Claude Monet - Strada Romana in Bordighera (1884)

 

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In Bordighera, Claude Monet also painted seemingly arbitrarily chosen views. In this glimpse of the deserted Strada Romana, the painter doesn't depict picturesque landmarks, but rather a street scene seemingly picked at random. The actual subject of the painting is the light and atmosphere of an early afternoon in the South.

In the beginning of 1884, Monet embarked on his first extended painting trip to the Mediterranean, where he spent three months in the Italian coastal town of Bordighera, about ten kilometers east of the French border. For the 43-year-old painter, accustomed to the cool tones of Normandy, the dazzling light of the South presented both a welcome change and a challenge. In a letter to his friend Théodore Duret, he described the landscape as a "fairy-tale region," but also lamented that he would need a "palette made of diamonds and gemstones" to do justice to the painterly effects of the light.

As often happens when translating an unfamiliar landscape into art, Monet had to acquaint himself with the surroundings first, spending considerable time methodically exploring the new place. If Monet was dissatisfied with his initial studies due to the effect of color, he already reported to his partner Alice just two weeks after his arrival: "I'm still working like a madman, very focused and very satisfied with myself: I'm making progress, and my first pictures are very bad compared to the latest ones. Now that I have a good feel for the area, I trust myself to use all shades of pink and blue: It's magical, it's delightful."

In the paintings he created in Bordighera, Monet focused on smaller groups of motifs, playing with variations. For example, he painted three views of the Strada Romana, which, with its impressive villas, was one of the best-known tourist attractions. A towering palm tree and lush blooming exotic shrubs dominate the foreground of the composition, while the residential houses – Villa Goffin to the right and Casa Rossa to the left – are largely concealed by vegetation. This stepping back of architectural elements in favor of Mediterranean flora is evident in numerous Bordighera paintings by Monet, who repeatedly expressed enthusiasm for the lush vegetation of the Riviera in his letters. In the background, the Alpine mountain range is depicted in the afternoon light with vibrant tones of delicate pink and blue.

Just like the painting "Villas in Bordighera" (1884, Santa Barbara Museum of Art), Monet also created this image on-site as a plein air composition. Another view of the Strada Romana was created shortly after in Giverny as a commissioned work for the painter Berthe Morisot, who was a friend of his, and it is now in the possession of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.