During the late 1870s and early 1880s Monet reached a crossroads in his
career. Based in V, theuil and later at Poissy, he was often short of
money and, even though radical thought and new scientific developments
continued to inform much of his work of this period, he was also obliged
to consider a more conventional approach, often catering to the market.
During the 1880s he rethought his earlier emphasis on modernity and
developed his skills as a painter of pure landscape, culminating in the
experimental works he produced on the Normandy coast. This collection of
essays, many by leading scholars in the field, looks in-depth at the
political, economic, scientific, religious, literary and art historical
context for this complex and often contradictory period in Monet's life.