and Bromfield 2001, p. 203.

Marc Elder, A Giverny, chez Claude Monet, Paris, 1924, p. 64.

Birgit Haase, "Fashion en Plein Air," Impressionism, Fashion, & Modernity, exh cat., Chicago and New York, 2012.

Margaretta Salinger, memo to Ashton Hawkins, February 20, 1970, in curatorial file.

For all other citations, see References.

According to House 1986, Monet removed two boats that were originally in the scene. An archive x-radiograph suggests that there may have been three additional boats in the middle distance that were painted out by the artist. In addition, there was originally another stem of flowers to the right of the flagpole at the left of the composition, along with some small compositional adjustments.
[2016]

Inscription: Signed (lower right): Claude Monet

Victor Frat, Montpellier (probably before 1870–at least 1879; bought from the artist); his widow, Mme Frat, Montpellier (until 1913; sold on April 16 for Fr 27,000 to Durand-Ruel, Paris); [Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1913; stock no. 3653; transferred on May 12 to Durand-Ruel, New York]; [Durand-Ruel, New York, 1913–26; sold on June 4, 1926 for $11,500 to Pitcairn]; Reverend Theodore Pitcairn and the Beneficia Foundation, Bryn Athyn, Pa. (1926–67; sale, Christie's, London, December 1, 1967, no. 26 to Thomas Agnew & Son for The Met)

Paris. 28, avenue de l'Opéra. "4me exposition de peinture [4th Impressionist exhibition]," April 10–May 11, 1879, no. 157 (as "Jardin à Sainte-Adresse," lent by M. Frat).

New York. Durand-Ruel. "Paintings by Cl. Monet," March 7–21, 1914, no. 1 [see Wildenstein 1974].

San Francisco. Palace of Fine Arts. "Panama-Pacific International Exposition," 1915, no. 2811 (as "Le Havre: terrasse au bord de la mer").

Philadelphia. Art Club. "Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Cl. Monet," 1927, no. 34 [see Wildenstein 1996].

New York. World's Fair. "Masterpieces of Art: European & American Paintings, 1500–1900," May–October 1940, no. 321 (as "Harbor near Havre," lent by the Rev. Theodore Pitcairn, Bryn Athyn, PA).

New York. Wildenstein. "A Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Claude Monet for the Benefit of the Children of Giverny," April 11–May 12, 1945, no. 6 (as "La Terrasse au Havre," lent by the Rev. Theodore Pitcairn).

Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Philadelphia Private Collections," May(?) 1947, no. 7 (as "The Terrace at Le Havre," lent by Rev. and Mrs. Theodore Pitcairn).

Wilmington. Delaware Art Center. "French Paintings: 1847–1947," January 12–February 1, 1948, no. 27 (as "Terrace near Le Havre").

Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Diamond Jubilee Exhibition: Masterpieces of Painting," November 4, 1950–February 11, 1951, no. 68 (as "Terrace at the Seaside Near Le Havre," lent by the Rev. and Mrs. Theodore Pitcairn).

Kunsthaus Zürich. "Claude Monet, 1840–1926," May 10–June 15, 1952, no. 8 (as "La Terrasse du Havre," lent anonymously).

Paris. Galerie Beaux-Arts. "Claude Monet," June 19–July 17, 1952, no. 6 (as "La terrasse du Havre," lent by Rd Theodore Pitcairn).

The Hague. Gemeentemuseum. "Claude Monet," July 24–September 22, 1952, no. 7 (as "Terras in Le Havre," lent by Rd. Theodore Pitcairn).

Paris. Musée de l'Orangerie. "De David à Toulouse-Lautrec: Chefs-d'œuvre des collections américaines," April 20–July 5, 1955, no. 40 (as "La terrasse au bord de la mer près du Havre," lent by Rev. Theodore Pitcairn, Bry [sic] Athyn, Pennsylvania).

Washington. National Gallery of Art. "Masterpieces of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Painting," April 25–May 24, 1959, unnumbered cat. (p. 33, as "Terrace near Le Havre," lent by the Reverend Theodore Pitcairn).

New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Claude Monet: Seasons and Moments," March 9–May 15, 1960, no. 2 (as "The Terrace at the Seaside, Sainte-Adresse," lent by the Reverend Theodore Pitcairn, Bryn Athyn, PA).

Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Collection of the Reverend and Mrs. Theodore Pitcairn," Summer 1960, no catalogue.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Masterpieces of Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 16–November 1, 1970, unnumbered cat. (ill. p. 79).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries," November 14, 1970–June 1, 1971, no. 378.

Paris. Grand Palais. "Centenaire de l'impressionnisme," September 21–November 24, 1974, no. 26.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Impressionist Epoch," December 12, 1974–February 10, 1975, no. 26.

