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Claude Monet, 1840-1926
Claude Monet, 1840-1926
cal
Monet (1840 - 1926) was both the most
and the most individual painter of Impres-
sionism. His long life and extraordinary work ca-
leader.
Cover:
Water Lilies (detail), 1916-1919
Nympheas
Oil on canvas, 150 x 197 cm
Wildenstein IV. 1852
Paris, Musee Marmottan
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Claude Monet
Karin Sagner-Duchting
Claude Monet
1840 -1926
TASCHEN
KOLN LISBOA LONDON NEW YORK PARIS TOKYO
Illustration Page 2:
art which reflected the liberal spirit of the times. Famous authors
included Honore de Balzac and Victor Hugo. In line with the
growing influence of the middle classes, artistic trends were
increasingly being set by bourgeois taste, a factor which precipi-
tated the landscape painting of the Barbizon School.
But this same decade was also to see the birth of almost every
member of the future group of Impressionists. Camille Pisarro
was born in 1830, Edouard Manet in 1832, Edgar Degas in 1834,
Paul Cezanne and Alfred Sisley in 1839 and Pierre-Auguste Renoir
in 1841. The mid-forties brought a serious economic crisis and
apparently a fall in trade for Monet's father, Adolphe, for the Banks of the River, 1856
Bord de Riviere
family decided to move to Le Havre on the coast of Normandy, Pencil drawing, 39 x 19 cm
where Monet's father joined his brother-in-law Jacques Lecadre Paris, Musee Marmottan
in his successful wholesale business. The prospects for the future
looked healthy. The Lecadres were locally respected and pros-
perous. In addition to a large house in the town they also owned
a summer residence not far from the seaside resort of Sainte-
Adresse. Monet later recalled that his childhood in Le Havre,
where the Seine flows into the Atlantic, set a pattern for the rest
of his life: 'The Seine. I have painted it all my life, at all hours
of the day, at all times of the year, from Paris to the sea . . .
taste. These lessons appear to have had no profound influence Dramatist Louis Francois Nicolaie, Called
on Monet, however. His recollections of the period refer exclu- Clairville, after Nadar. c.1858
L'Auteur dramatique Louis Francois Nico-
sively to the witty drawings and caricatures of - among others laie, dit Clairville, d'apres Nadar
-his teachers, with which he filled his exercise books: 'I decorated Pencil, 32 x 24 cm
Paris, Musee Marmottan
the blue covers of my books with fantastic ornaments, and drew
on them, in the most irreverent fashion, the caricatured faces
and profiles of my teachers ... I quickly developed quite a skill
for it. At the age of fifteen, I was known all over Le Havre as a
caricaturist ... I started charging for my portraits, asking 10 or
20 Francs per head . . .Had I carried on, I would have been a
millionaire by now.'
Monet's caricatures of the citizens of Le Havre, which rapidly
earned him 2000 Francs, brought him a relative degree of local
celebrity. Of over one hundred such drawings, only a handful
survive today (p. 10). Gravier, a retailer of artist's materials,
exhibited Monet's caricatures in his shop window. Even though
a large part of Monet's output was based on models in contemporary
magazines, such as the Journal amusant (which he even copied
for a while), his drawings nevertheless attracted attention. They
struck Eugene Boudin, an unconventional painter of landscapes
and seascapes who was living in Le Havre at the beginning of
1858. Boudin's simple and calm studies of nature, painted in the
open air in front of the motif, bore no relation to contemporary
10
Eugene Boudin
The Beach at Trouville, 1864
La plage de Trouville
Oil on panel, 26 x 48 cm
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
11
Hunting Trophies, 1862
Trophees de chasse
Oil on canvas, 104 x 75 cm
Wildenstein I. 10
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
12
Louvre. This suggestion fell with conventional paths of
in line Farmyard in Normandy, c.1863
Cour de ferme en Normandie
academic training, whereby students were required to start with Oil on canvas, 65 x 80 cm
drawing from inanimate models and antique busts. The idea must Wildenstein I. 16
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
have sounded ridiculous to Monet even then, since - as Troyon
had recognized - his own starting-point was essentially colour.
Troyon recommended he should join the atelier libre run by
academic painter Thomas Couture, where Manet was also en-
rolled.
The training which Troyon proposed met with the approval of
Monet's father, so that nothing appeared to stand in the way of
his remaining in Paris. To his father's dismay, however, Monet
refused to follow the 'academic' path. He
attended instead the
Academie Suisse, an atelier which had been founded by Charles
Suisse, a former pupil of David, during the liberal-minded July
Monarchy. Suisse offered his pupils the opportunity to work from
living models in complete freedom, without being subjected to
constant corrections by a professor. This independent atelier
13
Gustave Courbet
The Artist's Studio, 1855
L'Atelier du peintre
Oil on canvas, 361 x 598 cm
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
14
Courbet's art, which marked a break between official painting
and that of the future, played a decisive role in the development
of Impressionism. Three of Courbet's most important paintings,
.
J-, X-- The Artist's Studio (p. 14), The Burial at Ornans (1849/50; Paris,
Musee d'Orsay) and The Bathers (1853; Montpellier, Musee Fabre)
were rejected by the Salon Jury on the occasion of the World Fair
1/ y^
of 1855. Courbet therefore decided to set up, at the gates of the
official exhibition building, his own pavilion of Realism in which
to show his work. This independent exhibition was enthusiasti-
^:Ft cally received by the younger generation of artists and was to set
an important precedent. Courbet turned against the idealizing,
prettified reproduction of nature then characterizing official
Academy art. His demands included truth, contemporaneity,
social comment and the rejection of idealism: 'Realist means
'
being a friend of real truth.' Correspondingly, he held even themes
as unsophisticated as a bunch of vegetables to be worthy subjects
Tree-trunks, 1857 of painting. Monet's early still lifes, dating from the beginning
Troncs d'arbre
of the sixties, similarly take pieces of meat, fruit and vegetables
Pencil drawing, 28 x 20 cm
Paris, Musee Marmottan as their unassuming subjects. Courbet's ideas also reflected the
democratic tendencies which had emerged during the February
Revolution of 1848 with the abdication of Louis Philippe, the
proclamation of the Second Republic and the call for general and
equal voting rights. In 1852, however, the start of the Second
Empire under Napoleon III spelled an abrupt end to such sym-
pathies. Courbet's democratic views on art and life were now
monitored and recorded.
In spring 1861 Monet drew an unlucky number in the military
service lottery made law since 1855. He was drafted to Algeria
for seven years with the African Legion. Initially no more than
a thoroughly undesirable interruption to his newly-begun career,
Monet later judged this period abroad to have benefitted his
painting. In his later recollections, Monet constantly sought to
cast his artistic life in the right light: 'I spent two fascinating
years in Algeria. was constantly seeing something new, which
I
light and colour I received there only sorted themselves out later,
15
luminous and airy landscapes built of brief strokes of paint made
him a forerunner of Impressionist painting; Monet later acknow-
ledged that Jongkind 'was my true teacher, and I owe to him the
finaleducation of my eye.'
Jongkind was indeed the model for one of Monet's first seascapes
from the year 1864, painted while the two were working together
on the coast. Monet's family disapproved of his friendship with
the antisocial Jongkind, who lived with a common-law wife and
was already ravaged by was with one eye on Jongkind
alcohol. It
that Monet's aunt bought her nephew out of military service for
3000 Francs on the condition that he continued his studies in
Paris with a recognized teacher. The family was agreed that the
genre painter and Salon medallist Auguste Toulmouche, who
was married to a cousin of the Lecadre family, was the right man
to supervise the rest of Monet's education. Monet therefore re-
turned to Paris in autumn 1862 in order to show Toulmouche
some of the works he had produced in Le Havre. Toulmouche
praised his talent, but recommended that he join the atelier run
by the academic painter Charles Gleyre. Monet, the stubborn
Norman, acquiesced. He worked there - from what he says, with
relatively little enthusiasm - probably until spring 1864, when
Gleyre was forced to close his atelier on the grounds of eye
trouble.
Gleyre was republican-minded and, following the overthrow
of the Second Republic by Napoleon III, stopped exhibiting at
the Salon. Shy and quiet as he was, he allowed his pupils relatively
large freedom in order to avoid overly hurting or inhibiting them.
Being himself an advocate of an idealized, beautiful style of
painting, he was pained by the interest shown by many of his
young students in the theories of Realism. He nevertheless en-
couraged his pupils to develop their own style and recommended
open-air studies from nature, a testament to his own interest in
landscape painting. Monet was later to cast an ironical eye over
this period. On the occasion of a study from a living model,
Gleyre offered Monet the following criticism: '"That's not bad,
but it's too like the model. You have an ugly man before you
and you paint him ugly. He has enormous feet and you reproduce
them as such. The whole thing is ugly. Always remember, young
man, that when executing a figure you must always think of
antiquity. Nature, my dear friend, is all very well for study
purposes, but is otherwise of no interest. What really matters is
style." I was outraged. Truthfulness, life, nature, everything that
moved me, everything I prized most highly .simply didn't exist
. .
16
Edouard Manet
Dejeuner sur l'heibe, 1863
Oil on canvas, 208 x 264 cm
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
appetite that he ate for four. In family affairs Monet was conser-
vative, with a strong sense of His letters to friends and
tradition.
collectors reveal some less pleasant traits, however. Monet could
be mean and vindictive, particularly where money was concerned.
Reticent and curt, he could offend friends with the rudeness of
his manner, while negotiating with collectors and dealers with
the shrewdness of a thorough businessman.
Monet became particularly good friends with Frederic Bazille,
17
Cait on the Road to Honileui, Snow. 1865
La Charrette, route sous la neige a Honfleur
Oil on canvas, 65 x 92 cm
CQmJ^a «^m\«,^~ Wildenstein I. 50
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
a student from the south of France who was studying art and
medicine at the same time in order to appease his family. Bazille
greatly admired Monet and subsequently supported him in every
conceivable way. In spring 1863 the two visited the forest of
Fontainebleau in order to paint directly from nature. Back in
Paris, Monet visited the newly-opened Salon, which was accom-
panied for the first time by a Salon des Refuses.
The Salon, first introduced in the 1 7th century as an exhibition
of works by living artists, dominated artistic life until well into
the 19th century. It represented virtually the only exhibition of
serious standing. was also the occasion of purchases by the
It
18
number of paintings it turned down, leading to a volley of angry La Pointe de La Heve at Low Tide, 1865
La Pointe de la Heve a maree basse
protests. Napoleon III felt obliged to view the refused works of Oil on canvas, 90 x 150 cm
art in person and was himself surprised by some of the rejections. Wildenstein I. 52
Fort Worth (Tex.), Kimbell Art Museum
He subsequently had a separate exhibition of refused works or-
ganized in rooms adjoining the Salon proper. It was also agreed
that the Salon should in future be held annually, with each artist
only allowed to submit two works. The Jury was also reshuffled
to incorporate independent, medal-winning landscape artists,
including Daubigny, Corot, Jongkind and Troyon. These argued
for the acceptance of independent works by the emerging Im-
pressionist group and thus - at the start of the seventies, at least
- carried the debate surrounding the new movement into the
Salon itself.
19
which accompanied the showing of Manet's Dejeuner surl'Herbe LEFT:
Henri Fantin-Latour
(p. Salon des Refuses. Two fully-clothed men are seated
17) at the
Studio in the Batignolles Quarter, 1870
in an outdoor setting in the company of an entirely naked woman, Un Atelier aux Batignolles
Oil on canvas, 204 x 273 cm
who is looking out of the picture at the observer in a provocatively Paris, Musee d'Orsay
unashamed manner. Although Manet based his composition on
RIGHT:
classical antecedents, such as Titian's Pastoral Concert (Paris, Frederic Bazille
Musee du Louvre), he deprives the scene of the mythological and The Artist's Studio in the Rue
Furstenberg, 1866
allegorical references which were used in academic painting to L'Atelier de la rue Furstenberg
justify depictions of nudes. The academic painter Alexandre Ca- Oil on canvas, 80 x 65 cm
Montpellier, Musee Fabre
banel had made masterly use of this device in his Birth of Venus
(p. 21), exhibited at the Salon of 1863 and purchased by Napoleon
III during the exhibition itself. In line with one of the demands
from Algeria. Its colouring is still very earthy, with little show
of independence. In October Monet returned to Paris. The fol-
lowing spring, after the closure of Gleyre's atelier, he set up his
own studio at 20, Rue Mazarine, very near to Bazille's.
At Easter 1864 he returned from a short stay in Chailly in the
forest of Fontainebleau with The Road to Chailly (United States,
private collection), which he was subsequently able to show in
the Salon of 1866. Shortly afterwards he set off again, this time
20
Normandy with Bazille, where they took lodgings
for the coast of
at the Saint-Simeon guesthouse, which Monet captured in The
Road to Saint-Simeon Farm (p. 21). This hillside location to the
east of Honfleur offered a spectacular panorama of the Seine
estuary. The area attracted a large number of landscape painters
during the sixties, including Boudin, Jongkind, Courbet, Daubigny
and Troyon. Bazille soon returned to Paris, but Monet stayed on
and subsequently profited from the arrival of Boudin and Jongkind.
Alexandre Cabanel
In addition to landscapes such as Village Street in Normandy, Birth of Venus, 1863
near Honfleur (p. 8), Monet now also turned to portraiture. Com- La Naissance de Venus
Oil on canvas, 130 x 225 cm
pared to his earlier works, the brushwork in these paintings was Paris, Musee d'Orsay
now freer. By the end of the year, Monet's funds were so low
that Bazille had to bail him out in order for him to return to
Paris in November. Since Monet's financial situation failed to
improve, the two decided to share a studio at 6, Rue Furstenberg.
This studio, like those of most of the later Impressionist painters,
lay in the Batignolles quarter; this led to critics provisionally
naming these artists the 'Batignolles group.' Bazille's Artist's
Studio in the Rue Furstenberg (p. 20) shows a corner of this
studio, which consisted of two rooms and a washroom. The
paintings depicted on the walls include The Road to Saint-Simeon
Farm (p. 2 1 Many of the later Impressionist painters were regular
).
studio on the floor below until his death two years earlier.
The Salon of March 1865 was the first to which Monet submitted
two pictures, painted in 1864 in Honfleur and Sainte-Adresse.
The Seine Estuary near Honfleur (Pasadena, Norton Simon Mu-
seum) and La Pointe de La Heve at Low Tide (p. 19) were both
accepted. 'It was a great success .1 threw myself into open-air
. .
21
A new way of seeing
First successes and setbacks in the
Salon
23
While, up to 1865, Monet had chiefly concerned himself with The Road to Chailly, 1865
Le Pave de Chailly
landscapes, seascapes and still lifes, he now had to address the
Oil on canvas, 43 x 59 cm
problem of integrating life-size figures into the landscape. The Wildenstein I. 56
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
full-figure portrait of the water-colouristand engraver Jules Fer-
The Promenade (Bazille and Camille),
dinand Jacquemart (p. 28) undoubtedly represents one such exer- 1865
cise. In academic style, Monet places his figure within the per- Les Promeneurs |Bazille et Camille)
Oil on canvas, 93 x 69 cm
spective depth of the landscape. At the same time, however, there Wildenstein I. 61
is a move towards abstraction. Foliage and sky are thus rendered Washington |D.C), National Gallery of
Art, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection
in loaded, intrinsic jabs of colour, although nevertheless retaining
their descriptive function. The sunlight, which structures the
painting in luminous, impastoed splashes, thereby plays a vital
role. In the interplay of light and shadow, Monet applies his paint
now broad and flat, now loaded and broken. Although the pre-
liminary studies for this work were made in the open air, and
were thus based on actual conditions of light and shade, the
finishing of this monumental picture had to be carried out in the
studio. This pattern corresponded to academic tradition, which
similarly started from preliminary studies, themselves often ex-
ecuted outdoors. But these studies were never more than a prep-
aration for elaboration and finishing in the studio.
This posed Monet with his greatest problem. How was he to
transfer the characteristics of the sketch, namely the spontaneity,
immediacy and which were so important to him, to a
vitality
large-scale work? Monet abandoned detailed drawing, as can be
seen particularly clearly in the lower left-hand part of the picture.
The greater planarity, the loss of three-dimensionality which
resulted led critics to conclude that the work was unfinished. In
the following years, the view that Monet's pictures were simply
sketches rather than fully-developed works in the academic sense
24
The Picnic (Study), 1865
Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe (Etude)
Oil on canvas, 130 x 181 cm
Wildenstein I. 62
Moscow, Pushkin Museum
pressionist works.
