Bordighera

Early in 1884 Monet arrived in Bordighera on the Italian Riviera for a planned three-week visit that lasted nearly three months. Intense Mediterranean light and dense vegetation required unfamiliar solutions. His letters describe difficulties finding a suitable subject. Here the town appears from a hill, but trees occupy much of the canvas, making us look through them towards buildings and sea.

Light houses form a compact group near the centre, with a tower rising above their roofs. Pink, yellow and cream touches contrast with the cooler blue behind them. Architecture remains part of the colour structure rather than receiving elaborate outlines. The buildings’ scale relative to foreground trunks establishes the elevated and distant viewpoint on the slope.

A curved trunk crosses the town and divides the view into smaller areas. Light and dark bands describe its turning form. Comparing three related Bordighera views, the museum catalogue notes that the Chicago painting screens the settlement most strongly with pines. The panorama is organized through nearby vegetation that both directs and restricts our view.

Branches extend across blue air at the left. Their varied curves form a pattern running through the canvas. Small touches of foliage leave gaps, allowing us to perceive the crown’s volume and the distance behind it simultaneously. Green, violet and blue marks show the tree’s colour changing with illumination and its surroundings.

A strip of sea appears between the town and branches. Its blue recurs in tree shadows, connecting near and distant areas. Relatively horizontal marine strokes contrast with crossing, curved trunks. Their differing directions preserve depth in a densely filled canvas. Even this limited opening indicates a much wider coast beyond the tangled vegetation.

The lower right contains an especially dark area of foliage beside bright yellow-green strokes. This contrast suggests strong light without a uniform green layer. Comparing it with the distant roofs shows different sizes of brushmark governed by shared relationships of warmth and coolness, dense shade and open air above the sea.

Durand-Ruel did not immediately buy this canvas after Monet’s return, although he purchased two related views. Monet later exhibited the group in Paris in 1887. The history reveals choices among closely related motifs made by both artist and dealer. Here the town stays partly concealed, making the obstruction before our eyes an important part of the landscape and the experience of looking on site.