Claude Monet | Vétheuil in Summer | The Metropolitan Museum of Art (metmuseum.org)
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Postcard Story – Vétheuil in Summer – Claude Monet – 1880 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Second Daughter – 01/04/23
… and the holiday at the riverside town was her idea, not too far in the car for the children, not too far to the shore of the river, a slow peaceful river this time of year she had read and confirmed with the concierge before booking, she smiled as she sat on the blanket under the umbrella furnished by the hotel, with her younger child – the boy who her husband called, “his little man” – already a sleep with his head resting easily in her lap. And now in the distance, out in the middle of the river – yes, peaceful and slow – her husband, the man, the body, she desired more and more it seemed with each child, was rowing slowly, effortlessly, with their firstborn, their beautiful daughter now five, towards the town across the river, old and historic, to stop at the dollhouse store, one of the main attractions of the town she had read, and to take in the old church, not quite a cathedral, regardless of what the town said in its brochures, an attraction for her husband, though smiling, she knew he himself was always an attraction, but safe now with their beautiful daughter in tow, a treasure herself to behold and admire. And she beheld and contemplated two of the passionate treasures of her life slowly make their way across the water, the heat and water of the air, the dreadful humidity of August, and the sunlight shimmering upon the water and into the sky, enveloped her husband and daughter in a vision of endless light and movement and…life, a vision in which her love for them was irresistibly drawn, two figures in the distance, moving slowly away, but now the vision of what she loved, not just them one by one, but a love of what they were together, for her husband who she truly loved above all else, truly loved their beautiful daughter who, impossible, yes, she loved also truly above all else, and they were together truly enjoying and loving each other so much, a love, a vision in the midst of the water shimmering gold all around.
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