There's a chance I might have mentioned the name "Monet" in my previous article. Yes, the painter who gave birth to Impressionism with his landmark painting, Impresssion, Sunrise. So, my enthusiasm was heightened upon the riverboat AmaLyra's arrival to the small rural town of Giverny. Resting on the right bank of the river Seine, it is best known as the location of Claude Monet's home and gardens. Many of his most famous canvases were painted during his 43 years in Giverny: Clos Normand, where its archways are entwined around colorful shrubs, and his waterlilies garden with its Japanese bridge.

The clarity of the air was intoxicating as I stood on the deck of the AmaLyra in La Havre, France. With small boats in the harbor, I realized it was the same location where Claude Monet created his monumental landmark painting, Impression, Sunrise, which gave birth to the art movement known as Impressionism. Devoid of pictorial realism, it was from his own personal perspective – not from yours or mine – achieved by a series of short impasto brushstrokes and the use of subdued blue-grayish colors, which contrasted with the warmth of the orange sun.

Picasso even famously sketched and painted Angela Rosengart herself. Another floor features David Douglas Duncan’s photographs of Picasso at work in his studio, including a few shots from October, 1963, with Angela sitting in a chair, as Picasso draws her. “I had to sit there and endure the looks from his eyes,” Angela tells me. “The looks were like arrows.”