Art Institute of Chicago. "Paintings by Monet," March 15–May 11, 1975, no. 6.

Leningrad [St. Petersburg]. State Hermitage Museum. "100 Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum," May 22–July 27, 1975, no. 67.

Moscow. State Pushkin Museum. "100 Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum," August 28–November 2, 1975, no. 67.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Patterns of Collecting: Selected Acquisitions, 1965–1975," December 6, 1975–March 23, 1976, unnumbered cat. (ill. p. 87).

Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "A Day in the Country: Impressionism and the French Landscape," June 28–September 16, 1984, no. 5.

Washington. National Gallery of Art. "The New Painting: Impressionism 1874–1886," January 17–April 6, 1986, no. 81.

San Francisco. M. H. de Young Memorial Museum. "The New Painting: Impressionism 1874–1886," April 19–July 6, 1986, no. 81.

Naples. Museo di Capodimonte. "Capolavori Impressionisti dei Musei Americani," December 3, 1986–February 1, 1987, no. 28.

Milan. Pinacoteca di Brera. "Capolavori Impressionisti dei Musei Americani," March 4–May 10, 1987, no. 28.

Paris. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. "Impressionnisme: Les origines, 1859–1869," April 19–August 8, 1994, no. 137.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Origins of Impressionism," September 27, 1994–January 8, 1995, no. 137.

Art Institute of Chicago. "Claude Monet, 1840–1926," July 22–November 26, 1995, no. 11.

Canberra. National Gallery of Australia. "Monet & Japan," March 9–June 11, 2001, no. 4.

Perth. Art Gallery of Western Australia. "Monet & Japan," July 7–September 16, 2001, no. 4.

Art Institute of Chicago. "Manet and the Sea," October 20, 2003–January 19, 2004, no. 98.

Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Manet and the Sea," February 15–May 30, 2004, no. 98.

Amsterdam. Van Gogh Museum. "Manet and the Sea," June 18–September 26, 2004, no. 98.

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "Monet in Normandy," June 17–September 17, 2006, no. 6.

Raleigh. North Carolina Museum of Art. "Monet in Normandy," October 15, 2006–January 14, 2007, no. 6.

Cleveland Museum of Art. "Monet in Normandy," February 18–May 20, 2007, no. 6.

Berlin. Neue Nationalgalerie. "Französische Meisterwerke des 19. Jahrhunderts aus dem Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 1–October 7, 2007, unnumbered cat.

Paris. Galeries nationales, Grand Palais. "Claude Monet: 1840–1926," September 22, 2010–January 24, 2011, no. 17.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Public Parks, Private Gardens: Paris to Provence," March 12–July 29, 2018, unnumbered cat.

LOAN OF THIS WORK IS RESTRICTED.

Emile Zola. "Mon Salon, IV. Les Actualistes." L'Evénement illustré (May 24, 1868) [reprinted in Émile Zola, "Salons," ed. F. W. J. Hemmings and Robert J. Neiss, Geneva, 1959, p. 132], admiringly describes a series of garden pictures painted by Monet, probably including this work among the group.

Claude Monet. Letter. April 10, 1913, probably refers to this picture in stating that he would have liked to buy it back in an exchange with Madame Frat but that the price of 30,000 francs was too high and that Monsieur Frat's original offer to him had been only 20,000 francs.

Gustave Geffroy. "Claude Monet." L'art et les artistes, n.s., 2 (October 1920–February 1921), ill. p. 57.

Arsène Alexandre. Claude Monet. Paris, 1921, p. 35, ill. opp. p. 26.

André Fontainas and Louis Vauxcelles. Histoire générale de l'art français de la Révolution à nos jours. Vol. 1, Paris, 1922, ill. p. 137.

Gustave Geffroy. Claude Monet: Sa vie, son temps, son œuvre. Paris, 1922, pp. 98, 261, ill. opp. p. 16.

Louis Vauxcelles. "Claude Monet." L'amour de l'art 3 (August 1922), ill. p. 233.

Camille Mauclair. Claude Monet. London, [1925], p. 41 [French ed., Paris, 1924, p. 35].

Florent Fels. Claude Monet. Paris, 1925, ill. p. 23, dates it 1866.

François Fosca. Claude Monet. Paris, 1927, p. 97.

J.-E. Blanche. "Claude Monet." Revue de Paris (February 1, 1927), p. 571.

Albert Dreyfus. "Claude Monet." Der Cicerone 19 (1927), pp. 60–61, ill.

Raymond Koechlin. "Claude Monet." Art et Décoration 51 (February 1927), p. 36.

Charles Kunstler. L'art vivant 3 (September 1, 1927), pp. 676–77, ill.

Raymond Régamey. "La Formation de Claude Monet." Gazette des beaux-arts, 5th ser., 15 (February 1927), pp. 70, 78–79.

