1868 (ca.), Claude Monet, The Entrance to the Port of Le Havre -- Norton Simon Museum (Pasadena)
From the museum label: This brisk early seascape served as a sketch for a large-scale painting—now lost—that Monet exhibited in 1868 at the Salon, the annual state-sponsored exhibition of art in Paris. He likely painted it during a visit to his family at Le Havre, the Normandy port town where he had grown up, identifiable by the jetty and lighthouse at right. Monet gave the sketch to his friend, a journalist named Antoine Lafont, who served as a witness at Monet's marriage in June 1870—hence the inscription at lower left: "À son ami Lafont, 1870."
1868 (ca.), Claude Monet, The Entrance to the Port of Le Havre -- Norton Simon Museum (Pasadena)
From the museum label: This brisk early seascape served as a sketch for a large-scale painting—now lost—that Monet exhibited in 1868 at the Salon, the annual state-sponsored exhibition of art in Paris. He likely painted it during a visit to his family at Le Havre, the Normandy port town where he had grown up, identifiable by the jetty and lighthouse at right. Monet gave the sketch to his friend, a journalist named Antoine Lafont, who served as a witness at Monet's marriage in June 1870—hence the inscription at lower left: "À son ami Lafont, 1870."