From October 1865 onwards Monet devoted his energies to
finishing the picture in the Rue Furstenberg. Here it was seen
and praised by Courbet. But shortly after Monet had moved, in
January of the following year, into his own studio at I, Rue
Pigalle, he abandoned the project, since it was clearly not going
to be finished in time for the opening of the Salon on 1 May. In
its place he submitted both The Road to Chailly (1863; private
25
The Picnic (Left Section), 1865
Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe (partie gauche)
Oil on canvas, 418 x 150 cm
Wildenstein I. 63a
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
OPPOSITE:
The Picnic (Central Section). 1865
Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe (partie central)
Oil on canvas, 248 x 217 cm
Wildenstein I. 63b
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
PAGE 28:
PAGE 29:
31
the bottom part of his painted canvas into a trench - a highly
complex undertaking considering the large format he was em-
ploying. He even stopped working when the light went. His
figures were no longer life-size. Camille, who had followed him
to Ville-d'Avray, was once again the model for at least three of
the four female figures.
Monet introduced a dimension to his open-air studies which
his contemporaries must have seen as an innovation. His palette
in this picture is much lighter than before; the majority of colours
are mixed with white, while rhythmical patterns of rapid dashes,
dots and dabs of paint appear in place of modelling transitions.
In his new use of colour Monet was to set the trend for the sixties.
He shifted from a relatively subdued palette to brighter colours
and stronger contrasts. Monet was later to acknowledge the
importance of Delacroix both for himself and for the development
of the Impressionist palette. Delacroix's powerfully colourful
paintings, and the writings which survived his death, taught
Monet how juxtaposed, contrasting colour planes such as red and
green could be employed to brighten and animate the composition
as a whole. Delacroix did not share the academic view that
shadows could be depicted using grey or black in chiaroscuro.
For him, grey was the 'enemy of painting. Rather, he had observed
'
32
> . . \\ ^*^
an artistic motif. The colourful and lively city atmosphere offered Saint-Germain-l'Auxenois, 1867
more than enough inspiration. Oil on canvas, 79 x 98 cm
Wildenstein I. 84
In contrast to Degas and Manet, urban themes played only a Berlin, StaatlicheMuseen Preufiischer
Kulturbesitz, Nationalgalerie
minor role in Monet's work. Monet, who came from the country
and who loved nature, was never a big-city person. His dislike
of town life can also be read in the fact that his later homes were
all in the country. Particularly in the early years of his artistic
career, however, Paris was for Monet the ideal setting for a
confrontation with the avant-garde ideas emerging from the field
of Realism and independent plein-air landscape painting. As from
1866, Monday nights at the Cafe Guerbois in the Rue des Batig-
nolles became the chief forum for often heated discussions in
which Manet took a leading role. As Monet remembered: 'In
1869 .Manet invited me to accompany him to a cafe in the
. .
Batignolles, where he and his friends met and talked every evening
after leaving their studios. There I met Fantin-Latour, Cezanne
and Degas, who joined the group shortly after his return from
33
The Quai du Louvre, 1867
Le Quai du Louvre
Oil on canvas, 65 x 93 cm
Wildenstein I. 83
The Hague, Collection Haags
Gemeentemuseum
4b*£ *>
^^
"v ->
• ;
m*
Italy, the art critic Duranty, Emile Zola, whose literary career
was and many others. I myself took along Sisley,
just beginning,
Bazille and Renoir. Nothing could have been more stimulating
than these debates, with their constant clashes of opinion. They
kept our wits sharpened, inspired us to unbiased and honest
experimentation and supplied us with a stock of enthusiasm
which kept us going until our ideas had been finally realized. We
always came away with a sense of greater determination, our
thoughts clearer and more sharply defined.' In 1874, when the
idea of organizing an independent Impressionist exhibition be-
came reality, this rendezvous was abandoned. Discussions were
relocated to the Nouvelles-Athenes at Place Pigalle and later,
over Impressionist dinners, to the Cafe Riche. Monet continued
to attend these gatherings even after taking up permanent
residence in the country.
summer, Monet found himself obliged to inform his family
In
of Camille's pregnancy. The response was an invitation to Sainte-
Adresse, which Camille expressly refused. She was the victim
of hypocritical condemnation; Monet's own father had had an
affair with a maid, who had subsequently borne him a child. In
Monet's absence, Camille gave birth to their son Jean on 8 August
1867. Monet had meanwhile flung himself into painting in a
blind fury. He produced seascapes such as The Beach at Sainte-
Adresse {p. 37), still lifes and finallv The Terrace at Sainte-Adresse
(p. 36).
Monet here portrays a comfortable scene whose centre is oc-
Jean Monet in His Cradle, 1867 cupied by the standing figure of Monet's father in the right-hand
Jean Monet dans son berceau
foreground. The position which Monet thus gives his father is
Oil on canvas, 116.8 x 88.9 cm
Wildenstein I. 101 evidence - despite all the family tensions - of a certain respect.
Washington (D.C.), National Gallery of
Art, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon Collection
From a raised viewpoint, the terrace is seen from above, while
the balustrade and flagpoles overlapping the horizontal planes of
sea and sky give the events in the foreground a two-dimensional,
stage-like character and negate the conventional perspective. For
the first time, Monet employs coloured shading in the sense of
Delacroix's violet shadows and complementary colours, such as
red and green, which account for the extraordinary freshness of
the picture and look ahead to later Impressionist work. A thor-
oughly realistic subject is given impressionistic qualities which
start from a visual sensation gained directly from nature.
Monet was back in Paris in spring 1868 to submit, among other
things, a seascape which is today lost, but which Zola praised as
an example of a new style of painting based on real life. The new
ways of seeing and interpreting nature which lay behind
Impressionist techniques and whose beginnings were felt in
Sainte-Adresse Monet now took a stage further in On the Seine
at Bennecourt (p. 42), painted during a stay in Bennecourt on the
Seine. The picture is thoroughly planar and leaves the perspective
depth of conventional painting far behind. The link with three-
dimensionality is achieved almost solely by the trees on the left,
38
which crosscut the composition to join foreground and distance. The Magpie, 1869
La Pie
Monet at the same time exploits the observable feature of nature, Oil on canvas, 89 x 130 cm
whereby dark colours protrude and convey nearness, while light Wildenstein I. 133
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
colours recede and - as in the far shore, river and sky - create a
feeling of distance. Correspondingly, the foliage of the trees,
dissolved into countless dabs of paint, appears more detailed
because of its proximity, while forms in the distance are flatter.
A precise description of objects is nevertheless ultimately aban-
doned in favour of an overall visual impression created from
patches and dabs of paint. For the first time, too, Monet assigns
an important pictorial role to the reflections in water which
especially enabled him to link the artistic idea with actual per-
ception. His real-life subjects are thus transformed through re-
flections into abstract colour shapes.
In summer 1868 Monet, Camille and Jean travelled to the
Normandy coast, where Monet participated with great success
in a exhibition in Le Havre and where he painted the portrait of PAGE 40:
The Luncheon, 1868
Madame Gaudibert (p. 41), a commission which put him back Le Dejeuner
on a somewhat sounder financial footing. This life-size picture Oil on canvas, 230 x 150 cm
Wildenstein I. 132
of an elegantly-dressed woman is freshly and powerfully painted.
Frankfurt, Stadtische Galerie im
Although it recalls Camille, it is nevertheless very much more Stadelschen Kunstinstitut
39
Madame Gaudibert, 1868
Portrait de Madame Gaudibert
Oil on canvas, 217 x 138 cm
Wildenstein I. 121
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
On the Seine at Bennecourt, 1868
Au Bord de 1'eau, Bennecourt
Oil on canvas, 81.5 x 100.7 cm
Wildenstein I. 110
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago,
Potter Palmer Collection, 1922.427
La Gienouillere (The Frog Pond), 1869
La Grenouillere
Oil on canvas, 75 x 100 cm
Wildenstein I. 134
New York, The Metropolitan Museum
of Art, Bequest of Mr. and Mrs. H.O.
Havemeyer, 1929, H.O. Havemeyer
Collection (23.100.112)
The Bridge at Bougival, 1870 complex and differentiated in its treatment of surface. Monet
Le Pont de Bougival
Oil on canvas, 63 x 91 cm
remained on the Normandy coast with Camille and Jean
Wildenstein I. 152 throughout the autumn and winter, turning to domestic interiors
Manchester (N. H.), The Currier Gallery
of Art
which, as in The Dinner (Zurich, E.G. Biihrle Foundation) and
The Luncheon (p. 40), lovingly capture his small family. He also
tried his hand at snowy landscapes outdoors in the bitter cold,
including The Magpie (p. 39), a captivating scene of wintry sunlight.
When Monet returned to Paris at the end of the year, not only
had his aunt cut off all further maintenance because of his rela-
tionship with Camille, but unpaid bills had led to a number of
his pictures being impounded. In this crisis, as before, he took
shelter with Bazille. The following year brought no great im-
provement. The Salon refused The Luncheon, and by the time
he arrived with his family at Saint-Michel near Bougival there
was barely enough money to look after the child. They had long
had neither lighting nor heating. The situation was desperate.
Renoir, living with his parents in Louveciennes very close by,
brought bread for Monet and his family. The two artists worked
44
together. In bad weather they turned to still lifes, but otherwise Train in the Countryside, 1870-71
Train dans la campagne
they set up their easels outdoors, as for example by the river
Oil on canvas, 50 x 65 cm
resort of La Grenouillere on the Seine near Bougival. Wildenstein I. 153
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
This popular destination with its nearby restaurant used to
attract large numbersSunday pleasure-seekers, who passed
of
the time with swimming and boating. Monet made several studies
of this motif, them later for a large composition
intending to use
for the Salon. This project was never completed. The New York
version (p. 43) shows the boat hire on the right, from which a
narrow catwalk leads to the circular floating jetty called 'Ca-
membert.' The entrance to the - here not visible - bathing cabins
lay to the left.
45
the left-hand field of the picture are so dissipated as to be barely
distinguishable from each other. Sunlight and shade structure
the surface of the water as abstract patches of light and dark
colour. In his rapid, sketch-like execution of the picture using a
loaded brush, Monet abandons all detailed object description and
concentrates on the atmospheric interplay of light and shadow.
The differences in the paintings of La Grenouillere by Monet and
Renoir are revealing. While Renoir is concerned chiefly with
shaping the human figure, Monet's characters - reduced to abstract
dashes of paint - are embedded within their natural surroundings.
Although winter brought no improvement in Monet's financial
situation, numerous snowscapes of Louveciennes and scenes
from Bougival, such as The Bridge at Bougival (p. 44) and Train
in the Countryside (p. 45) testify to a phase of creativity. All the
greater, therefore, was the disappointment which followed the
rejection of his works [The Luncheon and a version of La Gre-
nouillere now lost) by the Salon of March 1870. The future looked
threatening; Napoleon Ill's hostility towards the Germany unified
by Bismarck seemed set to lead to war between Prussia and
France. The dispute surrounding the succession to the Spanish
throne provided the eventual excuse.
When Monet married Camille Doncieux in Paris on 28 June
1870 in the presence of Courbet, it was not least under the
pressure of approaching war. Monet faced the possibility of con-
scription. To avoid call-up, he and his family moved to Trouville
on the Normandy coast, where Boudin and his wife appeared
soon afterwards. Boudin later recalled working with Monet on
the beach at Trouville: 'I can still see you and poor Camille in
the Hotel Tivoli. I've even still got a drawing which shows you
on the beach. It contains three young women in white. Death
has since snatched two of them - my poor Marie-Anne and your
own wife . . Little lean is playing in the sand, and his papa is
.
46
On the Beach at Tiouville. 18 7
Sur la plage a Trouville
Oil on canvas, 38 x 46 cm
Wildenstein I. 158
London, The National Gallery
47
Interludes in England and Holland
1870/71
London's unique charms until later visits. The works from this
first stay are, moreover, considerably less progressive than those
of previous years. SinceMonet's subjects differ from those of
Pissarro from the same period, it can be assumed that the two
did not work together. Of greater significance were their joint
49
visits to the London museums and their encounter with the
English landscape painting of the late 18th and early 19thcenturies /
William Turner
Yacht Approaching the Coast, c. 1838- 1840
Oil on canvas, 102 x 142 cm
London, The Tate Gallery
plein-air, light and fugitive Turner and Constable un-
effects.' The Thames and the Houses of Parlia-
ment, 1871
doubtedly contributed to the development of Impressionism,
La Tamise et le parlement
albeit only insofar as they accelerated a process already in motion Oil on canvas, 47 x 73 cm
Wildenstein I. 166
and reinforced Monet and Pissarro in their conviction of being London, The National Gallery
on the right path.
The few items of news which reached Monet from France were
bad. His father had died on 17 January, shortly after marrying
his mistress, Amande-Celestine Vatine, for the sake of their
daughter Marie. German troops had furthermore occupied Paris
in January. They had also billeted Pissarro's house in Louveciennes
and destroyed a large number of its stock of paintings by Pissarro
and Monet. For Pissarro this meant the almost total loss of some
15 years' work. The end of the war and the signing of the Versailles
peace treaty were accompanied almost simultaneously by the
setting up of the Paris Commune. Its bloody suppression by the
republican government under Thiers in May 1871 was a heavy
blow for emigrants, who had placed great hopes on the birth of
a social and progressive movement. A second wave of refugees
washed over England.
In the same month, Monet left London for Holland, where he
settled with Camille and Jean in Zaandam in the north, halfway
between Haarlem and Amsterdam. A small inheritance from the
death of his father and the French conversation lessons which
51
vat j
'\ Y
52
Zaandam Haiboiu, 1871 to the Barbizon school, such as Corot, Troyon Narcisse Diaz
;
Le Port de Zaandam
Oil on canvas, 47 x 74 cm and Daubigny, copied their works in the Louvre. Monet in turn
Wildenstein I. 188 acknowledged a lifelong debt to the Barbizon school, and to Corot
Private collection
and Daubigny in particular.
As from 1830, Barbizon had attracted independent landscape
artists who, following the example of the Dutch in the 17th
century, had turned away from the school of classical Italian
landscape painting. Such landscapes were composed in the studio
according to rigid intellectual rules and frequently overlaid with
allegorical, mythological and historical references. Academic
opinion considered pure landscape painting a less noble form of
art, since it proceeded from sensual impressions and the projected
53
The French Romantic painting of artists such as Delacroix
artist.
54
-
it-*-
Argenteuil 1872-1878
The new movement is named
Monet painted Lilacs, Overcast Weather (p. 59) during the spring
of 1872. But Monet soon moved to another house in the neigh-
bouring Rue Saint-Denis. Argenteuil lay on the right bank of the
Seine just six miles from the Paris Saint-Lazare railway station.
The completion of a rail link in the fifties had opened a new
chapter in the lives of the 8000 inhabitants of this small provincial
town. The trains leaving Paris every hour not only brought Ar-
genteuil increasing numbers of pleasure-seekers, but also hastened
industrial progress, leading to the building of several factories
amidst this rural idyll.
The beginnings of industrialization and a nature not yet spoilt
both find their expression in Monet's work. Indeed, the factory
The Boulevard des Capucines, 1873
Le Boulevard des Capucines stacks tracing the advance of industry appear as positively wel-
Oil on canvas, 80 x 60 cm
come elements of landscape in, for example, The Promenade at
Wildenstein I. 293
Kansas City (Mo.), The Nelson Atkins Mu- Argenteuil (p. 63). In such works, Monet celebrates progress as
seum of Art, Purchased with purchase a new religion in which man and industry work together for the
funds horn the Kenneth A. and Helen F.
Spencer Foundation (F 72-35) good of mankind. His interest in the writings of French social
57
critics such as Claude Henri de Rouvroy and the Comte de
Saint-Simon, for whom science and industry were the pillars of
a new world, was no coincidence. Monet is not known to have
been politically active, however. In his representations of indus-
trial plants, trains, railway stations and modern steel bridges, he
simply addressed the phenomena of modern life and thereby
followed the trend towards realism which had characterized the
work of both Monet and his brothers-in-arms since the sixties.
However, Monet frequently also withdrew to isolated spots on
the right bank of the Seine, where the Petit Bras arm of the river
embraced the small island of Marante, whose high poplars could
be seen from all around. A very early rendition of this motif,
painted at the beginning of spring 1872, is The Petit Bras at
Argenteuil (p. 60). In March Monet set off for Rouen, where his
brother Leon lived and where he wanted to take part in an
exhibition. During his stay, he painted The Ruisseau de Robec
(p. 61) in the factory quarter of Rouen, as well as views of the
Seine with the Rouen skyline and its cathedral in the background.