Robert Rey. "Claude Monet et l'impressionnisme." L'art vivant 3 (January 1, 1927), p. 13, ill. pp. 20–21.

Charles Léger. Claude Monet. Paris, 1930, pl. 2.

Georges Grappe. Monet. Paris, 1941, ill. p. 7.

Maurice Malingue. Claude Monet. Monaco, 1943, pp. 22, 145, ill. p. 45, as in a private collection in Germany; identifies the seated man as Monet's father, Adolphe Monet.

John Rewald. "Monet Serves His Home Village." Art News 44 (May 1–14, 1945), pp. 20–21, ill. (overall and detail).

John Rewald. The History of Impressionism. New York, 1946, p. 134, ill. opp. p. 134 (color).

Aline B. Louchheim. "The Main Line Collects: A Chance to See Philadelphia's Privately Owned Masterpieces." Art News 46 (July 1947), ill. p. 12 (color).

Oscar Reuterswärd. Monet. Stockholm, 1948, p. 281.

Curt Schweicher. Monet. Bern, [1949], pl. 6.

Claude Roger-Marx. Monet. Lausanne, [1949], pl. 6.

Jean Leymarie. Impressionism. Lausanne, 1955, pp. 51–52, ill. (color).

James Thrall Soby. De David à Toulouse-Lautrec: Chefs-d'œuvre des collections américaines. Exh. cat., Musée de l'Orangerie. Paris, 1955, unpaginated, no. 40, pl. 39, dates it 1866.

Douglas Cooper and John Richardson. Claude Monet. Exh. cat., Royal Scottish Academy Building. Edinburgh, 1957, pp. 10, 20.

Denis Rouart in Claude Monet. [Lausanne], 1958, pp. 8, 39–40, ill. p. 37 (color detail).

John Canaday. Mainstreams of Modern Art. New York, 1959, p. 186, fig. 208.

Cl. Richebé. "Claude Monet au Musée Marmottan." Académie des Beaux-Arts (1959–60), p. 114.

William C. Seitz. Claude Monet. New York, [1960], pp. 10, 21, 46, 72, 126, ill. p. 73 (color).

Jean-Pierre Hoschedé. Claude Monet: Ce mal connu. Geneva, 1960, pp. 57–58.

John Rewald. The History of Impressionism. rev., enl. ed. New York, 1961, pp. 152, 154, ill. p. 153 (color).

Ralph T. Coe. "Consequences of Retinal Sensitivity." Art News 60 (March 1961), p. 40.

C. P. Weekes. Camille, a Study of Claude Monet. 1962, p. 87 [information from old catalogue card].

René Gimpel. Diary of an Art Dealer. English ed. New York, 1966, p. 152, relates that Monet at one time showed him a photograph of one of the artist's paintings depicting his father looking out to sea, with a flagpole on either side of the composition, said to be in America, presumably this work; states that Monet sold it for Fr 400 to Pratt, whose widow sold it for Fr 40,000 to Durand-Ruel, from whom Monet wanted to buy it back; adds that Monet mentioned that "at the time this composition was considered very daring".

Luigina Rossi Bortolatto. L'opera completa di Claude Monet, 1870–1889. Milan, 1966, pp. 89–90, no. 18, ill.

Raymond Cogniat. Monet and His World. London, 1966, pp. 7–8, 131, ill.

Charles Merrill Mount. Monet, a biography. New York, 1966, pp. 142–43, 405, 407, claims that Monet painted this scene from a window; identifies each of the four figures depicted; believes a painting now in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris (W69) to have been the picture included in the fourth Impressionist exhibition of 1879 as no. 157, not this work.

Joel Isaacson. "Monet's Views of Paris." Allen Memorial Art Museum Bulletin 24 (Fall 1966), pp. 13–14, 18, fig. 5.

Joel Isaacson. "The Early Paintings of Claude Monet." PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1967, pp. xi, 144, 158–65, 168–74, 188, 195, 204, 231, 235, 239, 313–15 nn. 21, 28–29, p. 320 n. 31, pl. 50.

René Huyghe. "Monet: The Life and Death of Impressionism." Réalités 202 (September 1967), p. 68.

Margaretta M. Salinger. "Windows Open to Nature." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 27 (Summer 1968), unpaginated, ill., and on cover (color detail).

G. W. "The Sale-Room." Apollo 87 (January 1968), p. 73, colorpl. XII.

William Seitz. "The Relevance of Impressionism." Art News 67 (January 1969), p. 29.

Denys Sutton. Claude Monet: The Early Years. Exh. cat., Lefevre Gallery. London, 1969, p. 12, fig. VI.

Douglas Cooper. "The Monets in the Metropolitan Museum." Metropolitan Museum Journal 3 (1970), pp. 281, 284–85, 300, 302, 305, fig. 4.

