Claude Monet visited Venice in 1908 for his final major painting trip. He traveled there with his wife, Alice Hoschedé, and worked on views of canals, palaces, and reflections across the water.
Monet had visited Venice once before, in 1908, and the trip produced a group of paintings that he continued refining after returning to France. Venice’s architecture and shimmering water suited his lifelong fascination with changing light and reflections. He often painted the same type of subject under different atmospheric conditions rather than seeking a single exact architectural record.
The Venetian works were not immediately treated as a finished series in the same way as his London or Rouen paintings. Monet later revisited and completed many of them at Giverny. The city should not be confused with Bordighera, where he painted during an earlier Italian trip on the Riviera.