Claude Monet. Volume 2. Nina Kalitina

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      This delight was by no means shared by all artists and critics. The opposition’s opinion was most laconically expressed by the ageing Gérôme, himself crowned with all the laurels and distinctions of the official art world, when he called the Cathedrals and all Monet’s other works of this period “rubbish”. The following years saw no fundamental changes in Monet’s career, though the artist continued to experiment in spite of his age.

      During the winter of 1895 the weather in Europe was unusually cold. The Seine froze all the way to Honfleur.

      At a banquet in Paris, Monet met a Norwegian landscape painter, Fritz Thaulow. When he learned that Monet’s stepson was fulfilling his military service in Norway, Thaulow set about convincing Monet to go there precisely in winter.

      Thus it came about that, at the end of January, Monet left for Christiania. Monet saw the winter there, which would have been strange to a Frenchman, in all its splendour.

      The ice had blocked access to all the Scandinavian ports, and travellers on the sea routes were halted by numerous snow slides. At first he thought the ice and the wind would make working in the open air impossible.

      But this Nordic land, with its clear air, was so lovely that Monet went out in the glacial cold. He took a four-day trip by sleigh in the mountains, towards the fjords and over the lakes.

      In a letter to Geffroy, the painter wrote that he never saw any water anywhere because everything was frozen. During the day, the temperature was always around twenty-five degrees below zero! He felt wonderful in spite of all this and, most importantly, worked with enthusiasm.

      For the winter motifs, Monet followed, above all, Courbet, who captured this theme in some of his genre paintings. In contrast to those by Courbet, Monet’s pictures are characterised by loneliness, in which man plays a subordinate role.