Vetheuil in the Fog 1879

Claude Monet painted “Vetheuil in the Fog” using oil on canvas, and it is currently held in the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris. Considered by many to be the founder of French Impressionism, Monet was deeply concerned with capturing fleeting atmospheric conditions, especially their effects on the landscape. This canvas from his series on Vetheuil, a town northwest of Paris, is no exception. In this painting, Monet seems not to have been concerned with any grand narrative or with idealizing the location, and yet, the canvas still speaks to the social conditions of late 19th-century France. The rise of the bourgeoisie and the growth of industrialization led to new forms of leisure and an appreciation for the natural world. This interest in the landscape, coupled with new theories of visual perception and new aesthetic values, helped to establish landscape painting as a subject worthy of aesthetic contemplation. By studying letters between artists and dealers, exhibition reviews, and other cultural documents, we can more fully understand the history of Impressionism and the place of paintings like this within it.