North Carolina Museum of Art

Monet spent the 1890s pursuing his innovative concept of series paintings, depicting the same motif in varying conditions of light, time, and atmosphere. For two years he rose at 3:30 in the morning in his home in the Norman village of Giverny to capture on canvas the early morning light as it appeared through the fog. By dawn he was in the small boat that he used as a floating studio. An observer recorded that the painter began fourteen canvases at once, all depicting this exact spot on the Seine, and shifted from one to another as the strengthening sun burned through the mist. Twenty versions of this subject are known.

The Morning on the Seine series is different from the exuberant Impression of his sunset from Etretat; here the color range is more limited and the brushwork is thinner and softer, creating a more subtle texture. This version shows the view early enough in the morning for the fog to obscure detail and color. Versions painted later in the day have more intense green or lavender tones and more distinctly visible trees. The effect is of calm and quiet, appropriate for the subject and for the mood of the artist at that time in his life.