François Duret-Robert Preface by René Huyghe in L'Impressionnisme. [Paris], 1971, pp. 303, 306, ill. [excerpt translated and published in White, ed., "Impressionism in Perspective," Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1978, pp. 99–100, fig. 9], traces the various prices paid for it through the years.

Jean Clay. L'Impressionnisme. [Paris], 1971, p. 146, ill. (color detail), dates it 1866–67.

Kermit Swiler Champa. Studies in Early Impressionism. New Haven, 1973, pp. 13–15, 17–18, 20, 30, pl. 5, dates it late summer 1866.

Everett Fahy in The Wrightsman Collection. Vol. 5, Paintings, Drawings. [New York], 1973, p. 144.

John Rewald. The History of Impressionism. 4th rev. ed. New York, 1973, pp. 152–53, ill. (color), dates it about 1867 and states that it was painted on the property of Monet's family, identifying the figure in the right foreground as the artist's father.

Richard J. Boyle. American Impressionism. Boston, 1974, ill. p. 32.

Carl R. Baldwin. The Impressionist Epoch. Exh. brochure, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [New York], 1974, p. 15.

Lydie Huyghe in René Huyghe. La Relève du réel: la peinture française au XIXe siècle: impressionnisme, symbolisme. Paris, 1974, p. 114.

Charles S. Moffett in Impressionism: A Centenary Exhibition. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1974, pp. 140–44, no. 26, ill. (overall, color, and detail) [French ed., "Centenaire de l'impressionnisme," Paris], dates it about 1866–67.

Daniel Wildenstein. Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné. Vol. 1, 1840–1881: Peintures. Lausanne, 1974, pp. 38, 47, 164–65, no. 95, ill., dates it summer 1867.

[John House]. "The Roots of the Impressionists." Times Literary Supplement (May 3, 1974), p. 464.

Margaretta Salinger in "The Price Was Not Too High." The Chase, the Capture: Collecting at the Metropolitan. New York, 1975, pp. 200, 202, 204–6, fig. 53.

Grace Seiberling in Paintings by Monet. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago, 1975, pp. 24–25, no. 6, ill. p. 60.

Joel Isaacson. "Studies in Early Impressionism." Art Bulletin 57 (September 1975), pp. 452–53.

Bernard Dunstan. Painting Methods of the Impressionists. New York, 1976, pp. 47, 51, 86, ill. (overall and detail).

Alice Bellony-Rewald. The Lost World of the Impressionists. London, 1976, pp. 62, 106, ill. p. 64, mentions a study for this picture [possibly W96].

Anne Coffin Hanson. Manet and the Modern Tradition. New Haven, 1977, p. 172, dates it 1866.

John House. Monet. Oxford, 1977, pp. 5–6, colorpl. 6, notes that Monet spoke of it as an early example of the influence of Japanese prints on his art.

Jean C. Harris. "Japonisme: Japanese Influence on French Art, 1854–1910." Art Bulletin 59 (September 1977), p. 454.

Maurice Sérullaz in Phaidon Encyclopedia of Impressionism. Oxford, 1978, p. 131.

François Duret-Robert in Maurice Sérullaz. "The Verdict of the Salerooms." Phaidon Encyclopedia of Impressionism. English ed. [French ed., 1974]. Oxford, 1978, p. 255, ill. (photograph of it at Christie's sale, 1967).

Joel Isaacson. Observation and Reflection: Claude Monet. Oxford, 1978, pp. 16, 69, 199–200, pl. 21.

John House. "The New Monet Catalogue." Burlington Magazine 120 (October 1978), p. 681, discusses Wildenstein's [see Ref. 1974] creation of a hypothetical painting (W107) from references in two letters, which House believes concerns this picture.

Robert Herbert. "Method and Meaning in Monet." Art in America 67 (September 1979), pp. 104, 108, ill. pp. 100–101 (color, overall and detail).

Anne Distel. Hommage à Claude Monet (1840–1926). Exh. cat., Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. Paris, 1980, pp. 56, 99.

Hélène Adhémar. Hommage à Claude Monet (1840–1926). Exh. cat., Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. Paris, 1980, p. 20.

A Dealer's Record: Agnew's, 1967–81. London, 1981, p. 11, ill. p. 112 (color).

Jacques Dufwa. Winds from the East: A Study in the Art of Manet, Degas, Monet and Whistler 1856–86. Stockholm, 1981, pp. 125–30, 150, 188–90, 206–7 n. 19, fig. 102.

Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov. Vincent van Gogh and the Birth of Cloisonism. Exh. cat., Art Gallery of Ontario. Toronto, 1981, p. 280, suggests that it is a precedent for Bernard's "Afternoon at St. Briac" (Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland), dated 1887.