Monet subsequently restricted his range of motifs; from his return
from Rouen until the end of 1872, he concentrated above all on
the Seine near Argenteuil, as in The Basin at Argenteuil (p. 62),
the View of the Argenteuil Plain from the Sannois Hills (p. 63),
the Regatta at Argenteuil (p. 67) and Festival at Argenteuil (p.
66). These pictures of Argenteuil and its surroundings differ
considerably in terms of painting style, whereby their variability
becomes their specific characteristic. Complex brushwork is ap-
plied on top of flat, unmodelled washes; quiet, matt colours are
followed by pastel shades and animated impasto. In the View of
the Argenteuil Plain, Monet provides a panoramic view out to-
wards a far-off Argenteuil, a view also enjoyed by the two walkers
who seem to melt into the surrounding vegetation as they dis-
appear down the path. The equally-weighted clusters of trees to
the left and and the horizon starting from the centre of the
right
picture give this expansive composition its balanced and har-
monious tenor. Here, too, there is no brushwork differentiation
of the objects portrayed; they are distinguishable by colour alone.
Monet's views of the town of Argenteuil, including the Festival
at Argenteuil (p. 66), also capture a contemplative and unchanging
side of rural life not yet affected by industrialization. Paris, on
the other hand, had been dramatically reshaped under the pre-
fecture of Georges Eugene Haussmann. Quarters whose twisting
alleyways and winding streets had grown up over the centuries
were, in the fifties, pulled down to make way for spacious boule-
vards and avenues. Although officially for the purpose of ensuring
the State better control of epidemics, civil wars and barricades,
these measures were above all intended to drive the traditional
populace into the suburbs. The quartiers of Paris lost their indi-
vidual identity. The doors were thrown well and truly open to
economic speculation, and the inhuman face of Moloch's metro-
58
poliswas soon revealed. Luxurious department stores sprung up, Lilacs, Overcast Weather, 1872
Les Lilas, temps gris
such as the famous Bon Marche in 1876, together with malls, Oil on canvas, 50 x 65 cm
exhibition halls and panoramas - suitable settings for the city's Wildenstein I. 203
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
beau monde. At the World's Fair of 1867 this capital-oriented
culture reached its most glittering peak. The Empire was at the
height of power, and Paris confirmed its position as the centre
its
59
The Petit Bias at Aigenteuil, 1872
Le Petit Bras d'Argenteuil
Oil on canvas, 53 x 73 cm
Wildenstein I. 196
London, The National Gallery
60
The Ruisseau de Robec (Rouen), 1872
Le Ruisseau de Robec (Rouen)
Oil on canvas, 50 x 65 cm
Wildenstein I. 206
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
way as marbling - in splodges, any old way. It's outrageous, PAGE 62 ABOVE:
The Basin at Argenteuil, 1872
appalling! It's enough to give a man apoplexy.'" Le Bassin d'Argenteuil
This was simply another echo of the accusation repeatedly Oil on canvas, 60 x 80.5 cm
Wildenstein I. 225
levelled at Impressionist works by conservative critics, namely
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
that they were unfinished, painted too quickly and - since they
PAGE 62 BELOW:
were based on the rules of the sketch - at best only preliminary The Seine at Argenteuil, 1873
studies. Since this work, like a sketch, gives first priority to the La Seine a Argenteuil
Oil on canvas, 50.5 x 61 cm
overall impression, Monet was able to extensively abandon the Wildenstein I.198
intellectual principle of perspective organization, whereby per- Paris, Musee d'Orsay
ception concentrates upon a specific point. Vision instead becomes PAGE 63 ABOVE:
expansive and comprehensive, objects both near and far are seen The Promenade at Argenteuil, 1872
La Promenade d'Argenteuil
simultaneously, without spatial separation. Thus space in the Oil on canvas, 50.4 x 65.2 cm
Boulevard despite the diagonal line of the trees - is shaped
- Wildenstein I. 223
Washington (D.C.), National Gallery of
through the linking of objects by mood, the colour enveloppe, Art, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection
61
K"' Tar ,
Mb
1 4 *
**^^vNBfr''-£; Kff#- - "^2lF i . 'B
the academies of the Renaissance, painting had to be intellectual;
this could surely only be guaranteed by starting from drawing,
and not from sensual effects of colour.
This belief found its most resolute apologist at the beginning
of the 19th century in the figure of the classical painter Jean
Auguste Dominique Ingres. The artistic process was divided into
the sketch, representing the first stage, followed by its develop-
ment in the studio. Essential preconditions included the use of
perspective, clear, linear forms and chiaroscuro, namely the mod-
elling of colours with black and white. These were the criteria
against which conservative opinion judged Impressionist painting.
Criticism focussed not only upon its lack of formal finish, its
two-dimensionality, but above all upon its rejection of traditional
chiaroscuro in favour of pictorial structure on the basis of colour
alone. The Impressionists no longer treated shadows as areas of
darkness, but instead combined them with their complementaries Edouard Manet
Monet Painting in His Boat, 1874
in manifold modulations. Although it is not entirely accurate to Monet peignant dans son Atelier
say that the Impressionists, in particular Monet, abandoned earthy Oil on canvas, 82.5 x 100.5 cm
Munich, Neue Pinakothek
colours and black altogether, it is nevertheless their innovatory
use of a light, bright palette which distinguishes their works at
the height of the movement. These include the large numbers
of boat and regatta paintings which were produced between 1873
and 1875 not only by Monet, but also by Sisley, Renoir and
Gustave Caillebotte.
Boating, as a means of escaping an increasingly industrialized
daily routine, had grown progressively more popular since the
beginning of the 19th century. The idea that sporting activity
brought refreshment and regeneration was also current, and at-
tracted more and more Parisian city-dwellers, who founded regatta
clubs and held competitions in Argenteuil from 1850 onwards.
In the seventies, Argenteuil was synonymous with boating. Its
contemporaneity and its dominance of Argenteuil life lent this
aspect of modernite a peculiar fascination for Monet. Many of
his motifs were captured directly from a boat which he had
bought to work in. 'I painted my first Argenteuil boat scenes
from my studio. From there I could see everything happening on
the Seine up to about forty or fifty paces away. Then, one day,
a good sale unexpectedly left me with enough money to buy a
boat and to build on it a wooden cabin with just enough room
to set up my easel. The hours I spent with Manet on that little
boat were unforgettable. He painted my portrait there, and I
painted both him and his wife.' This floating studio, whose
inspiration had been Daubigny's 'Botin,' was preserved for pos-
terity by Manet in his The Rowing Boat or Monet with Camille
in his Floating Studio (p. 64).
It was from this boat, anchored not far from the shore of
Petit-Gennevilliers near Argenteuil, that Monet painted the Re-
gatta at Argenteuil (p. 67). It was purchased by the painter Cail-
lebotte, who settled in the area in around 1880. The houses of
64
Petit-Gennevilliers are visible on the right. The Argenteuil road The Studio-Boat, 1874
Le Bateau-atelier
bridge can just be made out in the left-hand background. Before
Oil on canvas, 50 x 64 cm
it, the sailing boats bobbing on the Seine cast their long, broken Wildenstein I. 323
shadows across the water in the afternoon sunlight. As in La
Otterlo (The Netherlands), State Museum
Kroller-Muller Collection
Grenouillere (p. 43), a sense of space is evoked via the different
shapes and sizes of the reflections in the water. In both its
technique and its combination of reality and reflection, the picture
relates directly to its Bougival predecessors. With an extraordinary
lightness of touch, the movement of the water and the play of
the reflections are brought to with crude, abstract brush-
life
strokes. From the interplay of pure and broken, cool and warm
colours the picture draws tremendous freshness and luminosity.
It is one of the most brilliant Impressionist displays of the Ar-
genteuil period.
1872 was a sucessful year for Monet in financial as well as
creative terms. Durand-Ruel had purchased on a large scale and
friends and collectors had rallied round. Monet's average monthly
65
Festival at Aigenteuil. 1872
La Fete d'Argenteuil
Oil on canvas, 60 x 81 cm
Wildenstein I. 241
USA, private collection
66
not only from sunlit river landscapes, but also from affectionate Regatta at Argenteuil, 1872
Regates a Argenteuil
portraits of Camille [Madame Monet in a Red Hood; p. 68) and Oil on canvas, 48 x 75 cm
the family, as in The Luncheon (p. The Luncheon is
68/69). one Wildenstein I. 233
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
of the few large-format paintings after 1870. The charm of this
painting lies above all in the ordinariness and intimacy of the
scene. In the garden of the Aubry's house in Argenteuil, Monet's
young son Jean appears in the left-hand foreground and Camille
in the background. The table which has not yet been cleared
away, the hat hanging forgotten from the branches of the tree
and the child entirely absorbed in play suggest that the meal has
only just finished. The eye is drawn from the shady foreground
to the sun-drenched gravel path and flower-beds, whereby the
layering of planes creates an impression of depth. Monet's setting
recalls the compositions and subjects of the Intimisme of Pierre
Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard.
In The Poppy Field at Argenteuil (p. 70/71), an equally happy
and untroubled mood is expressed in the blossoming abundance
of a sunlit field of poppies. The figures meandering through this
idyllic scene seem to melt into the nature around them, and the
weight of the painting lies essentially in the warm, red, almost
abstract dabs of paint which make up the poppies, and which
stand out against the matt, complementary green of the ground
with particular vitality. It is here once more evident that Monet's
67
Madame Monet in a Red Hood, 1873
La Capeline rouge, Portrait de Madame
Monet
Oil on canvas, 100 x 80 cm
Wildenstein I. 257
Cleveland (Ohio), Cleveland Museum of
Art, Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna, Ir. 58.39
68
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.
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73
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^^^
By 15 April 1874, everything was ready. Works by a total of with Melon. 1872
Still Lite
Nature mono au melon
thirty independent artists filled the eight rooms of the photog- Oil on canvas 53 x 73 cm
rapher Nadar on the Boulevard des Capucines. In addition to Wildenstein I. 245
Lisbon, Fundagao Calouste Gulbenkian
many, today unfairly forgotten artists, the exhibitors included Museum
Monet, Boudin, Cezanne, Degas, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley, Gautier,
Berthe Morisot and Felix Bracquemond. The exhibition lasted
for a month, until 15 May. Its catalogue was designed by Edmond
Renoir, journalist brother of the painter. Monet showed nine
pictures; in addition to three pastels and a view of the port of Le
Havre, he exhibited The Poppy Field at Argenteuil (p. 70/71),
The Boulevard des Capucines (p. 56) and Impression, Sunrise (p.
77). The 3500 visitors who attended were, like the conservative
press, vociferous in their ridicule and mockery. Enthusiastic
voices were heard chiefly among the artists' circle of friends.
Areview by writer-cum-landscape painter Louis Leroy has
since become particularly famous. Writing in the satirical maga-
zine Charivari on 25 April 1874, he composed a fictitious con-
versation between two visitors under the heading 'Exhibition of
Impressionists': 'My goodness, what a tiring day that was when
I braved the first exhibition on the Boulevard des Capucines .in . .
74
Vincent But what is it ? Have a look in the catalogue. " "Impression,
!
77
Edouard Manet
The Monet Family in Their Garden, 1874
La Famille Monet au Tardin
Oil on canvas, 61 x 99.7 cm
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Bequest of loan Whiney Payson, 1975
[1976.201.14]
for figureand ground. Form was now invoked through the interplay
of colour, as seen in the pictures from Argenteuil. In consequence,
the sensual nature of objects grew while their compositional
significance diminished. Space was suggested rather than created
through illusionistic means of linear perspective. Experiments
were made with the abbreviation of objects in the background
and the use of high horizons.
This definition of Impressionist style is essentially valid for a
group of artists briefly sharing the same philosophy between 1873
and 1875. During this period Renoir, Sisley, Caillebotte and
Manet all came to Argenteuil and for a while worked before the
same motif. Argenteuil correspondingly marks the height of Im-
pressionism. But the aims of the individuals within this group
were to prove too various, for while Monet, Sisley and Pissarro
had devoted themselves to landscape painting, Degas and Renoir
were particularly interested - albeit each from an entirely different
angle - in the human figure. At least two groups can be identified
within the new movement: the colourists and landscape artists
such as Monet, and the circle around Degas. When the Salon
opened fifteen days later, however, it declared war on the move-
ment as a whole.
The financialoutcome of the first Impressionist exhibition was
discouraging,- in December of the same year, members learned
they each owed the Society an outstanding 184 Francs. It was
unwelcome news to Monet, whose 1874 income had already
fallen, due to poor sales, to a level well below that of the previous
year. All the more vigorous, then, were his efforts to attract new
collectors. These included both the well-known opera singer
Jean-Baptiste Faure and the wealthy businessman Ernest Ho-
schede. Hoschede was a cloth dealer who had made his fortune
by marrying lady-of-means Alice Raingo and who owned profitable
department stores in Paris. In January 1874, more for speculative
78
Camille Monet with a Child in the Gar- than financial reasons, he anonymously sold 13 of his pictures
den, 1875
Camille Monet et un enfant au jardin
by independent painters at the Hotel Drouot auction rooms. In
Oil on canvas, 55 x 66 cm the hope of repeating the success of this sale, he went on to build
Wildenstem I. 382
Boston, private collection
up a considerable collection of Impressionist works over the next
few years.
The summer months of 1874 number among the least troubled
and most creative phases of the Argenteuil period. Renoir was a
guest of the Monets and, as earlier in Bougival, the two artists
worked in front of the same motif. Renoir thereby assimilated
something Monet's style in the greater fragmentation of his
of
brush-strokes. A comparison of Monet's Boaters at Argenteuil
(1874; private collection) and Renoir's Seine at Argenteuil (1874;
Portland, Art Museum) makes this particularly clear. The pair
were ioined by Manet, who was spending the summer at his
family home in Petit-Gennevilliers, not far from Argenteuil. This
period saw the production of Manet's most Impressionist works
- summery scenes flooded with light in lively colours. Monet's
floating studio (p. 64) was just one of his many boat subjects.
Confronted by this picture at the Salon of 1875, the otherwise
well-meaning art critic Zola accused Manet of a formlessness
similar to that characterizing Monet's work.
The carefree holiday mood is also captured in the identical
views of Monet's garden in Argenteuil addressed by all three
artists. Monet later owned Renoir's Camille Monet and Jean in
the Garden at Argenteuil (1874; Washington, National Gallery
of Art) and recalled the hours they spent working side by side:
'The exquisite picture by Renoir which is now in my possession
shows my first wife. It was painted in our garden in Argenteuil.
One day, excitedby the colours and the light, Manet started an
open-air study of figures under trees. While he was working,
Renoir came along. He, too, was captivated by the mood of the
moment. He asked me for palette, brush and canvas, sat down
next to Manet and started painting. The latter watched him out
of the corner of his eye and now and again went over to have a
closer look at his canvas. Then he grimaced, tiptoed over to me
and whispered: "The lad has no talent! Since you're his friend,
tell him he might as well give up.'" This remark was perhaps
79
Holland. But the railway bridge, as a symbol of the technical
achievements of the age, had a particular aesthetic which appealed
both to Monet and other of his Impressionist colleagues.
Monet exploited the clear architectural shapes of these bridges
to introduce geometric structure into his pictures. The Seine
Bridge at Aigenteuil (p. 82), which shows the road bridge as
painted from Monet's floating studio, displays an almost classical
clarity in its pictorial composition. In this cropped view of the
bridge, two piers demarcate the right- and left-hand edges of the
picture. These verticals find their compositional counterweights
in the masts of the boats bobbing in the foreground, whose
diagonal positioning creates an impression of depth despite an
absolutely two-dimensional water surface. The central arch of
the bridge echoed in the curving silhouette of the hill on the
is
far side of the river. This and the high horizon ensure a spatial
continuum of foreground, middle distance and background, des-
pite Monet's rejection of traditional perspective design.
The accusation levelled at Monet's work by formalist-idealists
from the world of abstract art, namely that it is 'determined by
The Road Bridge, Aigenteuil, 1874
chance', that it is purely 'eye' and thus perforce neglects the Le Pont routier, Argenteuil
Oil on canvas, 60 x 79.7 cm
rational element, is here clearly shown to be invalid. It is an
Wildenstein I. 312
accusation based upon the 19th-century belief that perception Washington (D.C.), National Gallery of
Art, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon Collection
and 'pure' seeing were two separate things, a distinction which
has since been refuted by modern perceptual psychology. There
is no perception independent of experience values, no 'pure'
80
The Seine Bridge at Aigenteuil, 1874 brought alive and which was so close to their own intentions.
