The Coastguard Cabin at Varengeville 1897

Claude Monet painted The Coastguard Cabin at Varengeville using oil on canvas. Monet, like many impressionist painters, was interested in modern life, but often from the perspective of bourgeois leisure. Here, we see a modest structure nestled into the landscape, almost disappearing into the cliffside. During this time, the French coast was being transformed by tourism and industry. Monet’s choice to depict the coastguard cabin may reflect a tension between these forces, a meditation on the changing social landscape, and perhaps the loss of traditional ways of life. Monet was quoted saying, "I want to paint the way a bird sings." He approaches the scene with a deeply personal and emotional connection, capturing not just the appearance of the cabin and surrounding landscape, but also the sensation of being there, immersed in the beauty and tranquility of nature. The painting invites us to consider our own relationship with the natural world, and the ways in which we shape, and are shaped by, our environment.