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	"Vetheuil, the swamp with water" (1881) Claude MONET(1840-1926) Date ca.1881 Materials/ Techniques oil on canvas Size 61.7 x 74 cm

"Vetheuil, the swamp with water" is the piece which the masterful Impressionist known as the "painter of light," Claude Monet painted when he lived in Vetheuil.
Vetheuil is a small village on a bend of the River Seine, lies around 50 kilometers northwest of Paris. Monet was in poverty and left Paris in 1878, and lived there until 1883. While Vetheuil inspire Monet to create many fine pieces, it was a place with bitter memories for him. That was also a turning point of his life.
It was in 1874 that Monet submitted his pieces to the first Impressionist Exhibition. As for a famous story, the word "Impressionist" was named after one of the Monet's pieces titled. In 1876 at the second Impressionist Exhibition, Monet exhibited the painting "la Japonaise" modeled his wife Camille dressed in Japanese costume. Monet left many pieces painted from Camille. It was when Monet was living in Vetheuil, Camille passed away at the young age of 32 in 1879. He was at the peak of poverty at that time.
"Vetheuil, the swamp with water" is the piece painted two years after Camille's death, during the period that Monet had gradually pulled himself out of despair, remorse and poverty. Overflows of light and exuberant sense of life on the canvas are in an undertone compared to his former pieces. There is an air of peaceful stability, or a deep feeling of acceptance instead. After Monet finished this painting at Vetheuil, he moved to Giverny where he settled and kept on creating his paintings, including his representative series of "Water Lilies", until his later years.