Villas at Bordighera

Villas at Bordighera (1884) at the Musée d'Orsay is one of the finest paintings from Monet's January–April 1884 Mediterranean campaign, during which he based himself at Bordighera in northern Italy just over the French border and painted the subtropical vegetation, coastal villas, and dazzling light that astonished and initially overwhelmed him. The Italian Riviera offered olive groves, orange trees, palms, and Mediterranean light of an intensity unlike anything he had painted in Normandy or the Paris region. Renoir had visited the same area with Monet, but Monet ultimately went alone, finding the challenge too personal and absorbing for company.

Mediterranean villa architecture—white walls, terracotta—is embedded in lush subtropical vegetation treated with high-keyed greens, rich golds, and vivid blues. The paint surface is animated with varied directional strokes following the different textures of foliage, wall, and sky. The overall palette is markedly more intense and warm than his French work.