Étretat, Falaise d'Aval

The sea, where the rough Atlantic waves crash, and the colossal chalk arch cliffs towering above it.

A magnificent and dramatic natural landscape, sparkling under the sunlight.

Yet, in fact, when this painting was created, the painter Monet was in the throes of maddening anguish, battling against uncontrollable nature.

In the autumn of 1885, at the mercy of the fickle weather and the constantly shifting light, Monet, consumed by 'helpless rage to the point of madness,' spent his days repeatedly scraping and tearing his canvases.

Moreover, one day, while engrossed in his work beneath the cliffs, unaware of a colossal wave approaching from behind, he even had the terrifying experience of being slammed against the rock face with all his painting materials, narrowly escaping death.

Amidst numerous failures and the extreme conditions of nature's fury, the cliffs he depicted, far from being dark and somber, shine with astonishingly bright and bold brushstrokes (taches) and are filled with the raw vitality of nature.

What saved him from the depths of frustration and despair over nature's unruliness and kept the brush in his hand until the very end, may have been the irresistible beauty of this scene, where a fleeting ray of light brilliantly illuminates the colossal rock face.