Dreaming of rural escape as the summer settles in? Look no further than Monet’s eternal idyll. Here the painter, who would soon become notorious as one of that iconoclastic gang the impressionists, shows his peace-loving side. This golden, shimmering view is as formal and calm as the classical landscapes of Claude and Poussin. They worked in the 17th century and this painting is a reminder that when Monet, Renoir and their fellow impressionists turned to landscape they were following a very well established French artistic path. But Monet had his reasons for stressing tranquility. Just recently France had been rocked by war and revolution when Prussia invaded in 1870. Monet himself escaped the war in London. Now in 1872 he is home, hoping for a bit of tranquility.
• National Gallery, London