Bon anniversaire, Claude Monet! 🎂⁠ ⁠ Born #OnThisDay in 1840, the preeminent Impressionist painter was renowned for his depictions of architecture, water, and atmosphere. Here, in forceful brushstrokes, Monet conveys the choppy, windswept sea off the Normandy coast. He emphasizes the dramatic, clifftop setting of the abandoned customhouse (now gone, as a result of erosion) by cropping the right edge of the canvas and adopting a striking, elevated vantage point.⁠ ⁠ Monet made a number of paintings along this coast, working on several of them every day (he had to hire a porter to help him carry them all). Each could take as many as twenty sessions to finish.⁠ ⁠ You can view this work in-person as part of Monet to Morisot: The Real and Imagined in European Art on the fifth floor. ⁠ ⁠ 🎨 Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926). Rising Tide at Pourville (Marée montante à Pourville), 1882. Oil on canvas. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. Horace O. Havemeyer, 41.1260 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)