Water and the sea played an important role in Monet’s artworks. Édouard Manet called him “the Rafael of water.” In the landscape Cliffs at Etretat that was painted at sunset, a rugged cliff becomes a kind of a mirage, light and weightless, transformed by sunbeams. Sailboats are just as dreamlike on the surface of the gold and yellow sea, which holds onto the sun’s reflections.