The Effect of Fog near Dieppe 1882

Claude Monet created this oil painting, "The Effect of Fog near Dieppe," to capture the elusive qualities of light and atmosphere in the French coastal region. The image is less a direct representation of the cliffs near Dieppe and more a meditation on the atmospheric conditions of a foggy day. The water, cliffs, and sky seem to blend together, and the dissolution of solid forms into a haze of color represents a new phase of modern landscape art. The painting emerged at a time when debates about the role of academic art institutions were rife, and when artists were looking for new ways of representing nature and experience. Historians use letters, catalogues, reviews, and other archival documents to reconstruct the institutional and artistic context of such works. These sources can help us to understand its place within broader artistic and social debates. In essence, the art of the past only makes sense when we attend to the conditions of its making.