the female figures in the two pictures. It can also be seen in the manner in which, many years later, Monet specifically described the Women as a definitive work in his early career.
After the failure with the DTjeuner Monet rented a house in SFvres for the spring and summer of 1866 and there he decided to make a second try at a major work that would embody his notion of modern painting. In a famous 1920 letter to the Duc de TrTvise Monet recalled that in painting Women in the Garden, "I actually painted on the spot from nature, which was something that was not done at the time [and I dug] a sort of trench, in order to gradually lower my canvas, as I painted the upper part" (quoted in Isaacson "Observation" 16). In the same letter Monet recalled that Courbet, a frequent visitor, was surprised to find Monet unemployed one overcast day and Monet had to explain that as there was no sunlight he was unable to paint. In this letter Monet insisted on the primacy of plein air painting. Not only was it necessary to wait for the replication of the exact
...