The Seine at Bennecourt, Winter 1893 by Claude Monet

In January 1893, the ice floes carried downriver stuck at Bennecourt. Monet painted several pictures of this scene over the next few weeks, of which this was the first. At this stage, the river is almost frozen over.

This view of the Seine is very different from the one Monet was to produce four years later. In this painting, Monet still uses the formula of horizontal planes of color contrasted with vertical subjects. As can be seen, the trees on the island provide the vertical balance to the horizontal bands of the sky, the hills, and the snow. The water forms one band of color but because the trees frame either side of the river, the water draws the eye forward towards the horizon rather than across along its width.