Robert Gordon and Andrew Forge. Monet. New York, 1983, p. 40, ill. p. 35 (color).

Scott Schaefer in A Day in the Country: Impressionism and the French Landscape. Exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles, 1984, pp. 58, 62, 66, 68, 88, 211, 217, 224, 280, 365, no. 5, ill. (color) [French ed., "L'impressionisme et le paysage français," Paris, 1985, pp. 46, 48, 53–54, 75, 216, 222, 232, 302, no. 5, ill. (color)].

Barbara Ehrlich White. Renoir: His Life, Art, and Letters. New York, 1984, p. 254.

Andrew Forge. "Voilà mon atelier. A moi!." Aspects of Monet. Ed. John Rewald and Frances Weitzenhoffer. New York, 1984, pp. 98–100, ill. p. 92 (color).

Charles S. Moffett. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1985, pp. 11, 108, 110–11, 113, 251, ill. (color).

Daniel Wildenstein. Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné. Vol. 4, 1899–1926: Peintures. Lausanne, 1985, p. 79 n. 726, p. 85.

Charles F. Stuckey, ed. Monet: A Retrospective. New York, 1985, pp. 38, 45, 100, 273, 310, colorpl. 13, quotes various comments, including the incorrect connection of it to a description by Émile Zola and the assertion that it was shown at the Salon of 1865 as "The Terrace at Sainte-Adresse".

Shunsuke Kijima. Monet. Tokyo, 1985, unpaginated, fig. 6 (color).

Michael Clarke. Lighting up the Landscape: French Impressionism and its Origins. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Scotland. Edinburgh, 1986, p. 72.

John House. Monet: Nature into Art. New Haven, 1986, pp. 15–16, 47, 49, 51, 114–15, 136, 188, 235 n. 6, p. 237 n. 22, colorpl. 67, compares the composition to Hokusai's "The Sazaido of the Gohyaku Rakan-ji Temple," of which Monet owned a print, and to Millet's "The End of the Village of Gréville" (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), exhibited at the 1866 Salon; mentions that Monet removed two additional boats originally included in the scene.

Ronald Pickvance in The New Painting: Impressionism 1874–1886. Ed. Charles S. Moffett. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington. San Francisco, 1986, pp. 259, 265 n. 95, pp. 269, 286, no. 81, ill. (color).

Gary Tinterow et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 8, Modern Europe. New York, 1987, pp. 6, 8, 30, colorpl. 14.

Gary Tinterow et al. Capolavori impressionisti dei musei americani. Exh. cat., Museo di Capodimonte, Naples. Milan, 1987, pp. 66–67, no. 28, ill. (color).

Douglas Skeggs. River of Light: Monet's Impressions of the Seine. New York, 1987, pp. 34–37, ill. (color).

Robert L. Herbert. Impressionism: Art, Leisure, and Parisian Society. New Haven, 1988, pp. 291–93, fig. 297, comments on the ships, remarking that there are boats representative of both older and newer time periods and that the various nautical vessels illustrate marine commerce and prosperity, as well as the juxtaposition of traditional working life at Sainte-Adresse and the vacation spot it was becoming when this picture was painted; suggests that the view over the English Channel represents Monet's alliance to the modernity of contemporary painters instead of the tradition of academic artists.

Geneviève Lacambre in Le Japonisme. Exh. cat., Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. Paris, 1988, p. 30, fig. 20, compares The Met's picture to Philipp Franz von Siebold's illustrations of Japanese balconies overlooking the sea.

Geneviève Lacambre and Suzanne Esmein in Le Japonisme. Exh. cat., Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. Paris, 1988, p. 78.

Francesco Arcangeli. Monet. Bologna, 1989, p. 39, fig. 18.

Paul Hayes Tucker. Monet in the '90s: The Series Paintings. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston, 1990, pp. 125, 276 n. 24, fig. 50.

Karin Sagner-Düchting. Claude Monet, 1840–1926: Ein Fest für die Augen. Cologne, 1990, pp. 38, 221, ill. p. 36 (color).

Geneviève Lacambre. "Le temps du Salon." L'Art du XIXe siècle, 1850–1905. Ed. Françoise Cachin. Paris, 1990, p. 39, fig. 37 (color).

Michael F. Zimmermann. Seurat and the Art Theory of His Time. Antwerp, 1991, p. 108.

Colin B. Bailey in Masterpieces of Impressionism & Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection. Ed. Colin B. Bailey, Joseph J. Rishel, and Mark Rosenthal. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 1991, pp. 48, 154 n. 5.

Anna G. Barskaya and Albert G. Kostenevich. The Hermitage Catalogue of Western European Painting: French Painting, Mid-Nineteenth to Twentienth [sic] Centuries. Florence, 1991, p. 307.

