The Valley of the Nervia
The dry, terraced valley of the river Nervia below the hill town of Dolceacqua, on the Italian Riviera near Ventimiglia.
Camporosso
The painting depicts a real landscape or cityscape. The precise viewpoint the artist used may be unknown, so the marker shows the general area.
The Valley of the Nervia — at a glance
- Artist
- Claude Monet (1840–1926)
- Year
- 1884
- Movement
- Impressionism
- Place
- The Nervia valley near Dolceacqua and Ventimiglia, Liguria, Italy
- Viewpoint
- The terraced river valley up from Bordighera — Dolceacqua, its bridge and castle survive; a stretch of valley, not a fixed spot
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Now at
- Various collections (Art Institute of Chicago; Musée Marmottan Monet; private)
Overview
The Valley of the Nervia is one of the pictures Claude Monet brought back from three months on the Italian Riviera in early 1884, based at Bordighera just across the French border. It shows the deep, sun-baked valley of the river Nervia: terraced slopes of olives and pines, bare rock, the winding riverbed, and, in several of the views, the hill town of Dolceacqua with its castle and old bridge. It is oil on canvas, about 65 by 81 cm; versions are in museum and private collections.
Where was The Valley of the Nervia painted?
Scholarship The Nervia is a short river that runs down from the Ligurian Alps to the sea near Ventimiglia, in the far west of Italy. Monet worked up the valley from Bordighera, especially around the medieval town of Dolceacqua, whose humpbacked stone bridge and ruined Doria castle he painted directly. Dolceacqua, the bridge, the castle and the terraced valley all survive and are visited; these views are of a stretch of the valley rather than one fixed, marked spot.
What is in the painting?
The valley falls away and winds back between steep flanks: silver-grey olive terraces, dark umbrella pines, pale bare rock and scree, the dry stony bed of the Nervia threading through. In the Dolceacqua views, the clustered town and the broken tower of its castle sit on a spur, the old bridge spanning the river below. The light is strong and the colour warm — ochres, olive greens, blue shadow.
Look closely
The olive terraces
Silver-grey terraced slopes of olive trees climb both flanks of the valley.
The dry riverbed
The stony bed of the Nervia threads through the valley floor.
Dolceacqua and its castle
In some versions, the clustered town and the broken tower of the Doria castle sit on a spur above the old bridge.
The warm broken colour
Slopes modelled in short dense touches of olive, ochre, pink and blue shadow.
Analysis
Composition and technique
A winding valley receding between steep terraced slopes, built from broken strokes of warm colour.
Scholarship Monet lets the curve of the valley and the river carry the eye back, and models the slopes in short, dense touches of olive, ochre, pink and blue. The Mediterranean light is much warmer and harder than in his Normandy work, which he found difficult and exciting in equal measure.
History & provenance
The Bordighera and Nervia pictures of 1884 are spread across many collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Musée Marmottan Monet and private holdings.
Sources
- Art Institute of Chicago / Musée Marmottan Monet — collection entries for Monet's Bordighera and Nervia valley pictures (1884)
- Wildenstein, ‘Monet: catalogue raisonné’ — the 1884 Bordighera campaign
Related paintings
More by Claude Monet
Impression, Sunrise
Woman with a Parasol – Madame Monet and Her Son
Houses on the Achterzaan
