I have not been able to see a bit of sea or any water at all; everything is frozen and covered with snow.

1895 letter from Sandviken to Gustave Geffroy, 26 February 1895 (L. 1274); as cited in: Steven Z. Levine, Claude Monet (1994), Monet, Narcissus, and Self-Reflection: The Modernist Myth of the Self. p. 93 - 1890–1900