Le Pont d'Argenteuil
Oil on canvas, 60 x 81.3 cm
The Japanese woodcut is thus directly related to the development
Wildenstein I. 313 of the Impressionists' new style of painting.
Munich, Neue Pinakothek
It was not until the 1 850's, when Japan finally opened its borders
to international trade, that Europe began to enjoy wider exposure
to Japanese culture. 'La Porte chinoise/ which sold Japanese
prints and handicrafts, opened in 1862 in the Rue de Rivoli in
Paris. Frequent visitors included both avant-garde painters such
as Monet, Manet, Degas, Whistler and Fantin-Latour and literary
figures such as Baudelaire, Zola and the brothers Edmond and
Jules de Goncourt, who not only pursued Japanese themes in
their novels, but also furthered the understanding of oriental
culture through their monographs on Japanese artists. The World's
Fair of 1867 offered a further opportunity to learn about Japan.
Artists began collecting Japanese woodcuts and, in a mood of
decorative exoticism, surrounded themselves with kimonos, fans,
ceramics and screens with Japanese motifs. Leaving aside for a
moment his artistic debt to Japanese art, Monet's confrontation
with Japan was to result in the construction of a Japanese garden
82
in Giverny as well as in the comprehensive collection of Japanese The Railway Bridge, Argenteuil, 1873
Le Pont du chemin de fer, Argenteuil
colour prints which can be admired in Giverny today.
Oil on canvas, 54 x 71 cm
With not uncharacteristic exaggeration, Monet claimed to have Wildenstein I. 319
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
seen and bought his first Japanese prints in 1856, when he was
16 years old. Here, as elsewhere, events are backdated to fit the
picture the artist wishes to create. Monet is unlikely to have
discovered and acquired such woodcuts before 1862, however,
and probably only did so in 1871 in Zaandam. Here he had the
opportunity to purchase a whole packet of such prints at an
extremely cheap price from a porcelain dealer who - clearly
ignorant of their value - was using them to wrap china.
In La faponaise (p. 86), Monet makes direct reference to the
Japonism of the day. The composition bears eloquent witness to
his love of Japanese objects and arrangements. Although figural
themes played an ever-decreasing role in his work over the seven-
ties, they survived in individual paintings executed above all
83
Snow at Argent euil. 1874 ABOVE RIGHT: BELOW RIGHT:
Neige a Argenteuil The Boulevard de Pontoise at Argenteuil, The Train in the Snow, 1875
Oil on canvas, 54.6 x 73.8 cm Snow, 1875 Le Train dans la neige. La Locomotive
Wildenstein I. 348 Le Boulevard de Pontoise a Argenteuil. Oil on canvas, 59 x 78 cm
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Bequest of Neige Wildenstein I. 356
Anna Perkins Rogers Oil on canvas, 60 x 81 cm Paris, Musee Marmottan
Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Wildenstein I. 359
Basle, Offentliche Kunstsammlung Basel,
Kunstmuseum
it^&^C^vtc .
JZSIIJjJ
The Chrysanthemums, 1878
Les Chrysanthemes
Oil on canvas, 54 x 65 cm
Wildenstein I. 492
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
while the fans decorating the rear wall appear to float in mid-air.
Equally theatrical is the pose adopted by Camille, who is wearing
a blond wig and a heavily-embroidered, richly-coloured robe whose
Japanese motifs appear to stand out with almost three-dimensional
plasticity. Here Monet not only borrows from the figure painting
of Manet, Renoir and Whistler, but also refers back to The Woman
in the Green Dress (p. 22), the painting which had been such a
Salon success. Monet subsequently distanced himself from this
work for its concessions to the public taste of its time,- it never-
theless proved a great success in the second Impressionist ex-
hibition of 1876 and was sold for 2000 Francs.
Financial pressures resulting from the first Impressionist ex-
hibition forced Monet, Renoir, Sisley and Morisot to auction a
large number of paintings in theHotel Drouot in March 1875.
Despite a favourable reception by influential critics such as Phi-
lippe Burty, the sale was a disaster. The prices obtained were
ridiculously low and many of the public simply laughed or even
protested as the works were brought out. The voices of the few
serious collectors such as Henri Rouart and Georges Charpentier
were thereby drowned. Charpentier's encounter with Impres-
sionist art nevertheless proved significant for the later history of
the movement. At the auction he acquired a painting by Renoir,
who subsequently introduced him to Monet, Pissarro and Sisley.
La faponaise, 1875
Oil on canvas, 231 x 142 cm
He now not only collected their works but also, as publisher of
Wildenstein I. 387 the magazine La Vie Moderne which he founded in 1879, helped
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Purchase
support and promote their art. Edmond Renoir later became
Fund 1951
Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston director of the gallery which the magazine also owned, and which
87
The Tuileries, 1876
Les Tuileries
Oil on canvas, 54 x 73 cm
Wildenstein I. 401
Paris, Musee Marmottan
88
The Tuileries (sketch), 1876
Les Tuileries (esquisse)
Oil on canvas, 50 x 75 cm
Wildenstein I. 403
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
89
Gladioli, c.1876
Les Glai'euls
Oil on canvas, 60 x 81 cm
Wildenstein IV 414
Detroit, The Detroit Institute of Arts, pur-
chased by the City of Detroit 21.71
The Turkeys, 1876
Les Dindons
Oil on canvas, 174.5 x 172.5 cm
Wildenstein I. 416
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
In autumn 1876 Monet was invited to join Hoschede and his
wife Alice at their Montgeron estate, the Chateau de Rottenbourg,
where Monet was given his own studio in the park. Manet and
his wife had already spent the summer here. Monet was com-
missioned to paint four decorative panels for the chateau interior,
taking motifs from the local surroundings - The Turkeys (ill., p.
91), Corner of the Garden at Montgeron (Leningrad, Eremitage),
The Pond at Montgeron (Leningrad, Eremitage) and The Hunt
(France, private collection). While Camille and Jean remained
behind in Argenteuil and Hoschede pursued his - now troubled
- business in Paris, Monet spent the autumn with Alice and her
six children in Rottenbourg. It is sometimes assumed that the
affair between Alice and Monet began here, but it was not until
much later that she officially became his mistress and wife. The
two couples developed a close friendship which went far beyond
94
The Gare Saint-Lazare: the Normandy
Train, 1877
La Gare Saint-Lazare. Le train de Nor-
mandie
Oil on canvas, 59.6 x 80.2 cm
Wildenstein I. 440
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago,
Mr.und Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collec-
tion, 1933.1158
give you details, but simply the whole,' was the typical reaction
of one passenger, Jules Claretie, in 1865. The train, offering fast
and comfortable access in place of long journeys by carriage and
cart, brought a different concept of distance; real geographical
distance shrank in the mind and could no longer be directly
experienced. The industrial innovation to which our own per-
ception has long been accustomed, and whose implications of
boundlessness and the rapid accessibility of even the remotest
locations are today commonly accepted, thus led to a revision
of the space/time concept. The rejection of conventional space
by Impressionist painting was now seen to match these new
developments; it, too, replaced three-dimensional perspective
depth with an open, planar linking of objects which incorporated
the moment of motion. By making the reflection of reality their
basis, Impressionist works could thus claim to be the last word
in modernity, the definitive expression of their times.
95
In The Gare Saint-Lazare (p. 94), the rigid glass-and-steel frame
of the hall is filled with light and dark clouds of steam, some
conjoined with almost corporeal solidity, others disintegrating
into vaporous wisps. In the background, the Pont de PEurope
viaduct and neighbouring houses emerge from the blue-grey mist
as if freed of solid architectural form. Within this all-blurring,
all-permeating atmosphere, the girders of the vaulted hall and
the suggested presence of the tracks offer orientation and stability.
An important role is here given to the atmospheric cloak which
envelops all parts of reality and the picture and robs them of
their distinguishing, distinctive features, rendering them anony-
mously equal. The scenes of steam, fog, rain and snow which for
a while numbered among Monet's favourite themes offered him
ideal opportunities to explore such effects. While human figures
in these pictures are reduced to mere silhouettes, the vibrant
black colossus of the engine advances puffing and panting into
the station. But what may perhaps appear an apotheosis of tech- Unloading Coal, 1875
nology is in essence an exploration of atmospheric changes in Les Dechargeurs de Charbon
Oil on canvas, 55 x 66 cm
exactly the same terms as Monet's motifs from nature. The Wildenstein I. 364
Saint-Lazare railway station thus shows not only the modern Private collection
96
does not mean schematic reproduction with systematic variation. The Pont de l'Europe, 1877
Le Pont de l'Europe, Gare Saint-Lazare
Serial painting offered an opportunity to capture an impression Oil on canvas, 64 x 81 cm
of the fleetingness of a given moment as well as the permanence Wildenstein I. 442
Paris, Musee Marmottan
and characteristic features of a landscape.
At the third Impressionist exhibition, opened in the Rue Le
Peletier on 4 April 1877 under the title 'Exhibition of Impres-
sionists/ Monet showed seven of his Gare Saint-Lazare paintings
as a self-contained unit. The short-lived journal 'L'Impressioniste'
was published to coincide with the exhibition, and was specially
devoted to the 18 painters on display. The magazine was produced
by Georges Riviere, a close friend of Renoir, whose reaction to
Monet's 30 exhibits, and in particular his Gare Saint-Lazare
paintings, was one of rapturous praise. The exhibition was never-
theless a financial failure for Monet, and in the course of the
autumn and winter his economic situation grew increasingly
desperate. Hoschede's own approaching bankruptcy meant that
97
he was no longer in a position to support the artist as generously
as before. In June 1878 the Hoschede collection was put up for
compulsory auction. This was a catastophe for the Impressionists
since it caused prices for their works to plummet.
Monet - when he found a buyer at all - was forced to sell his
works at a knock-down price, as revealed by a fresh round of
begging letters to Caillebotte and Chocquet. The situation was
not helped by Monet's lifestyle in Argenteuil; for a while he was
employing two domestic helps and a gardener, although these
were still claiming outstanding wages many years later. Nor was
Monet at any stage willing to give up his worldly pleasures.
Tobacco and wine always had to be available in plentiful quantities.
Another worry which weighed heavily upon him, however, was
the impaired state of Camille's health. It is thus not surprising
that only four pictures survive from the nine months following
his return from Paris after completing the Gare Saint-Lazare
paintings. In addition to the money worries underlying this ar-
tistically lean period, Monet may have found Argenteuil's motifs
less motivating than those of Paris. Was Monet becoming aware
of the impossibility of harmoniously combining growing indus-
trialization and unspoilt nature, and did Argenteuil thus become
an irredeemable myth? Paintings such as Unloading Coal (p. 96)
are just as revealing as his noticeable retreat into the garden at
Argenteuil (Camille Monet with a Child in the Garden; p. 79),
into the Parisian parks [Parisians Enjoying the Pare Monceaii;
p. 98) and into the remote surroundings of the Petit Bras arm of
the Seine.
By October 1877 Monet had already moved back to Paris, where
he took a spacious apartment at 26, Rue d'Edinbourgh near Pare
Monceau, not far from the Pont de l'Europe. Monet's second son,
Michel, was born here on 17 March 1878. Camille was never to
recover from his birth, her health deteriorating from this point
on. In addition to pictures of parks [Parisians Enjoying the Pare
Monceau) and views of the excursion island of La Grande Jatte,
Monet returned to Parisian street scenes such as the two almost
identical versions of The Rue Saint-Denis on 30 June 1878 (p.
101). The World's Fair which opened on 1 May in Paris was one
of the great events of 1878, and was the reason why the Impres-
sionists did not hold a group exhibition that year. However, useful
publicity for the group was provided by the book The Impressionist
Painters published by Duret, in which he introduced and analysed
the aims and characteristics of Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley
and Morisot.
In the last few days of June, the festivities taking place in
conjunction with the World's Fair reached their peak. On the Parisians Enjoying the Pare Monceau, 1878
Le Pare Monceau
occasion of the public holiday on 30 June, festive processions
Oil on canvas, 73 x 54 cm
turned the streets of Paris into a surging sea of colourful flags. Wildenstein I. 466
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art,
The decorations and general tumult inspired Monet to paint two Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ittleson, Jr., Fund,
pictures (p. 101). As he later recalled: 'I loved flags. On 30 June, 1959 (59.142)
98
the first national holiday, walked down the Rue Montorgueil
I
Yes, those were good times, though life was not always easy.'
Monet's picture miraculously succeeds in conveying the bustling
activity on the street. The eye is drawn with dynamic force into
the imagined depth of the street. The dense throng of swelling
crowds, the fluttering flags, the interplay of light and shadow in
the street and on the facades of the houses are rendered in flickering,
dissipated brush-strokes which deprive forms of their original
identity and weave all into an animated tissue of colour. The
painting represents an outstanding example of the spontaneous,
rapid fixation of the overall impression which characterized Im-
pressionist painting during the Argenteuil period.
Duret was right to call Monet
most Impressionist of all
the
the Impressionists, 'for he has succeeded in fixing on the canvas
those fleeting appearances which painters before him have either
neglected or believed impossible to reproduce with the brush.
He has recorded in all their truth the thousand nuances assumed
by the waters of the ocean and rivers, the play of light in the
clouds, the changing colouring of flowers and the transparent
reflections of foiliage under a burning sun. Since he paints land-
scapes not only in their unchanging and permanent state, but
also from fleeting and chance atmospheric points of view, Monet
renders an astonishingly lively and moving impression of the
subject he has chosen. His paintings give real impressions. His
snow scenes makes us shiver, while his sunshine warms.' The
years in Argenteuil played a vital role in the development and
The Rue Saint-Denis on 30 June 1878,
refinement of this painting.
1878
Monet had missed nature and the countryside during his months La Rue Saint-Denis, fete du 30 juin 1878
Oil on canvas, 76 x 52 cm
in Paris, and his decision to move to Vetheuil was thus prompted
Wildenstein 1. 470
by more than simply financial considerations alone. Rouen, Musee des Beaux-Arts
100
Vetheuil 1878-1881
'A difficult time with a dark
7
future
103
Poppy Field near Vetheuil, 1879
Champ de coquelicots pres de Vetheuil
Oil on canvas, 70 x 90 cm
Wildenstein 1. 536
Zurich, Stiftung Sammlung E.G. Biihrle
the trees. The architectural forms are solid and specific and not
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Bequest of Julia Wildenstein Emmons,
yet dematerialized by the light. In the foreground, which plays 1956 (56.135.1.)
104
a particularly important role, Monet employs a technique already
fully developed in Argenteuil. The movement of the water is
recreated in multiple, broken brush-strokes, forming a powerful
contrast to the flatter areas of wash. This was to become a
works of this period.
characteristic feature of the
Snow scenes were popular with other Impressionist landscape
painters apart from Monet, since they offered a particular oppor-
tunity to explore reflections of light, incorporated into the painting
as detailed flecks of paint. In this picture, too, the white of the
snow is overlaid with blue reflections. The palette is both ex-
tremely muted and restricted. The only lively dash of colour is
the blue waistcoat of the human figure shown only faintly emerg-
ing from the background.
The long-awaited spring of 1879 brought new stimulus, and
blossoming trees offered appropriate motifs. Hopes were also
attached to the fourth Impressionist exhibition, which opened
at 28, Avenue de l'Opera on 1 April 1 8 79 under the title 'Exhibition
of Independent Artists.' Although 15 artists took part in the show,
Morisot, Sisley and Renoir were missing. Renoir was exhibiting
in the Salon, which in 1879 revealed - from the young painters'
point of view - an interesting trend towards the replacement of
academic, mythological and historical themes by naturalism and
subjects from modern life, as championed by the Impressionists.
Thanks to its accessible location, the Impressionist exhibition
attracted a large number of visitors and took a profit for the first
107
taken up with the care of his family, had hardly a thought to
spare for painting. He described the desperate nature of his situ-
ation to Duret in January 1879: 'I am sitting here literally without
a sou. I am therefore compelled to beg for my continued existence.
I have no money to buy canvas or paints.' They were short of
Oil on canvas, 90 x 68 cm before the idea had occurred to me to record those beloved features,
Wildenstein I. 543
Paris, Musee d'Orsay my organism was already reacting to the sensation of colour, and
my reflexes compelled me to take unconscious action in spite
of myself. Thus Monet described the feeling of being the slave
to his own visions.
Seen through a veil of muted and broken hues, Camille 's pallid
face seems to be dissolving within an aethereal vacuum. The
entire picture is permeated by the violet colours of rigor mortis.
The fastand hasty brush-strokes suggest that Monet was in a
hurry to finish the picture. In Zola's novel The Masterpiece,
published in 1886, the character Claude Lantier is a fictitious
Impressionist artist who - similarly driven by a painter's reflexes
- paints a loved one, his young son, on his deathbed. This struck
a very personal chord in Monet, as revealed in a letter he wrote
to Zola shortly after the book's publication.
