The Magpie is an exquisite winter landscape painted by Claude Monet during the winter of 1868–1869 near Étretat, a coastal town in Normandy, France. Monet’s patron, Louis Joachim Gaudibert, arranged a house in Étretat for Monet’s partner Camille Doncieux and their newborn son, which allowed Monet to paint in relative comfort, surrounded by his family. This painting is part of a larger body of work by Monet and fellow Impressionists Alfred Sisley and Camille Pissarro, who between 1867 and 1893 produced hundreds of landscapes exploring the natural effects of snow, known as effet de neige.
