Terrace at Sainte Adresse, Claude Monet Postcard

Terrace at Sainte Adresse, 1867. Terrace at Sainte Adresse by Monet expresses all the euphoria of a fine summer's day. The red of the gladioli contrasts with the blue of the sea, specked with sailing boats, and in the distance are silhouetted the big streamers making for the harbour at Le Havre. Four people are relaxing on the terrace. In the foreground are Adolphe Monet and his half-sister, both seen from the back; they are sitting in garden chairs contemplating the scene stretching out before them. By the balustrade stands Claude's cousin Jeanne Lecadre, wearing a pale-coloured dress and chatting to a young man in a top hat. Peace and beauty reign supreme, reflecting the holiday mood prevailing in Sainte Adresse. Claude Monet (1840 – 1926) was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. The term Impressionism is derived from the title of his painting Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant).