| Description | In the summer of 1867, Monet painted a number of works en plein air at Sainte-Adresse, including the Art Institute's Beach at Sainte-Adresse and its possible pendant, Regatta at Sainte-Adresse (1867; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Although there is no evidence that he wanted to exhibit or sell these paintings as a pair, they are similar in size and depict the same stretch of beach from approximately the same viewpoint. Both reference the coexistence of local and tourist life at Sainte-Adresse; however, the Art Institute's overcast scene shows the beach at low tide, dominated by native fisherfolk and their dark-sailed working boats, while the Metropolitan Museum's features urban tourists and white-sailed leisure yachts on a sunny day at high tide. |