Monet remained in Vetheuil with the eight children and Alice,
who now took over the role of mother to his two sons. For the
local village population, these domestic arrangements were not
unambiguous. And indeed, Alice produced all sorts of reasons
not to return to her husband Ernest in Paris, who was busy
looking for buyers for Monet's paintings. Their debts had mean-
while grown considerably; unpaid bills were constantly landing
on the doorstep, followed on more than one occasion by the
bailiff himself. But despite all these trials and tribulations, Monet
108
threw himself into work in the winter of 1879/80 as a means of Hoar-Frost, 1880
Le Givre
temporarily forgetting the emptiness left by Camille's death.
Oil on canvas, 61 x 100 cm
Here, too, his choice and treatment of motifs reflect his inner Wildenstein 555
I.
Sunflowers, 1880
flowers and dead pheasants. Bouquet de soleils
In comparison to landscapes, still lifes are rare among Monet's Oil on canvas, 101 x 81.3 cm
Wildenstein 628
I.
works - unless the deserted snowscapes and Breakup of the Ice New York, The Metropolitan Museum of
paintings from 1879/80 are also assigned, in a wider sense, to Art, Bequest of Mrs. H.O. Havemeyer,
1929. H.O. Havemeyer Collection
this genre. In the following year, however, Monet painted several (29.100.107)
arrangements of fruit (p. 112/113) and - in particular - flowers,
PAGE 111:
including the Sunflowers (p. 110/111) whose freedom and unre- Jerusalem Artichokes, 1880
Fleurs de Topinambours
straint made a deep impression on Vincent van Gogh. Monet had
Oil on canvas, 99.6 x 73 cm
always loved flowers, as revealed in his devotion to gardening in Wildenstein I. 629
Washington (D.C.), National Gallery of
Argenteuil and later Giverny. But the sunflower paintings of 1880
Art, Chester Dale Collection
differ from his earlier, considerably more realistic reproductions
of flowers and instead look forward to the later works of van
Gogh. In place of detailed, true-to-life illustrations, these flowers
now become the embodiment of light and sun set luminously
against a blue-violet background. The artist exploits the inten-
sifying effects of the complementary contrasts of yellow-violet
and blue-orange. In the same way, the red of the table-cloth stands
out from the green impasto of the leaves. The rapid, expressive
handling of the paint reveals an emotional involvement similar
109
to that which can be observed in the 1879/80 Breakup of the Ice
paintings (p. 115) and later in the Etretat paintings of 1886 (p.
131).
Monet's material difficulties were exacerbated by an extremely
hard winter - one of the coldest Vetheuil had ever experienced,
with temperatures falling as low as minus 25 degrees. The Seine
itself froze over and could be crossed on foot. Even such extreme
weather conditions as these seldom stopped Monet from working,
as he later recalled: 'I painted in January 1879 on the ice, for
example. The Seine had frozen over, and I set myself up on the
river, trying hard to keep my easel and my camping stool steady.
From time to time, someone would bring me a hot-water bottle.
But not for my feet! It was not me that suffered from the cold,
but my numb fingers, which threatened to drop the brush.' Monet
pursued nature like a hunter and fighter. He exposed himself to
increasingly extreme situations, such as the coastal bluffs of
Etretat, where he was once overtaken at his easel by a large wave
which soaked him to the skin and sent his canvas flying. Indeed,
some of his seascapes include real grains of sand blown up by
the wind and trapped between layers of paint. In Bordighera, Italy,
he was later to give himself heatstroke working under the blazing
sun. As from the eighties, Monet increasingly sought motifs
which challenged him from every aspect, such as steep, barely
accessible cliffs, rocks and bays, and views painted in the freezing
cold, pouring rain and dazzling sunshine.
The frost and the thaw which set in on 4 and 5 January 1880
in Vetheuil inspired a number of masterly pictures. His letters
from this period reveal that these often gloomy winter landscapes,
113
are set by the vertical trunks of the poplars reflected in the water.
These natural borders are alone responsible for the creation of
pictorial space and depth. Brushwork approximates; the subject
of the picture is more invoked than described. In their earthy
palette and avoidance of strong contrasts, as well as in their
unusual subject and its new interpretation, these works mark an
emphatic break with the Impressionist phase of Argenteuil.
In another new departure, Monet resolved in spring 1880 to
exhibit at the Salon. He may have been encouraged in this by
Renoir's success in the 1879 Salon. But Monet's decision signalled
a crisis in Impressionist painting and his break with the Impres-
sionist group, since he simultaneously refused to exhibit in the
fifth Impressionist exhibition. He submitted two works to the
Salon, of which the rather more conventional summer landscape
of Lavancourt, executed on the basis of careful preliminary studies,
was accepted, while the dramatic, less agreeable Breakup of the
Ice painting was rejected. Although Monet's landscape was hung
very badly - i.e. very high up - in the Salon, it appears - if the
reviews of the exhibition are to be believed - to have outshone
its neighbours.
Monet's decision not to exhibit with the group had other,
disagreeable consequences. In January 1880, the Gaulois carried
an anonymous, malicious report which rebuked Monet - in con-
junction with his unfaithfulness to the Impressionists - for his
'strange' relationshipwith the Hoschedes, and in particular Alice.
Degas attacked him personally and Pissarro allowed their relations
to cool. Monet subsequently wrote to Duret: 'I am suddenly being
treated as a deserter by the whole band, but I believe it was in
my own interest to make the decision I did, since I'm more or
less sure to do some business, particularly with Petit, once I've
broken into the Salon.' In the event Monet was not to be disap-
pointed; gallery-owner Georges Petit, a competitor of Durand-
Ruel, subsequently purchased three of Monet's paintings. One
of the consequences of this in-fighting was Monet's decision to
take part neither in the Salon nor the Impressionist exhibition
in the following year.
There were a number of other painters in the group apart from
Monet who, around 1880, started to display a more critical attitude
towards their own work. For Renoir, for example, the lack of
definition and the formal dissolution of Impressionism posed a
danger which he sought to counter in the eighties through a
provisional return to strong lines and solid forms. Meanwhile,
in about 1884, Pissarro came into contact with the neo-Impres-
sionism developing around Georges Seurat. In his subsequent
work up to about 1888, he turned away from the 'disorder' of
Impressionist brushwork to the systematic divisionism of Poin-
tillism. Following scientific investigations based in part upon
the colour theories of Eugene Chevreul, Pointillism used dots of
pure colour in close juxtaposition whose optical mixture was
114
believed to achieve amore powerful luminosity. In addition to Breakup of the Ice near Vetheuil, 1880
La Debacle pres de Vetheuil
Renoir and Monet, Sisley and Cezanne had also chosen to exhibit Oil on canvas, 65 x 93 cm
at the Salon that year, effectively leaving only Pissarro to represent Wildenstein I. 572
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
the original direction of Impressionism, with Degas and his circle
representing the other side. Degas had even approved the title of
the fifth Impressionist exhibition - 'Exhibition of Independent
Painters.'
During this period, Monet was also subject to increasing criti-
cism regarding the elaboration [realisation) and finishing [fini]
of his works, and was the constant prey to doubts about the value
of his painting and the method of its execution. But Monet's
repeated insistence that he was and remained a plein-air painter
served only to perpetuate a myth which in no way corresponded
to reality, namely, that he had also long been a studio artist. The
works which he had submitted to the Salon were themselves
painted in the studio. On top of all this came his permanent
money worries and his unclear relationship with Alice.
On the occasion of his first one-man show, held in June 1880
in the galleries of the magazine La Vie Moderne, Monet was
interviewed by Emile Taboureux; in the course of the conversation,
115
Landscape, Vetheuil. 1879
P.i\ sage, Vetheuil
Oil on canvas, 60 x 73 cm
Wildenstein I. 526
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
The small set has today become a banal school opening its doors
to the first dauber who comes along.' This dig was intended not
only for Jean-Frangois Raffaeli, whom Degas had introduced into
the group, but also Paul Gauguin, who was exhibiting with the
Impressionists for the second time and of whom Monet had a
very low opinion.
In his one-man exhibition, Monet was able to show the Breakup
of the Ice painting which had been refused by the Salon as well
as 1 7 other works, chiefly views of Vetheuil, whereby a number
of individual motifs were treated several times as a means of
studying the same landscape at different times of day and year
and under different weather conditions. The exhibition aroused
great interest among the younger generation, including Paul Sig-
nac, who subsequently rose to prominence as a neo-Impressionist.
Monet now had to adjust to a new role as heroic father figure for
a new generation of independent painters. In the press, too, the
show was well reviewed. Monet was gradually becoming respect-
able. He found new collectors and admirers for his art, including
the banker Charles Ephrussi, later owner of the 'Gazette des
Beaux- Arts/ an art magazine which dedicated numerous articles
116
to the Impressionist movement from 1880 onwards. This glittering Vetheuil in Summer, 1880
Vetheuil en ete
personality was the inspiration behind the patron of the Impres-
Oil on canvas, 60 x 99.7 cm
sionist artist Elstir in Marcel Proust's 'In Remembrance of Things Wildenstein I. 605
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Past.' Monet's Vetheuil neighbours, the Coqueret family, also
Bequest of William Church Osborn, 1951
commissioned numerous portraits from him, even though the (51.30.3)
which Alice's silhouette can be recognized, are seldom to be Woman Seated under the Willows, 1880
Femme assise sous les saules
found. Apart from the fact that Alice was exceedingly jealous of Oil on canvas, 81 x 60 cm
any female model, Monet had always focussed chiefly upon land- Wildenstein I. 613
Washington (D.C.), National Gallery of
scape painting. Art, Chester Dale Collection
In September 1880, an invitation to Rouen from Monet's brother,
Leon, afforded a pleasant break. Leon, a great admirer of Claude's
work, took him off to his country cottage in Petit-Dalles, a small
resorton the Normandy coast near Fecamp. Imposing chalk cliffs
numbered among the local tourist attractions and offered Monet
a dramatic pictorial setting which matched his inner mood. Al-
though he produced only four pictures during this stay, the many
marine motifs which he painted on the Normandy coast over
the following few years had their origins here. Following Monet's
return to Vetheuil, an extreme thaw in the winter of 1880/81
prompted a series of Flood paintings. These show a Seine which
has swollen and burst its banks, inundating the surrounding
countryside and leaving large numbers of trees under water.
117
1
Wheat Field, 1881
Champ de ble
Oil on canvas, 65 x 81 cm
Wildenstein I. 676
Cleveland (Ohio), The Cleveland Museum of Art,
Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon, 47.197.
1881 started hopefully. Durand-Ruel's business had sufficiently
recovered for him to conclude a contract with Monet at the
beginning of the year; this committed him to purchasing a large
number of Monet's pictures at regular intervals. Artist and dealer
remained in lively written contact from now on. Their corre-
spondence, since published, provides illuminating insights into
Monet's working even today. Durand-Ruel's solid support con-
firmed Monet in his decision to give up the Salon once and for
all. The prospect of a regular monthly income had a calming
120
>r7^f«
- -) —
Igg^t/ &«'•'••
k
J
ISig
'
N _.
"' ~*<
^N^a/7 B
ploying separate strokes of complementary hues. Exquisitely col- Rough Sea, 1881
Mer agitee
ourful shadows thereby soften the strongly vertical and horizontal Oil on canvas, 60 x 74 cm
compositional layout. The figures of the young Jean-Pierre Ho- Wildenstein I. 663
Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada
schede and Michel Moriet merge into the exuberantly flowering
surroundings as if part of nature itself. Monet had always been
fascinated by gardens in bloom, and in the last 25 years of his
life the garden at Giverny was to become his favourite motif.
121
Poissy 1881-1883
'New start and new hope 7
Industrial expansion had not yet spread as far as this little settle-
ment. Although, in their Villa Saint-Louis with its picturesque
view of the Seine, the Hoschede and Monet families were housed
far more comfortably than previously in Vetheuil, it was never
to feel like home. More important, the town had little appeal for
Monet, and only a handful of works were painted here; next to
still lifes and portraits, only one picture takes the town as its
123
On the Coast at Twuville, 1881
Sur la cote a Trouville
Oil on canvas, 59.7 x 81 cm
Wildenstein I. 687
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, John Picker-
ing Lyman Collection, Gift of Theodora
Lyman
Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
124
Blanche Hoschede took her first painting lessons and, in a period The Church at Varengeville, Sunset, 1882
Eglise de Varengeville, soleil couchant
of intense activity, Monet captured the sunny atmosphere in the
Oil on canvas, 65 x 81 cm
Cliff Walk at Pourville (p. 127). In his views oiThe Church Wildenstein II. 726
Private collection
at Varengeville, Sunset (p. 125), he uses the high cliffs as the
pretext for an expressive use of colour in which the rock formations
are captured in a passionate sweep of the brush. These peaceful
times were interrupted by bouts of depression, in which Monet
doubted the value of his work and his own artistic talent and
destroyed many of his pictures. The situation was helped neither
by a spell of rain and overcast skies nor by Alice, who was bored.
A trip to Rouen with the children brought Monet only short-term
distraction.With their departure from Pourville in October, the
summer ended on a decidedly depressed note. Life in Poissy
turned out to be even more difficult. Alice, not used to living in
permanent financial straits, did not spare her reproaches, and her
husband was only allowed to appear in Poissy when Monet was
absent.
125
Monet used autumn to rework the pictures he had brought
the
back from the Normandy coast and which the poor weather had
prevented him from finishing on site. He also resumed still-life
painting. Monet's ideas of leaving Poissy were reinforced by the
flooding of the house in December. But he was nevertheless able
to look back upon a fruitful year; his sales to Durand-Ruel were
continuing apace and his seascapes in particular were proving
very successful. This was one more reason to flee Poissy and its
unhappy atmosphere and head for the coast of Normandy. In
January 1883 his travels took him to Le Havre, and from there
to Etretat, famous for its impressive coastal scenery. Etretat, with
its bathing coves walled by steep chalk cliffs towering up out of
the sea, had long been popular among artists, including Boudin
and Corot. Monet was familiar with the works that Courbet, too,
had painted here (p. 129). Guy de Maupassant, a naturalist writer
who, like Monet, had grown up on the Normandy coast and who
stayed with him in Etretat in 1885, included this craggy setting
of perpendicular, plunging cliffs more than once in his novels.
In Miss Harriet (1883), the picture by the painter Leon Cheval
recalls Monet's work in Etretat: 'The entire right-hand side of
my canvas depicted a rock, an enormous, knurled rock covered
with brown, yellow and red seaweed, the sun pouring over it like
oil. Without one seeing the heavenly body hidden behind me,
the light fell upon the stone and gilded it with fire .On the
. .
left the sea, not the blue sea, the sea of slate, but the sea of jade,
greenish, milky and at the same time hard beneath the dark sky.'
127
The Rocks at Pourville. Low Tide, 1882
Les Rochers a Maree Basse, Pourville
Oil on canvas, 62.9 x 76.8 cm
Wildenstein II. 767
Rochester, Memorial Art Gallery of the
University of Rochester, Gift of Mrs.
lames Siblev Watson
lightand deep shadow. For while the interior of the rock arch is
illuminated by a soft, pink light which somewhat lessens the
monumentality of the stone, shaded areas give the surging waters
a hardness and solidity. The elements cautiously approximate
each other. Illusionistic illustration, the observation of nature
under various atmospheric conditions and a pictorial organization
determined more and more by colour here play equally important
roles.
Recalling a holiday spent with Monet in Etretat in an article
of 1886, Maupassant compared the painter's approach to that of
a hunter circling closer and closer to his prey. It is a comparison
applicable not least to Monet's series painting. Monet's tendency
to approach monumental objects more and more closely led to
the paintings of solely the facade of Rouen cathedral, and reached
its peak in the highly-magnified views of water surfaces to which
the Giverny Water Lilies are restricted. 'I often followed Monet
on his search for new impressions,' wrote Maupassant. 'He was
not so much a painter as a hunter. He was followed by a swarm
of children, carrying five or six canvases representing the same
subject at different times of the day and with different effects.
He took them up and put them aside again in turn, according to
the changes in the light. Face to face with his subject, he lay in
wait for the sun and shadows, capturing a ray of light or scuttling
cloud with a few strokes of the brush . Once I saw him seize
. .