Gary Tinterow. "Miracle au Met." Connaissance des arts no. 472 (June 1991), p. 36.

Sylvie Patin. Monet: 'Un Œil... Mais, Bon Dieu, Quel Œil!'. [Paris], 1991, pp. 26–27, ill. (color, overall and details).

John House. Monet. 3rd ed. London, 1991, pp. 8, 11, 32, 40, 50, 62, colorpl. 5, compares it to Hokusai's "Travellers Viewing Mount Fuji," also called "Yoshida on the Tokaido (Tokaido Yoshida)," from "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji" (ca. 1830–32), noting that prints from the series were in circulation in Paris in the 1860s.

Virginia Spate. Claude Monet: Life and Work. New York, 1992, pp. 48–49, 59, 83, 87, 144, fig. 45 (color), suggests that the empty chairs represent Monet's feeling of isolation from his family members, who were unhappy with his unmarried relationship with Camille Doncieux.

Chuji Ikegami. New History of World Art. Vol. 22, Period of Impressionism. Tokyo, 1993, fig. 107.

Marianne Alphant. Claude Monet: Une vie dans le paysage. [Paris], 1993, pp. 43–44, 46–48, 169, fig. 12, states that the figures are on the terrace of a sailing club; identifies various members of the Lecadre family among those depicted.

Gary Tinterow and Henri Loyrette. Origins of Impressionism. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1994, pp. 296, 322 [French ed., "Impressionnisme: Les origines, 1859–1869," Paris].

Gary Tinterow in Gary Tinterow and Henri Loyrette. Origins of Impressionism. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1994, pp. 143, 246–48, 433–34, 436, no. 137, ill. p. 433 and fig. 310 (color) [French ed., "Impressionnisme: Les origines, 1859–1869," Paris].

Michael Kimmelman. "A Decade that Remade the World in Paint." New York Times (September 25, 1994), section 2, p. 40.

Lynn Federle Orr. "Monet: An Introduction." Monet: Late Paintings of Giverny from the Musée Marmottan. Exh. cat., New Orleans Museum of Art. New Orleans, 1994, pp. 16–17, fig. 2 (color).

Robert L. Herbert. Monet on the Normandy Coast: Tourism and Painting, 1867–1886. New Haven, 1994, pp. 11–14, 16, 28, 34, 73, 108, ill. p. 5 (color detail), fig. 17 (color).

Charles F. Stuckey. Claude Monet, 1840–1926. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago, 1995, pp. 33, 204, 245–46, no. 11, colorpl. 11, notes that no review of the 1879 exhibition [see Exh. Paris 1879] mentions it, and suggests that despite its entry in the catalogue, it may not have been shown; dates the Durand-Ruel Gallery exhibition in New York to February 1–16, 1914 [but see Ref. Wildenstein 1974].

Paul Hayes Tucker. Claude Monet: Life and Art. New Haven, 1995, pp. 27–30, colorpl. 38.

Joachim Pissarro. "Monet at the Art Institute of Chicago." Apollo 142 (December 1995), p. 63.

John Russell Taylor. Claude Monet: Impressions of France from Le Havre to Giverny. London, 1995, ill. p. 47 (color).

Michael Kimmelman. "Eclectic Monet, Bathed in Chicago's Ballyhoo." New York Times (July 24, 1995), p. C11.

Richard R. Brettell. "Chicago: Claude Monet, 1840–1926." Burlington Magazine 137 (November 1995), p. 772.

Albert Kostenevich. Hidden Treasures Revealed: Impressionist Masterpieces and Other Important French Paintings Preserved by the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. Exh. cat.New York, 1995, p. 132.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 473, ill.

Daniel Wildenstein. Monet. Vol. 2, Catalogue raisonné–Werkverzeichnis: Nos. 1–968. 2nd ed. Cologne, 1996, p. 51, no. 95, ill. (color).

Ruth Berson, ed. "Documentation: Volume I, Reviews and Volume II, Exhibited Works." The New Painting: Impressionism 1874–1886. San Francisco, 1996, vol. 1, pp. 206, 237; vol. 2, p. 116, ill. p. 135.

Daniel Wildenstein. Monet or the Triumph of Impressionism. Vol. 1, 2nd ed. Cologne, 1996, p. 68, ill. pp. 64–65 (color).

Susanne Weiss. Claude Monet: Ein distanzierter Blick auf Stadt und Land Werke, 1859–1889. Berlin, 1997, pp. 92–93, fig. 29.

Carla Rachman. Monet. London, 1997, pp. 72, 75, fig. 50 (color).

"19th & 20th Century Milestones at Christie's." Christie's ART (1997), unpaginated.

Anne-Marie Bergeret-Gourbin. Monet: La Normandie. Paris, 1997, pp. 20–21, ill. (color), dates it summer 1867.

