Vétheuil

Yellow field with bright red poppies. Trees to the right, and behind field. Buildings in the background, including white church tower in the centre of the composition. Blue patch to the right, yellow and green hills on the horizon. The sky is blue and white, paint applied using distinctive, small and obvious brushstrokes.

In 1878 Claude Monet moved to the small village of Vétheuil, on the river Seine, half-way between Paris and Rouen. The distinctive tower of the village church, a triangle of white, can just be made out in the centre of the composition.

This is a truly Impressionist painting. Monet painted it outside, directly on to the canvas, and in just a few hours. He used small, hasty brushstrokes, to capture the scudding clouds and the breeze in the trees. Monet's brushstrokes do not differentiate between sky, water and trees. They are all painted alike. Sometimes it is even difficult just to know what we are seeing - the lively strokes of red that dance in the foreground are poppies.

Despite the carefree look of this summer landscape this work was painted at a sad time in Monet's life. His wife Camille had just died and he was living in poverty.

Credit: Bequeathed by William McInnes, 1944