A Room with a View - Garden at Sainte-Adresse

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A Room with a View
Examining the Film through an Art Historian's Lens
Curated by Melissa Martin

Claude Monet, Garden at Sainte-Adresse, 1867
"He doesn't know what a woman is. He wants you for a possession, something to look at, like a painting or an ivory box. Something to own and to display." - George Emerson In A Room with a View, Lucy Honeychurch must decide between the pompous Cecil Vyse and the philosophical George Emerson. Cecil's intellectual prowess and dainty nature aren't exactly turn-ons when compared to George's romantic gestures. Will Lucy conform to societal expectations or follow her rebellious heart? This turmoil dictates the majority of the film, which highlights the rather superficial values of the Edwardian upper class. Just 40 years before A Room with a View takes place, Monet painted the lovely Garden at Sainte-Adresse. The pre-Giverny portrait of his family summering in northern France illustrates the lives of the affluent. Although Monet portrays the delightful garden and its sea-view, he uses them primarily as a stage for a domestic scene. His subjects do not interact so much as they sit on display. This is the portrait of Lucy's possible future with Cecil.

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