128
*>»**\>
m
Gustave Courbet
Cliffs at Etretat after the Storm, 1869
La Faiaise d'Etretat apres l'orage
Oil on canvas, 133 x 162 cm
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
129
Beach at Etietat. 1883
Plage d'Etretat
Oil on canvas, 66 x 81 cm
Wildenstein II. 828
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
130
and truest friends within a short space of time. This, too, marked Rough Sea, Etretat, 1883
Etretat, mer agitee
the new phase in the life of the 43 -year-old Monet, which began Oil on canvas, 81 x 100 cm
with the move to Giverny. Here he not only spent the entire Wildenstein II. 821
Lyon, Musee des Beaux- Arts
second half of his life, but created masterpieces which earned
him the fame still surrounding him today.
The Manneporte, Etretat, 1883
La Manneporte
Oil on canvas, 65.4 x 81.3 cm
Wildenstein II. 832
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Bequest of William Church Osborn, 1951.
(51.30.5)
LEFT:
Detail in orginal size
Giverny 1883-1926
'The legend has begun'
135
Menton, Seen from Cap Martin, 1884
Menton vu du Cap Martin
Oil on canvas, 65.5 x 81 cm
Wildenstein II. 897
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Julia Ed-
wards Collection, Bequest of Robert ). Ed-
wards and Gift of Hannah Mary Edwards
and Grace M. Edwards in memory of her
mother
Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
136
(p. 138). During this from mid- January to mid- April
second stay,
1884, he not only sent Alice - concerned about his long absence
- written protestations of love, but also described the hard work
he was putting in. Orange, lemon and olive trees were proving
reluctant sources of inspiration. He was working flat out, taking
asmany as six sittings for some studies, but everything was so
new that he found it hard to lay things aside.
Monet executed some fifty works, his enthusiasm fired by the
landscape and its moods and the challenge of an entirely new
palette. 'There may be some outcry among the enemies of blue
and pink, because it is precisely this brilliance, this magical light,
that I am trying to render, and those who have
never seen this
country, or haven't looked at it properly, will no doubt be up in
Bordighera, 1884
arms about its improbability, although I am well below the true Oil on canvas, 64.8 x 81.3 cm
Wildenstein II. 854
tone. Everything here is breast-of-pigeon and flame-of-punch; it's
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago,
magnificent. The landscape is more beautiful every day and I am Potter Palmer Collection, 1922.426
Palm Trees at Bordighera, 1884
Palmiers a Bordighera
Oil on canvas, 64.8 x 81.3 cm
Wildenstein II 877
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of
Art, Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de
Groot (1876-1967) 1967 (67.187.87)
Villas at Bordighera, 1884
Les Villas a Bordighera
Oil on canvas, 115 x 130 cm
Wildenstein II. 857
Santa Barbara (Cal.), The Santa Barbara
Museum of Art
enchanted with the country/ wrote Monet to Durand-Ruel. And
indeed, he painted here a succession of pictures characterized by
a powerful and luminous palette, whose expressiveness goes far
beyond reality and thereby recalls the work of both van Gogh
and the Fauves The emphasis upon arabesque shapes of vegetation
.
140
manager Goupil gallery in Paris - frequently remarked to
of the Boats in Winter Quarters, Etretat, 1885
Bateaux sur la plage a Etretat
his brother Vincent. Monet felt himself under increasing pressure
Oil on canvas, 65.5 x 81.3 cm
to continue to be successful and this - in conjunction with his Wildenstein II. 1024
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago,
own perfectionist standards - sent him into bouts of crippling Charles H. and Mary F.S. Worcester Collec-
depression and self-doubt, although also distinguishing his art. tion, 1947.95
141
George Seurat
Sundav Afternoon on the Island of La
Grande Jatte, 1884-86
La Grande Jatte
Oil on canvas, 207.6 x 308 cm
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago,
Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collec-
tion, 1926.224
143
treatisesby Hermann von Helmholtz and the Gestalt theories
of Charles Blanc (1867). They saw their art as an exact, objective
and scientifically-based form of Impressionism which was in-
tended to replace the arbitrary, subjective and Romantic image
of earlierImpressionism. They sought to give landscape a defini-
tiveness and impression of permanence as argued by Cezanne.
But contrary to their desire to render the chromatic appearance
of reality with greater accuracy, the schematism of neo-Im-
Woman with a Parasol, 1886
pressionist works made them more subjective and artificial than Femme a l'ombrelle
the Impressionism they wanted to overcome. The dogmatic Pencil drawing, 53 x 41 cm
Private collection
rigidity and 'deathly monotony' of its method had already led
Pissarro to abandon it for a freer style of painting by 1888. Neo-
Impressionism was launched at the 1884 Salon des Independents
in the form of Seurat's Bathing at Asnieres (1883/84; London,
National Gallery); by the eighth and last Impressionist show,
which included Seurat's most famous work, Sunday Afternoon
on the Island of La Grande fatte (p. 143), it had become the
dominant trend.
1886 was also the year in which van Gogh came to Paris and,
following his encounter with Impressionist works, developed his
luminous and powerful palette. Gauguin had now moved to
Pont-Aven in Brittany, where he formed the Pont-Aven School
together with Emile Bernard in 1888. Their 'Synthetist' painting
greatly influenced a new style of Symbolist art, which owed its
144
the friendship between Zola and the painter Cezanne, who took Open-Air Study: Woman Turned to the
Right, 1886
the book's main character, artist Claude Lantier, to be himself.
Essai de figure en plein air, vers la droite
Monet and Pissarro were equally outraged, and feared the book Oil on canvas, 131 x 88 cm
Wildenstein II. 1076
might damage them in the eyes of the public. As Monet wrote Paris, Musee d'Orsay
to Pissarro: 'Have you read Zola's book? I'm very afraid it will
Open-Air Study: Woman Turned to the
do us a lot of harm.' The figure of Lantier was in fact based upon Left, 1886
Essai de figure en plein air, vers la gauche
a number of the various Impressionist painters Zola knew per- Oil on canvas, 131 x 88 cm
sonally. Wildenstein II. 1077
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
After a short painting trip to Holland in the spring of 1886,
Monet - accompanied by Blanche Hoschede - spent the summer
painting the countryside around Giverny. Among other works
from he produced two large-format Open-air Figure
this period,
Studies (p. 145) on the He des Orties, a small island near the
point where the Epte flows into the Seine. As Camille had done
earlier, so now Suzanne Hoschede posed as his model. She is
seen standing on a slope with a parasol, silhouetted against the
open sky.
These magnificent compositions, painted with forceful strokes
145
Willows at Giveiny, 1886
Les Saules, Giverny
Oil on canvas, 74 x 93 cm
Wildenstein II. 1059
Goteborg, Goteborgs Konstmuseum
RIGHT ABOVE:
Spring, 1886
Le Printemps
Oil on canvas, 65 x 81 cm
Wildenstein II. 1066
Cambridge (Mass.), Fitzwilham Museum
Field of Yellow Iris near Giveiny, 1 I
Champ d'iris jaunes a Giverny
Oil on canvas, 45 x 100 cm
Wildenstein III. 1137
Paris, Musee Marmottan
of the brush, nevertheless lack the power of expression which
characterized the portraits of Camille. They were Monet's last
attempts at large-scale, full-figure representations. As part of his
constant search for pictorial subjects, Monet discovered entirely
new motifs in the wild, sombre rock landscapes of Belle-Ile during
his stay in Brittany from September to December 1886. He wrote
to Durand-Ruel: 'The sea is inimitably beautiful and accompanied
by fantastic rocks. Moreover, the place is called "The Wild
Sea" . ..I'm fascinated by this sinister region, above all because
.
149
Antibes, Afternoon Effect, 1888
Antibes, effet d'apres-midi
Oil on canvas, 65 x 81 cm
Wildenstein III. 1158
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts
Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
to Geffroy; 'I plug away, give myself a devil of a time, and worry
about what I'm doing. It is so beautiful here, so clear, so luminous!
You swim in blue air, it's frightful.' He clearly found it very
difficult to match his palette to the local conditions, to the blues
and pinks permeating the atmosphere. He faced the same problem
150
View of the Esterel Mountains. 1888
Montagnes de l'Esterel
Oil on canvas, 65 x 92 cm
Wildenstein III. 1192
London, Courtauld Institute Galleries
Like Antibes, Afternoon Effect (p. 150), the View of the Esterel
Mountains (p. 151), a chain of crouching hills strung out opposite
the bay of Juan-les-Pins near Antibes, is essentially horizontal
in its construction of layered colour planes. Colour harmony is
determined by approximated rows of blue-orange and red-green
and thereby embraces the three primaries of red, yellow and blue.
The line of the tree in the foreground coils across the picture
like a Jugendstil arabesque. It rhythm and at the same
creates
time a sense of near and far space. In June Monet showed ten of
his Antibes landscapes in the Boussod-Valadon gallery, whose
director, Theo van Gogh, was one of his regular buyers. This
151
caused further disagreement with Durand-Ruel, with whom
Monet subsequently terminated his contract. These new works
were sold primarily to the American public, and Mirbeau was
not alone in deploring their irreparable loss. His enthusiasm was
not shared by everyone, however. Pissarro, Degas, and Felix Fe-
neon, mouthpiece of the neo-Impressionist movement, criticized
Monet's latest creations as superficially decorative, although
even they had to admire his virtuouso hand.
Apart from a short trip to London, Monet spent the summer
of 1887 in Giverny. Here he painted a number of highly poetic,
less sales-oriented summer landscapes, such as the Field of Yellow
Iris near Giverny (p. 147). He executed several versions of dreamy
152
and the sweet, luminous and more decorative paintings from Poppy Field in a Hollow near Givemy,
1885
Bordighera and Antibes also reflect the distinction in Monet's
Champ de coquelicots, environs de
work between masculine and feminine landscape in the Romantic Givemy
sense, a distinction influencing the choice and treatment of his
Oil on canvas, 65.2 x 81.2 cm
Wildenstein II. 1000
subjects. They reveal at the same time the contradictory ten- Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Juliana Che-
ney Edwards Collection
dencies within the artist which were to find their solution in the Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
later water lily landscapes.
Serious and dramatic moods are also taken up in the Creuse
landscapes painted in the spring of 1889. In February 1889 Monet,
accompanied by Geffroy, was the guest of writer and musician
Maurice Rollinat at his home in Fresselines in the Creuse valley,
a relatively unspoilt and sparsely populated area between Orleans
and Limoges. Monet was enchanted. He explored the countryside
with Rollinat during the day and in the evening listened to his
host's musical compositions, based both on texts by Baudelaire
and on Rollinat's own poems. In March, therefore, on the occasion
153
LEFT:
The Rowing-Boat, 1887
La Barque
Oil on canvas, 146 x 133 cm
Wildenstein III. 1154
Paris, Musee Marmottan
RIGHT:
Boating on the Epte, 1890
En Canot sur l'Epte
Oil on canvas, 133 x 145 cm
Wildenstein IU. 1250
Sao Paulo, Collection of the Museu de
Arte de Sao Paulo
BELOW:
7
In the Rowing- Boat 1SS"
En Norvegienne
Oil on canvas, 98 x 131 cm
Wildenstein III. 1151
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
Ravine at La Creuse, Sun Effect, 1889 of a further exhibition of his works at the Bousson-Valadon
Les Eaux semblantes, Creuse, effet de
soleil
gallery, he decided to spend another three months in Fresselines.
Oil on canvas, 65 x 92.4 cm But bad weather sent him into despair, and he suffered phases
Wildenstein III. 1219
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Juliana Che- of deep depression and self-tormenting doubt. 'I am utterly miser-
ney Edwards Collection, Bequest of Robert able, almost discouraged and so tired that I am almost ill ... I
I. Edwards in memory of his mother, 1925
Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston have never been so unlucky with the weather! Not so much as
three fine days in a row, so that I am obliged to make continual
changes, since everything is growing and blossoming. And I was
so hoping to paint Creuse as we saw it [in February]! ... In short,
all these changes mean I am just chasing nature without being
able to catch it. And then there's the river, which falls and rises,
is green one day, then yellow and just recently dried up altogether,'
156
and servant of art. The 23 landscapes which have survived from
this Creuse stay can be subdivided into a number of different
groups, each containing several variations of an almost identical
motif. Ravine at La Creuse, Sun Effect (p. 156) belongs to a series
of another eight identical compositions deviating only slightly
in format and angle. They are differentiated chiefly by their
lighting, varying according to weather and time of day. The
concept of serial painting, which began in the paintings of the
Breakup of the Ice (p. 115) and was developed in the seascapes
oiBelle-Ile[p. 148/149) and the Givemy Rowing- Boats (p. 154/155),
now appears to be crystallizing.
Ravine at La Creuse, Sun Effect (p 156) is characterized by
large bodies of rock thrusting inwards from left and right, whereby
the brightest area of the painting, the water, forces itself between
them from the right-hand foreground. This area alone catches
the light from the narrow strip of sky at the top of the picture,
as the clouds part for a brief moment. The drama of the scene is
reinforced by the relatively dark palette of brown, blue and violet,
whose sole justification seems to be the fissured ravine walls.
Once again these landscapes bring alive both the relationships
of the elements and the dramatic play of light staged both in the
heavens and on the surfaces of objects, whose forms in turn
provide the radical mood with its pictorial counterweight. The
astonishing expressiveness with which the paint is applied, and
the power of the colours employed, can well be seen as a pointer
towards future Expressionism.
Contemporary critics, however, commenting on these pictures
upon their exhibition at Petit's gallery in June 1889, blamed
Monet's departure from naturalistic colour on eye trouble - a
historically unjustifiable accusation which, incidentally, can be
found repeated in criticism of Impressionist art even today. Petit's
exhibition, coupling Monet and August Rodin and offering an
overview of the years 1864 to 1889 in a total of 145 works, was
nevertheless a huge success. The majority of the Creuse landscapes
were sold direct to America, where Monet's fame was growing
steadily. This was due in part to the agencies of John Singer
Sargent, the Anglo-American painter who was in close contact
with Monet. This year saw Monet reach one of the pinnacles of
his artistic career. He was represented by three works at the Paris
World Fair, which was simultaneously celebrating the centenary
of the French Revolution and featured the specially-built Eiffel
Tower. The exhibition provided a retrospective of the last 100
years of French art; the Impressionists, whose style now enjoyed
general recognition, were also included.
Manet's Olympia (1863; Paris, Musee d'Orsay) was also on
display. Sargent had discovered that this picture was to be sold
to America. Alerted to this danger, Monet resolved to organize
a collection of funds with which to purchase the picture from
Manet's widow and donate it to the Louvre. Antonin Proust and
157
Zola were among a number of Monet's friends who disapproved
of the idea. Monet was subsequently caught in the crossfire of a
public dispute which lasted for almost a year and in the course
of which Proust challenged Monet to a duel. Fortunately this
never took place. Not surprisingly, Monet could muster little
enthusiasm for painting during this period; it was not until
November 1890 that the Louvre accepted the donation and the
debates it had provoked subsided.
Monet was also prevented from working by a summer of con-
tinuous rain. The damp weather gave him severe rheumatism,
which he blamed on his punishing earlier outings in the snow,
frost and rain and which made painting a struggle. He was also
worried about his son Jean, who had fallen seriously ill while on
military service. Monet now devoted all his energies to mobilizing
his contacts in order to secure Jean's release. Guests such as
Morisot and Mallarme therefore provided a welcome distraction.
Monet thus felt compelled to work in and around Giverny even
as summer drew to a close. He later recalled how, during one of
his late summer walks through the countryside in the company
of Blanche, he was struck by a row of grain stacks in neighbouring
Clos Morin. These were a local method of storing grain, whereby
ears of cereal were covered with hay to protect them from external
weather conditions. Monet wanted to record this sunny picture
and asked Blanche to fetch him a canvas. 'At the start, I was just
like everyone else: I thought two canvases would be enough, one
for cloudy weather and one for sunshine. But no sooner had I
begun to paint the sunshine than the lighting changed, so that
two canvases were no longer enough if I was to render a truthful
impression of a specific aspect of nature and not end up with a
picture compiled from a number of different impressions,' re-
membered Monet. And so Blanche had to fetch several more
canvases to enable him to record different atmospheric effects
face to face with nature, in a style of painting which was inevitably
sketchy and rushed. He devoted himself to this new motif from
the late summer of 1890 until the winter of 1890/91. When,
finally, he assembled all the pictures together in his studio, he
decided they needed further work, both in the elaboration of their
detail and the coordination of their colours, with the result that
every picture in the Grain Stacks series both determines and
anticipates the next. This involved not only a new method of
working, but also a new understanding of reality, according to
which a holistic vision of nature can only be achieved through
the combination of several of its different aspects.
