In 1864, Monet wrote from Sainte-Adresse to his fellow artist and friend Frédéric Bazille: “It is beautiful here, my friend; every day I discover even more beautiful things. It is intoxicating to me, and I want to paint it all - my head is bursting… I want to fight, scratch it off, start again, because I start to see and understand. It seems to be as if I can see nature and I can catch it all… it is by observation and reflection that I discover how.” (cited in Vivian Rusell, Monet’s Landschappen, The Netherlands, 2010, p. 12). Capturing the elemental spirit of France’s northern coast, this study of the rugged coastline of Sainte-Adresse, belongs to a group of early works executed by Monet in Normandy. At the time, an aspiring artist in his twenties, Monet's life was divided between Saint-Adresse, where he lived with an aunt, and Paris. This sheet reveals both the artist’s debt to the draftsmanship of Eugène Boudin and Johan Barthold Jongkind (who were active in this region), as well as the stark difference from his predecessors, as Monet’s unconventional and potent close-up view, executed with bold black chalk, differentiate from the sweeping, panoramic views of the period. The purpose of this drawing is uncertain, but it may have been intended as a preparatory study for a painting, like Les Cabanes à Sainte-Adresse (Private collection, Tokyo), wherein Monet focuses also his attention on the humble fishermen’s sheds populating Cap de la Hève. (F.R., 2025)