Joel Isaacson in Impressionists in Winter: Effets de neige. Exh. cat., Phillips Collection. Washington, 1998, p. 77 n. 9.

Matthias Arnold. Claude Monet. Hamburg, 1998, pp. 35, 38, ill.

Dianne W. Pitman. Bazille: Purity, Pose, and Painting in the 1860s. University Park, Pa., 1998, pp. 120, 122, 126, 250 n. 11, fig. 73.

Gian Carlo Calza. Hokusai: Il vecchio pazzo per la pittura. Exh. cat., Palazzo Reale. Milan, 1999, p. 415, fig. 2 (color).

Robert L. Herbert. Seurat: Drawings and Paintings. New Haven, 2001, p. 93.

Virginia Spate and David Bromfield. "A New and Strange Beauty: Monet and Japanese Art." Monet & Japan. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Australia. Canberra, 2001, pp. 5, 15–16, 31, 37, 195, no. 4, ill. pp. 64, 81 (color, overall and detail).

John Leighton in Juliet Wilson-Bareau David Degener. Manet and the Sea. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Philadelphia, 2003, pp. 204, 216, pl. 98 (color).

Clare A. P. Willsdon. In the Gardens of Impressionism. New York, 2004, pp. 24, 51, 86–88, 90, 94, 111, colorpl. 87, identifies the specific types of flowers depicted as geraniums, nasturtiums, and gladioli; suggests that Monet may have chosen to paint these particular flowers for their significance based on the nineteenth-century code of floral meanings.

Dominique Lobstein. Monet et Londres. 2004, pp. 8–9, ill. (color).

Lynn Federle Orr in Monet in Normandy. Exh. cat., Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. New York, 2006, pp. 62–64, 183, no. 6, ill. pp. 1 (color), 63, dates it to the summer of 1867, and from period maps and photographs locates the terrace as previously situated near the modern Alphonse-Karr path.

Doris Kutschbach. Living Monet: The Artist's Gardens. Munich, 2006, pp. 12–13, ill. (color).

Pierre Rosenberg. Only in America: One Hundred Paintings in American Museums Unmatched in European Collections. Milan, 2006, pp. 178–79, 233, ill. (color).

John House in The Painter's Garden: Design, Inspiration, Delight. Ed. Sabine Schulze. Exh. cat., Städel Museum. Frankfurt, 2006, pp. 196, 198 n. 14, fig. 18 (color), disagrees with Willsdon's [see Willsdon 2004] interpretation of it.

Eric M. Zafran in Claude Monet (1840–1926): A Tribute to Daniel Wildenstein and Katia Granoff. Exh. cat., Wildenstein & Co., Inc. New York, 2007, pp. 119, 125, 128, 137–38, 144, 150 n. 400, fig. 48.

Joseph Baillio and Cora Michael in Claude Monet (1840–1926): A Tribute to Daniel Wildenstein and Katia Granoff. Exh. cat., Wildenstein & Co., Inc. New York, 2007, pp. 155, 182, 185–86, 214 n. 21, fig. 5 (color).

Katharine Baetjer in Philippe de Montebello and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1977–2008. New York, 2009, p. xi.

Colin B. Bailey in Masterpieces of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection. Ed. Susan Alyson Stein and Asher Ethan Miller. 4th rev. ed. [1st ed., 1989]. New York, 2009, p. 60.

James H. Rubin in A City for Impressionism: Monet, Pissarro, and Gauguin in Rouen. Ed. Laurent Salomé. Exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen. Paris, 2010, p. 102, ill. (color).

Sylvie Patin in Claude Monet: 1840–1926. Exh. cat., Galeries nationales, Grand Palais. Paris, 2010, p. 221.

Joseph Baillio in Claude Monet: 1840–1926. Exh. cat., Galeries nationales, Grand Palais. Paris, 2010, pp. 55–57, 59 nn. 18, 20, p. 365, no. 17, ill. p. 111 (color), notes that the exact site has yet to be determined; identifies the seated man as Monet's father, the seated woman as perhaps Sophie Perotty, and the standing figures as probably Jeanne-Marguerite Lecadre with either her husband, brother-in-law, or Monet's brother Léon; identifies the painting as one of the works referred to in Zola 1868.

Pierre Wat. "Sur les pas de Monet." Monet: Ses sources, ses thèmes, ses héritiers. Issy Les Moulineaux, 2010, p. 75, ill. (color).

Mary Mathews Gedo. Monet and His Muse: Camille Monet in the Artist's Life. Chicago, 2010, pp. 64, 67–70, 198, 247 n. 10, p. 248 nn. 16, 17, p. 275 n. 27, fig. 4.2 (color), presents a psychological interpretation of the painting in regard to Camille's absence from the scene at Sainte-Adresse that summer; identifies the seated woman as Monet's aunt Lecadre.