At this point, however, Monet's work reveals a paradox. On
the one hand, he sought to remain true to nature,- on the other
hand, his elaboration of pictures in the studio increasingly allowed
his imagination to play a role. Monet explained the problem to
Geffroy: Tm plugging away at a series of different effects [of
Grain Stacks], but the sun goes down so quickly at this time of
158
Under the Poplars, Sun Effect, 1887
Sous les Peupliers, effet de soleil
Oil on canvas, 74 x 93 cm
Wildenstein III. 1135
Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
all the enveloppe, the same light diffused everywhere. I'm all the
more disgusted with the things that succeed at first go. In short,
I am driven more and more by the need to render what I experience.
Monet uses more or less the same format throughout the Stacks
series. They all show one or two grain stacks, although there
may be small modifications to their locations. Monet chiefly
uses weather and lighting conditions to differentiate his paintings,
as reflected in their corresponding associative colouring. He
painted the motif on a snowy morning (p. 162 below), in late
summer (p. 160), during the thaw (p. 163 below) and at sunset
(p. 161), as well as in fog, ice, rain and bright sunshine. Monet
frequently worked against the light (p. 164/165), with the glit-
tering, silhouetted shapes of the ricks casting long, coloured
shadows (p. 163 above).
The Stacks series, and thus the year 1 890, marked a turning-point
in Monet's work. The idea of creating several pictures from one
motif was logically exploited from now on. It may be noted in
passing that Monet was following an example set by two Japanese
artists he greatly admired, namely Hokusai in his One Hundred
Views of Mount Fuji and Hiroshige in his One Hundred Views
of the City of Edo. He had seen these works both at Samuel
Bing's in 1888 and at the World's Fair of 1889. Hiroshige was
Monet's favourite artist and his prints decorated the dining room
at Giverny.
159
Grain Stacks, End of Summer, Morning
Effect. 1891
Meules, fin de 1'ete, effet du matin
Oil on canvas, 60.5 x 100.5 cm
Wildenstein III. 1266
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
160
i^w^^^ u^^^^^^M ri«fe»~v.
p^l
&3&
A
ct, 1891
PAGE 162 ABOVE: man Clemenceau, who was deeply attached to Monet and who
Grain Stack, Snow Effect, Morning, 1890 commemorated this friendship in a book published in 1926.
Meule, effet de neige, le matin
Oil on canvas, 65.4 x 92.3 cm From spring until autumn 1891, Monet dedicated himself to
Wildenstein III. 1280 the Giverny countryside in a series of poplars which stood on
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Gift from
Misses Aimee and Rosamond Lamb in the right bank of the Epte, near Limetz. The parish council had
memory of Mr. und Mrs. Horatio A. Lamb unfortunately given permission for these trees to be auctioned
Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
off. Monet sought to persuade the mayor to postpone the sale,
PAGE 162 BELOW: but in vain. He therefore struck an urgent deal with the most
Grain Stack, Snow Effect, Overcast
Weather, 1891 likely buyer, a timber merchant. He offered to make up the
Meule, effet de neige, temps couvert difference between the price the merchant wanted to pay and
Oil on canvas, 66 x 93 cm
Wildenstein in. 1281 the actual auction price on condition the trees were not felled
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago,
until he had finished his pictures. The scheme worked. From his
Mr. und Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collec-
tion, 1933.1155 boat, Monet painted these poplars on the far side of the Epte both
161
U»-J< .V>vvt, <H
PAGE 163 ABOVE:
Grain Stack in Sunshine, 1891
Meule au soleil
Oil on canvas, 60 x 100 cm
Wildenstein III. 1288
Zurich, Kunsthaus Zurich
P'M
in a regular diagonal row from further away and frontally from
very close up, as in the Four Poplars (p. 168), where the trunks
of the trees divide the surface of the picture into vertical strips.
These are interrupted only by the horizontal shore zone, whose
real image joins seamlessly with its reflection. The boundary
between reality and reflection seems meaningless, and the picture
offers no sense of space in the traditional sense. It is here quite
clear that Monet's abstract forms - such as horizontals and
verticals - were merely the starting-point and framework for
design based solely on colour. Nature thus corresponded to a
particular degree to Monet's own artistic intentions. Here, small
dabs of paint in related and complementary pairs of colours such
as blue-violet and yellow-orange communicate in miraculous
manner the shimmering atmospheric light which cloaks the
landscape, diffuses throughout the whole and envelops each and
every object.
The strongly decorative tendency of these pictures, reminiscent
of the later landscapes of Art Nouveau, met with widespread
approval above all at the exhibition of 15 Poplars at Durand-Ruel's
gallery in March 1892. Monet travelled back to see the exhibition
from Rouen where, since February, he had been tackling his first
views of the cathedral. He returned to Giverny in mid-April,
resuming the Cathedral series between February and April of the
following year. The dating of all of these pictures to 1894 points
to another period of reworking. This third series, dedicated to
the fagade of Rouen's Gothic cathedral, contains 31 works and
reflects an entirely new confrontation with the motif.
In February 1892 Monet rented a room opposite the cathedral;
from here he painted a small number of frontal views (p. 1 72/1 73).
A change of lodgings shifted his angle somewhat to the right,
only to move further right still in 1893. A total of five different
angles can be identified, three from windows opposite the fagade
and two from the cathedral square. Monet painted either the
portal alone (p. 1 72 right) or with its towers, left the Tour d'Albane
(p. 172 left) and right the Tour Saint-Romain. His choice of
167
Four Poplars, 1891
Les quatre arbres
Oil on canvas, 81.9 x 81.6 cm
Wildenstein III. 1309
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Bequest of Mrs. H.O. Havemeyer, 1929.
H.O. Havemeyer Collection (29.100.110)
Poplars, Sunset, 1891
Peupliers, coucher de soleil
Oil on canvas, 102 x 62 cm
Wildenstein III. 1295
USA, Private collection
Poplars, Three Pink Trees, Autumn, 1891
Les Peupliers, trois arbres roses, automne
Oil on canvas, 93 x 74.1 cm
Wildenstein III. 1307
Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art,
Gift of Chester Dale
170
Three Poplars. Summer, 1891
Les trois arbres, ete
Oil on canvas, 92 x 73 cm
Wildenstein IH. 1305
Tokyo, The National Museum of Western
Art, The Matsukata Collection
171
Rouen Cathedral, Portal and Tour d'Al be understood. Monet came to recognize, as it were through the
bane in the Morning, 1894
intensity of his attitude and attachment to nature, nature per se,
La Cathedrale de Rouen, le portail et la
tour d'Albane a l'aube with the result that it increasingly lostimportance for him
its
Oil on canvas, 106.1 x 73.9 cm
Wildenstein III. 1348
as a concrete, specific motif. It had been clear from an early stage
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Tompkins - in his Breakup of the Ice paintings, for example - that nature
Collection, Purchase, Arthur Gordon
Tompkins Residuary Fund, 1924 offered him close analogies and parallels with his own spiritual
Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston state. The increasing distance between naturalistic painting and
Rouen Cathedral, Portal, Morning Sun, Monet's late work, a distance which critics compared unfavour-
Harmony 1894
in Blue, ably with his early work, was no more than a logical development
La Cathedrale de Rouen, le portail, soleil
matinal. Harmonie bleue which dated back to around 1880 and the dramatic interpretation
Oil on canvas, 91 x 63 cm of the same motif in larger numbers.
Wildenstein III. 1355
Paris, Musee d'Orsay In his series of facades, in which fugitive effects are fixed solely
by means an architectural framework, Monet also proved a
of
Rouen Cathedral, Portal and Tour d'Al-
bane, Morning Effect, Harmonv in White, forerunner of Cubism. The works of Georges Braque and Pablo
1894
Picasso from around 1910 similarly transform architectural sub-
La Cathedrale de Rouen, le portail et la
tour d'Albane, effet du matin. Harmonie jects into autonomous compositions. In 1969, looking back to
blanche
Oil on canvas, 106 x 73 cm
Monet's Cathedral and Stacks series, Roy Lichtenstein produced
Wildenstein III. 1346 his own lithograph series of Grain Stacks and Cathedrals; he
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
thereby acknowledged Monet as the first artist to have logically
exploited the serial principle so important for 20th-century art,
and thus the first to have negated the idea of the unique masterpiece
by producing a repeatable series of pictures of comparable value.
But it was his later Water Lilies which were to demonstrate above
all Monet's outstanding importance for the development of mod-
ern art.
PAGE 174:
Monet kept his Cathedral paintings in Giverny for a long while,
Rouen Cathedral, Portal and Tour d'Al- relinquishing them to Durand-Ruel and Bernheim only after some
bane in the Morning, 1894 (See above)
hesitation. As Monet had intended, this merely heightened the
La Cathedrale de Rouen, le portail et la
tour d'Albane a l'aube interest and debate surrounding the pictures. After initial doubts,
172
1
he had become thoroughly convinced of the importance and Rouen Cathedral, Portal and Tour d'Al-
bane, Full Sunlight, Harmony in Blue and
quality of his paintings, and he set their price at 15,000 Francs
Gold, 1894
and, later, 12,000 Francs. The exhibition of 20 views of Rouen La Cathedrale de Rouen, le portail et le
tour d'Albane, plein soldi. Harmonie
in May 1895 at Durand-Ruel's gallery was an overwhelming bleu et or
commercial success and once again confirmed that Monet had Oil on canvas, 107 x 73 cm
Wildenstein III. 1360
made his breakthrough. Paris, Musee d'Orsay
While finishing the Cathedrals over the summer of 1894, Monet
Rouen Cathedral, Portal, Overcast
found a change of scene in the meadows bordering the Seine Weather, 1894
around Giverny. Blanche Hoschede had now become his indis- La Cathedrale de Rouen, le portail,
temps gris
pensable assistant. Monet was suffering from severe rheumatism, Oil on canvas, 100 x 65 cm
and it was she who carried all his work materials. Cezanne's Wildenstein III.1321
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
arrival in the autumn of 1 894 brought further agreeable distraction.
He rented accommodation in a hotel in Giverny in order to paint Rouen Cathedral, Portal, Front View, Har-
mony Brown, 1894
in
the countryside, and was Monet home.
a frequent guest at the La Cathedrale de Rouen, le portail vu de
face. Harmonie brune
It was here, on the occasion of a famous dinner whose guests
Oil on canvas, 107 x 73 cm
included Rodin and Clemenceau, that he first met Geffroy, whose Wildenstein III. 1319
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
portrait he was later to paint. Cezanne was a great admirer of
Monet. Monet was the only Impressionist painter he respected
and who he felt belonged in the Louvre. This admiration was
mutual; Monet owned no less than twelve pictures by Cezanne.
The winter of 1894/95 was, like its predecessor, very mild, and
Giverny had thus yet to give Monet a decent opportunity for
snowscapes. This may have been one of the reasons for his trip
to Norway in the spring of 1895, accompanied by Jacques Ho-
schede. After a period of deep depression, which almost led him PAGE 175:
173
here he painted views of the fjords and houses of Sandviken and
Bjornegaard, in which he explored in particular the colour effects
of light on snow-covered surfaces. He
painted a large number of
pictures of Mount Kolsaas to the north of Bjornegaard (p. 177),
which was visible from all around and which reminded Monet
of Fujiyama.
In these pictures, which employ strong tonal contrasts, Monet's
style raw and at times close to the nature of preliminary
is
sketches, where parts of the white paper were left bare to represent
snow and sky. The artist's own thoughts on his mountain series
were printed in the Dagbladet in April that year: 'I no longer see
the motif as a significant factor; what I want to reproduce is
what lies between the motif and me.' Here, as in his earlier series,
Monet reveals a trend towards a style of painting which replaces
reality in the naturalistic sense with increasingly subjective im-
pressions and recollections of the motif.
The trips that he made, as from 1896, to the places he had
painted many years before may also be seen in this context. A
sort of nostalgia led him to return and review his impressions of
the past. Starting in February 1896, this nostalgia was to take
him back to Pourville,Dieppe and Varengeville. In contrast to
1882, he now produced serial views of the same motif under
different conditions, as in the Coastguard's Cottages, the Cliffs
at Dieppe and in the Rough Sea at Pourville (p. 185). He painted
as seeking to secure the characteristic traits of the landscape;
if
176
Mount Kolsaas, Pink Reflections, 1895
Le Mont Kolsaas, reflets roses
Oil on canvas, 65 x 100 cm
Wildenstein 1415
III.
contemporary taste, and thus the prices for Monet's latest paint-
ings shot up. Despite Zola's scathing condemnation of Impression-
ist painting in 1896, Monet's work continued to attract increasing
177
gives way homogeneous brush-stroke which integrates the
to a
separate areas of the work and assigns all of them equal value.
As Monet allegedly said to Lila Cabot: 'When you go out [to
paint], remember that each leaf of a tree is as important as the
features of your model.' Monet's view ties up with the Romantic
notion of a universal harmony in which the world is an organic,
dynamic whole and where the experience of landscape can thus
become an experience of the self. The tranquility and motion-
lessness of these pictures are intensified by the predominantly
square format of the series. Water, light and reflections are the
determining themes here as in the water lily landscapes of Monet's
late works. Reflection and and illusion intertwine,
reality, truth
harmonize and seem interchangeable. This was ultimately to
resolve the paradox identified earlier in Monet's work, since it
allowed him to combine adherence to reality with increasingly
predominant elements of imagination. Misty landscapes such as
those of the Early Mornings, with their concentration upon almost
intangible effects of atmosphere, were to play a dominant role
in the numerous series of the nineties. Seventeen of these paintings
were exhibited with great success within the framework of a
large one-man show of Monet's works held in Petit's gallery in
June 1898.
The death of Mallarme that same year robbed Monet of a loyal
friend. The next year brought further sorrow and mourning; the
death of his friend Sisley was followed shortly afterwards, in
February 1899, by that of Suzanne Hoschede-Butler. She had
suffered severe symptoms of paralysis since the birth of Lily, her
second To safeguard a caring home for his two
child, in 1894.
children, Jim and Lily, Theodore Butler married Suzanne's older
sister, Marthe, in the very same month. The tragedy sent Alice
into a deep depression from which she was not to recover. Even
her trips with Monet to Venice, Madrid and, in autumn 1899, to
London failed to revive her spirits.
Monet knew London from earlier visits, exhibitions and artist
contacts. The city fascinated him most of all in the foggy seasons
of autumn and winter. 'I only love London in winter .without
. .
its fog, London would not be a beautiful city. It is fog which gives
it its wonderful breadth. Its massive, regular blocks become
178
View of Vetheuil, 1901-02
Vue de Vetheuil
Oil on canvas, 90 x 93 cm
Wildenstein IV. 1648
Tokyo, The National Museum of Western
Art, The Matsukata Collection
179
London pictures no longer display the fresh colours which earned
the Impressionist works of the seventies their fame. Instead they
do no more than suggest their subjects, and are thereby closely
related to the Symbolism of the poet Stephane Mallarme.
When these new works were presented at Durand-RuePs gallery
in the spring of 1904, public opinion was divided. One camp
recognized in them the logical height of Impressionism, while
the younger generation viewed them as the testament to a move-
ment already out of date. The loss of form was deplored above
all, since the new
generation of painters, and in particular the
future Cubists, were seeking to return to geometric shapes fol-
lowing the example of Cezanne. 'A solidity, a framework needs
to be introduced into these pictures of Monet's, into the vanishing
of all things . .
.'. Monet was also accused of basing his views of
the Houses of Parliament on a photograph. Monet had indeed Earlv Morning on the Seine. 1897
M.utinee sur la Seme
obtained such a photograph from Sargent and had used it to Oil on canvas, 81 x 92 cm
refresh his memory. This caused such an uproar that Monet felt Wildenstein III. 1477
Amherst, Mead Art Museum,
obliged to offer Durand-Ruel an explanation: simply doesn't
'It Amherst College, Bequest of
matter; whether my Cathedrals, my London pictures or indeed Miss Susan Dwight Bliss
that counts.'
The confrontation with architecture, water and light which
characterizes the London series was pursued in Venice in 1908
and 1909. Here, too, the structure of stone architecture was
sacrificed to light. In the years between 1904 and 1908 Monet
had devoted himself increasingly to his water garden in Giverny,
taking only a short break in Madrid with Alice in autumn 1904.
