The Beach at Sainte-Adresse

Claude Monet spent most of his childhood and adolescent years in Normandy, absorbing its picturesque coastal sites, villages, and vantage points. The region changed dramatically over the course of the nineteenth century, due in large part to the expanded rail network and the proliferation of travel guidebooks. Waterfront locales like Sainte-Adresse, which were once small, rural fishing villages, rapidly became beach resorts for tourists and vacationers.