On the Bank of the Seine, Bennecourt

A woman in a striped dress sits on the grassy bank beneath the shade of the trees.
Before her gaze stretches the tranquil Seine and the houses on the opposite shore.

The woman depicted is Camille Doncieux, Monet's lover and future wife.
With the scenery reflected on the water, it appears to be an idyllic holiday scene.
A quiet, contented moment spent with the woman he loved—
one might easily see it that way.

Yet, in truth, this painting holds a hidden secret.

Look closely at the water just to Camille's right.
You may notice how the paint is built up in an unusual, raised texture.
An X-ray examination by the conservation science department at the Art Institute of Chicago revealed an astonishing truth.

Another adult had once been painted beside Camille.
The outline revealed the head and full figure of a person wearing a bonnet.
Rather than scraping it away, Monet painted over it with thick, rough strokes of blue pigment,
deliberately reducing the scene to Camille's solitary silhouette.

Why did he erase this companion and leave her alone?

In the spring of 1868,
Monet was at the lowest point of his life.

The previous summer, Camille had given birth to their eldest son, Jean.
However, Monet's strict father, Adolphe, refused to acknowledge their relationship
and cut off his financial support entirely.

With no steady income, Monet was constantly hounded by unpaid lodging bills.
At the recommendation of the novelist Émile Zola, they traveled to Gloton, a hamlet in Bennecourt—
a rural retreat close to Paris where the cost of living was low.
Though they took rooms at the Auberge Dumont, Monet's desperate circumstances did not improve.

Inevitably, he could no longer afford the rent there either.

Eviction.

Unable to provide for his family, unable to keep painting.
Despair.
The night after being cast out of the inn, Monet threw himself into the Seine.

An attempted suicide.

Surviving by chance, Monet returned to Paris alone, leaving Camille and Jean behind,
to write desperate letters pleading for financial support from patrons.
This painting is the sole surviving work from that tragic stay in Gloton.