Morning on the Seine

A quiet river surface stretches beneath drooping willow branches, the whole scene softened by mist and washed in shades of green and blue. The water seems to blend into the sky, with no sharp line separating one from the other, giving the impression of a hushed early hour along the bank. This oil painting was completed in 1898 and is held at the National Museum of Western Art. It was made by Claude Monet (1840–1926), a French painter associated with Impressionism, whose notable work Impression, Sunrise is often cited alongside this quieter riverside subject. Worth noticing is how the willow foliage seems to dissolve into the surrounding haze, blurring the boundary between tree, water, and air into a single soft field of color.