Richard Kendall in Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Ed. Sarah Lees. Williamstown, Mass., 2012, vol. 2, pp. 519, 522 n. 3, under no. 223.

Ségolène Le Men in Eblouissants reflets: Cent chefs-d'œuvre impressionnistes. Ed. Sylvain Amic et al. Exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen. Paris, 2013, p. 280, fig. 79 (color), describes its depiction of the sea as theatrical due to the two seated figures, who contemplate the panorama, and the two flag poles, which enframe several compositions within the painted landscape, including the one at center, which resembles traditional Dutch seascapes that privilege the sky; states that this “game of frames” constitutes the painting's experimental nature.

Sandra Gianfreda. "The early 'Japonistes'." Monet, Gauguin, Van Gogh . . . "Japanese Inspirations" Museum Folkwang. Exh. cat., Museum Folkwang, Essen. Göttingen, 2014, pp. 65, 338 n. 50.

A. G. Kostenevich in The State Hermitage: Treasures from the Museum's Collections. Vol. 2, London, 2014, p. 253, states that Jeanne-Marguerite Lecadre appears in both The Met's picture and "Woman in the Garden. Sainte-Adresse" (1867, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg).

Michael J. Call. Claude Monet, Free Thinker: Radical Republicanism, Darwin's Science, and the Evolution of Impressionist Aesthetics. New York, 2015, pp. 78–79, states that Monet's early Normandy coast pictures, including this one, are painted from the viewpoint of the tourist and that nature is presented as a consumable object existing for the benefit of the humans, who are painted "large in scale and importance".

Anne Roquebert in Degas: Un peintre impressionniste? Ed. Marina Ferretti Bocquillon and Xavier Rey. Exh. cat., Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny. Giverny, 2015, p. 39, fig. 19 (color).

Kathryn Calley Galitz. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings. New York, 2016, pp. 440–41, no. 367, ill. pp. 374, 440 (color).

George T. M. Shackelford in Monet: The Early Years. Exh. cat., Kimbell Art Museum. Fort Worth, 2016, pp. 14, 16, 74, 125, 129, 190 n. 11, fig. 78 (color).

Anthea Callen in Monet: The Early Years. Exh. cat., Kimbell Art Museum. Fort Worth, 2016, pp. 52, 194 n. 15, calls The Met's picture the "apogee [of Monet's] extraordinarily decorative designs during the 1860s".

Anne-Birgitte Fonsmark in Monet: Beyond Impressionism. Exh. cat., Ordrupgaard. Copenhagen, 2016, p. 11, notes its indebtedness to paintings by Monet's role model Eugène Boudin.

Géraldine Lefebvre in Monet au Havre: Les années décisives. Ed. Géraldine Lefebvre. [Vanves], 2016, pp. 53, 55, 57–59, 64–68, 256 n. 2, p. 257 nn. 11–13, 22, ill. p. 52, figs. 35, 47, 111 (color, overall and details), discusses Japanese prints in Monet's collection that may have influenced the picture's composition; drawing on newly found archival evidence, identifies the location depicted as the garden behind the home of Alfred Bodson de Noirefontaine and his wife, friends of the Lecadre-Monet family; proposes a precise dating for the picture as late morning on July 21, 1867, during the annual regattas of Le Havre, which occurred on July 21 and 22 that year.

Ségolène Le Men in Monet au Havre: Les années décisives. Ed. Géraldine Lefebvre. [Vanves], 2016, pp. 165, 167–68, 262–63 n. 55, fig. 144 (color detail), discusses the picture as a kind of possible tribute to Japanese woodblock prints and suggests specific Ukiyo-e print sources.

Anne Distel in Monet au Havre: Les années décisives. Ed. Géraldine Lefebvre. [Vanves], 2016, pp. 209, 265 n. 1, suggests that Victor Frat purchased the picture from Monet around 1867.

Géraldine Lefebvre et al. in Monet au Havre: Les années décisives. Ed. Géraldine Lefebvre. [Vanves], 2016, p. 283.

James H. Rubin in Monet: Light, Shadow, and Reflection. Ed. Ulf Küster. Exh. cat., Fondation Beyeler. Basel, 2017, pp. 26, 32 n. 26, fig. 11 (color).

Colta Ives. Public Parks, Private Gardens: Paris to Provence. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2018, pp. 88–89, 185, ill. p. ii, fig. 88 (color, overall and detail).

James H. Rubin in Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature. Ed. Angelica Daneo et al. Exh. cat., Denver Art Museum. Munich, 2019, fig. 6 (color).

Susan Alyson Stein in Van Gogh in America. Ed. Jill Shaw. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 2022, p. 83.

Loan of this work is restricted.