The Magpie

Claude Monet painted The Magpie at his home near Étretat in the winter of 1868–1869, during a period of severe financial hardship. A single magpie rests on the wooden gate of a fence, its dark shape the only counterpoint to the expanse of freshly fallen snow. Monet’s radical attention to the color of snow — here shot through with blue and warm apricot light — attracted criticism from the Salon jury, yet the painting is now recognized as a turning point in the Impressionist investigation of light.