Low Tide at Varengeville 1882

Claude Monet captured this scene at Varengeville with oil on canvas. The cliffs command our attention, stoic and enduring against the transient sea. They echo a primal symbol, a visual shorthand for steadfastness and the sublime, much like mountains have done across cultures. Consider the jagged, imposing cliffs in Caspar David Friedrich’s landscapes. They too evoke the overwhelming power of nature, a notion deeply rooted in the Romantic era, and before that, the sacred mountains of ancient Greece. Here, Monet softens their edges with impressionistic light, yet the cliffs retain their symbolic weight. The low tide reveals a liminal space, a meeting point between earth and water, stability and flux. This intersection stirs something deep within us, a recognition of the continuous cycle of nature, a theme that resurfaces through art history.