Monet and the Impressionist painters were less interested in Italy
than the academic painters of the 19th century, for whom Rome
in particular had formed a major centre of attraction. Venice,
however, had enchanted the Romantics, and above all Romantic
writers such as Theophile Gautier and Honore de Balzac, whom
Monet admired more than any other. For the Impressionists,
Venice was important not simply for its place within a Romantic
tradition, but for the school of painting it had nurtured, for whose
protagonists - Titian, Giorgione and Paolo Veronese - colour had
played an outstanding role. As before, Monet and Alice travelled
down to Venice with their own car and chauffeur. As guests of
a friend of Sargent's, they stayed first in the Palazzo Barbaro and
later, until December 1 908, in the Hotel Britannia. Monet returned
to Venice again in 1909, but his worsening eye trouble and the
death of his wife in 1911 made further trips impossible. Finishing
work on his pictures was thus carried out from memory in his
studio in Giverny. The Venice pictures can be subdivided according Branch of the Seine near Giverny, 1897
to location: views of the Grand Canal, the Rio de la Salute, the Bras de Seine pres de Giverny
Oil on canvas, 75 x 92.5 cm
Church San Giorgio Maggiore (p. 186) and various palaces,
of
Wildenstein III. 1487
including The Palazzo Contahni (p. 187). Paris, Musee d'Orsay
180
London, Parliament with the Sun Break- ABOVE RIGHT: BELOW RIGHT:
ing through Fog, 1899-1901 Waterloo Bridge, Mist, 1899-1901 Waterloo Bridge, c. 1900
Le Parlament, trouee de soleil dans le Waterloo Bridge, effet de brouillard 30 x 47 cm
Pastell,
brouillard Oil on canvas, 65 x 100 cm Paris, Musee Marmottan
Oil on canvas, 81 x 92 cm Wildenstein IV 1580
Wildenstein IV 1610 Leningrad, Ermitage
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
The Venetian palaces were the last architectural motifs Monet
painted, although here, too, architectural forms were transformed
into phenomena of nature. Monet,
Turner before him, was
like
captivated by the magical quality of Venetian light. Proust's
descriptions of Venice in his In Remembrance of Things Past
are brought alive by Monet's paintings, where the 'rows of
palaces .reflected light and hour on their rosy fronts and thereby
. .
Monet was a gourmand of the highest order and food was, along
with gardening, one of his favourite topics of discussion. Unlike
the dark and cluttered salons of the turn of the century, Monet's
house was decorated in simple rustic style. Everything was light,
184
Rough Sea at Pouiville, 1897
Mer agitee a Pourville
Oil on canvas, 73 x 100 cm
Wildenstein III. 1444
Tokyo, The National Museum of West-
ern Art, The Matsukata Collection
189
Monet's Water Garden and the Japanese
Footbrigde, Giverny, 1900
Le Bassin aux nympheas
Oil on canvas, 89.2 x 92.8 cm
Wildenstein IV 1630
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Given in
memory of Governor Alvan T. Fuller by the
Fullei Foundation, 1961
Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
these pictures are thus the logical forerunners of the later series
of Water Lilies with their magnified views of water lilies on the
water's surface.
In the bridge paintings, too, different colour impressions are
dedicated to direct experiences of nature. Finishing was performed
work was carried out on the garden
in the studio. Further building
in 1901. It was enlarged and - following lengthy negotiations -
the Ru diverted with the approval of the local council. The
Japanese bridge acquired an additional overhead arch, later planted
with succulent wisteria. In this form it was to become the start-
ing-point for the extraordinarily expressive and abstract bridge
paintings from the years 1923 and 1925 (p. 208, 209) which seem
to look ahead to the Abstract Expressionism of the fifties.
This garden, so carefully laid out to Monet's own designs and
where even the shapes and colours of the plants were coordinated,
became a work One
gardener was employed solely
of art in itself.
to maintain the water lilies in the compositional order that Monet
wanted. This artfully arranged and self-contained world, with its
water lilies, willowed banks, irises, African lilies and rose
bridge,
portal, became the chief source of Monet's inspiration. In 1908,
referring to the water lily landscapes to which he had now devoted
himself, he admitted to Geffroy: These landscapes of water and
190
The Water Lily Pond; Harmony in Green,
1899
La Bassin aux nympheas, harmonie verte
Oil on canvas, 89 x 93 cm
Wildenstein IV 1515
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
191
Irises by the Pond, 1914-17
Iris
Oil on canvas, 199.4 x 150.5 cm
Wildenstein IV 1832
Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Art,
Museum Purchase: The William Fund, 1971
TheArtist's Garden, Irises, 1900
Le Jardin de Monet, les iris
Oil on canvas, 81 x 92 cm
Wildenstein IV 1624
Paris, Musee d'Orsay
grasses above, are so intricately entwined that the viewer can no
longer whether the nature he sees is real or reflected. It
tell
194
Water Lilies, 1914
Nympheas
Oil on canvas, 200 x 200 cm
Wildenstein IV 1800
Tokyo, The National Museum of Western
Art, The Matsukata Collection
Corner of the Pond at Giverny, 1918- 19
Coin de l'etang a Giverny
Oil on canvas, 117 x 83 cm
Wildenstein IV 1878
Grenoble, Musee des Beaux-Arts
Rose Portals, Givemy, 1913 to be an illustration of reality. The objects of everyday experience
Les Arceaux fleuris, Givemy
Oil on canvas, 81 x 92 cm
had become so distorted and fragmented by habituation that they
Wildenstein IV 1779 themselves were no longer able to point to a holistic 'archetype',
Phoenix, Phoenix Art Museum, Gift of
Mr. and Mrs. Donald D. Harrington
true nature. Art now needed to free itself from assumed knowledge
and rigid notions. The analogy of world and self seemed to make
this possible. Ambiguity, unclearness and alienation now became
decisive design components of the artistic product; at the same
time, they reflected the conscious reaction to the growing dom-
inance of the natural sciences now seeking to apply their laws
to art. This artistic goal, and the claim to truth which it bore,
allowed the modern artist to become the cosmic creator of a new
reality in the Romantic sense. In his late reflection landscapes,
198
2
MomSg i9i6-2?
:
Paris, Musee de rorangerie Clemenceau. The death of his son Jean in Febrruary 1914 was
PAGE
an added blow. From now on, Blanche, Jean's widow, becamethe
'
BELOW:
200/201 / •
clouds, 1916-26
B in aUX nymph ^ as sans saules:
Les Nu
back to painting. Blanche, who had also taken up painting, left
on on canvas, three sections, several works of her own; some of these are now in the possession
200 x 4
wh IV ^o
Wildenstein ?w
,
328, 2a-c
of the Musee Marmottan in Paris. After Monet's death, she
Paris, Musee de l'Orangerie devoted herself to the selfless preservation of his legacy, main-
199
ABOVE:
Water Lilies, Formerly Agapanthus, 1916-26 Left: Cleveland, The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 60,81
Nympheas, jadis Agapanthus Middle: St. Louis, The Saint Louis Art Museum
Oil on canvas, three sections, each 200 x 425 cm Right: Kansas City, The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art (Nelson Fund), 57-26
Wildenstein IV. 1975, 1976, 1977
The Water Lily Pond with Irises, 1922-24
Le Bassin aux nympheas avec iris
Oil on canvas, 200 x 600 cm
Wildcnstein IV. 1980
Zurich, Kunsthaus Zurich
taining house and garden in their original condition - a task Water Lily Pond in the Evening, 1922-24
Le Bassin aux nympheas, le soir
which was assumed after her own death by Jean-Pierre Hoschede Oil on canvas, 200 x 300 cm
ans subsequently Michel Monet. When Michel was fatally injured Wildenstein IV. 1964/65
Zurich, Kunsthaus Zurich
in a car accident in 1966, leaving no children, the property fell
into neglect. Thanks to a private initiative, the estate was restored
in the eighties and is today open to the public as the Musee
Claude Monet.
Monet's health had deteriorated considerably since 1908. In
1912, the cause of his eye trouble was finally diagnosed: Monet
had cataracts in both eyes. He was terrified of going blind, a fate
which had already overtaken Degas, forced to abandon painting
in 1908. He was afraid that he, too, would be forbidden to paint.
Fortunately, this was not the case. Monet had lost virtually all
sight in his right eye before it was finally decided to operate in
1923, thanks to which his vision was considerably restored. As
from 1924, however, Monet had to wear special glasses to improve
his sight. He also complained that his eye trouble was causing
him to use increasingly darker colours and that he could only
tell what paint he was using from the name on the tube. He
204
Avenue in the Artist's Garden, Giverny,
1901-02
Une Allee du jardin de Monet, Giverny
Oil on canvas, 89 x 92 cm
Wildenstein IV 1650
Vienna, Osterreichische Galerie
* , 1
»> V
^ (l"'"«^ I
If'
/I
206
reflections of Clouds. As in a panorama, the viewer was to ex- Wisteria, 1919-1920
Glycines
perience the illusion of walking through Monet's water lily garden.
Oil on canvas, 100 x 300 cm
This original project had to be abandoned, however, both for Wildenstein IV 1904
Paris, Musee Marmottan
financial reasons and following Clemenceau's failure to win the
presidential elections of 1920. Monet saw his hopes dashed and
sought, against Clemenceau's wishes, to go back on his agreement
with the State. Indeed, his Decorations were for a while in danger
of being sold to Japan, where Monet's Water Lilies were extremely
popular. At 30,000 Francs per picture, Monet's prices had now
risen to astronomical heights. In 1921 he sold his Woman in the
Garden to the French nation for no less than 200,000 Francs.
Clemenceau had strongly opposed the withdrawal of Monet's
original of fere. He continued to urge Monet on over the following
years, persuading him to carry on at times when Monet's eye
trouble led him to give up on both himself and his work. The
idea of a donation was thus kept alive, and in April 1921 it was
agreed that the Water Lilies Decorations should be installed in
the existing Orangerie in Paris. Monet was thus presented with
a space that was entirely different to the Hotel Biron rotunda,
and he now rejected the idea of a panorama-type reproduction of
his water garden. The certificate of donation which was finally
signed by Monet and the Ministry of Fine Arts one year later
spoke of 19 pictures. Monet planned four canvases for the first
of the two rooms, Sunset (six metres wide), Morning (p. 200/201
above) and Clouds (p. 200/201 below), both twelve metres long,
and Green Reflections (eight metres long). The following room
was also to contain four works, namely, Reflections of Trees
(eight metres long), Morning with Willows (p. 200/201 middle)
and Clear Morning (both over 12 metres long) and The Two
Willows (17 metres long).
These landscapes represent a synthesis of Monet's confrontation
with the theme of the water lily since the turn of the century,
and all the reflection landscapes should be understood in terms
of this apotheosis of Monet's water garden. The composition and
207
finishing of the Decorations was subject to repeated interruptions
due to Monet's eye trouble and his cataract operation in 1923.
His eyesight having been sufficiently improved by a pair of glasses,
he returned to the Orangerie project in 1924. In this same year
he was able to attend, at Petri's gallery, the largest retrospective
of his painting held in his own lifetime.
The stabilization in his condition was By now
short-lived.
almost blind, a respiratory illness left him bedridden as from the
end of the summer of 1926. When he finally passed away on 5
December 1926 at the age of 86, it was with Clemenceau, his
friend for so many years, as ever at his side. Monet was thus not
to attend the inauguration of his Water Lilies Decorations in the
Paris Orangerie in May 1927. This artist of genius thereby be-
queathed the public a masterly creation whose influence extends
far into the art of our own century. Andre Masson was later to
describe it as the 'Sistine Chapel of Impressionism' and recom-
mended every modern artist to see it. In his Water Lilies, Monet
made a final break with traditional painting; in the conscious
openness and ambiguity of his pictures and the abstraction and
expression of his style, he was to have a decisive influence on
the modern art of the 20th century.
For the generation before the Second World War - painters
such as Kasimir Malevich, Henri Matisse, Robert Delaunay, Fran-
tisek Kupka and Piet Mondrian - it was above all the aspect of
the series in Monet's work which proved significant. For the The Japanese Bridge, 1918-24
Le Pont japonais
generation of Abstract Expressionists, such as Jackson Pollock, Oil on canvas, 100 x 200 cm
Sam Francis, Mark Rothko and others, the serial element had Wildenstein IV 1913
Paris, Musee Marmottan
become banal. What they recognized and appreciated in Monet's
late painting, with its origins in impressions of nature and its
209
Claude Monet on the Rose Path leading Monet in his garden at Giverny,
\
to the house in Giverny. c. 1823-24.
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Monet in Tune 1921 on the Japanese Room II of the Musee de l'Orangerie with
Bridge in Giverny, with Lily Butler and the painting Reflections of Trees (Reflets
Georges Clemenceau, who, as head of d'Arbes) on the far wall. At the right and
state, supported the installation of the left Willow compositions.
Water Lilies decorations in the Orangerie.
Claude Monet:
Biographical summary
1840 Oscar Claude Monet born on 14 which he sees in the Salon. Joins the
November at 45, Rue Lafitte, Paris, as 'Academie Suisse' run by Charles
the second son of shopkeeper Claude Jacques, where young artists worked
Adolphe Monet and his wife Louise from living models. There he meets
Justine Aubree (nee Lecadre). Camille Pissarro (1830-19031 and, in
the popular Brasserie des Martyrs,
1845 For financial reasons the family Gustave Courbet (1819-1877).
move to Le Havre, where Monet's
father joins his brohter-in-law Jacques 1861 Called up for military service.
Lecadre in his ship chandlery and colo- He chooses a posting with the Chas-
nial goods business. The Lecadres also seurs d'Afrique' in Algeria, attracted
own a house on the coast in neighbour- by its southern atmosphere. Condi-
ing Sainte-Adresse. Monet spends his tions prove too hard for him and he
childhood and school years m Le falls ill; as a result he is sent back to
Pierrc-Auguste Renoir
Havre. France.
Monet Painting in his Garden at Aigenteuil 1873
Monet peignant dans son jardin a Argenteui]
Oil on canvas, 46.7 x 59.7 cm
1855 Monet succeeds in selling his 1862 Six months' convalescence in Le
Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum, Bequest oi Anne caricatures for the handsome sum of Havre. There he meets Boudin and,
Parrish Titzell 10 OI even 20 Francs per head - his by chance, the Dutch painter Johan
first self-earned income. Barthold Jongkind 1819-1891), with
(
1857 His mother dies on 28 January. viously generally dark palette now
His aunt, Marie-Jeanne Lecadre, now brightens noticeably. Spends Easter at
looks after him. Chailly-en-Briere with his fellow stu-
dents and devotes himself to plein-air
1858 His first oil painting, View of painting. Only returns to Paris in Au-
Rouelles is shown in exhibition in Le gust.
Havre, with four pictures by Boudin.
The two work together on the Nor- 1864 Spends Easter in Chailly-en-
mandy coast. Death of Jacques Lecadre Briere and May with Bazille on the
on 30 September. His childless widow, Normandy coast near Honfleur, where
Monet's Aunt Marie-Jeanne, now he stays at the Saint-Simeon guest-
devotes herself to Monet. house, very popular among artists in
Boudin and Jongkind's day. Visits his
1859 With the money earned from his family in Sainte-Adresse; after heated
caricatures he goes to Paris to study argument, his modest allowance is
Claude Monet, painting. Impressed by the paintings cut off. Le Havre shipowner Gau-
c. 1875
by Constant Troy on (1810-1865) and dibert, who had earlier supported
Charles-Francois Daubigny (1817-1878) Boudin, becomes his first patron.
212
1865 In Bazille's studio he is visited and to Argenteuil with Renoir in
by Paul Cezanne (1839-1906), Courbet, autumn.
Manet and Pissarro. Monet shows two
seascapes at the Salon for the first 1873 Meets Gustave Caillebotte (1848-
time. Begins a large plein-air painting 1894), who paints as a hobby,- already
in Chailly, The Picnic, using Camille supporting other artists, Caillebotte
Doncieux and Bazille as models. It is now also helps Monet. Together with
strongly criticized by Courbet and friends, Monet
plans a society of inde-
later seized in lieu of unpaid debts. pendent wishing to exhibit
artists
Works in Trouville in Normandy their works separately from the Salon.
together with Boudin, Courbet and The 'Societe Anonyme Cooperative d'Ar-
Daubigny. tistes Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs'
was founded towards the end of the
1866 His portrait of Camille. or The year. Monet becomes the leading
Woman in the Green Diess is excel- figure within this group of artists and
lently received in the Salon. Emile takes over the role that Manet had
Zola (1840-1902) writes a glowing re- played up till 1870.
view in L'Evenement; he and Monet
become friends. The model is Monet's 1874 First group exhibition in the for-
mistress, Camille Doncieux. Goes in mer studio of the photographer Felix
autumn to Sainte-Adresse, where he Nadar on the Boulevard des Capucines
paints Terrace at Saint-Adresse, and in Paris. Monet's Impression, soleil le-
then to Honfleur, where he meets vant prompts the critic Louis Leroy to
Portrait Camille Monet. 1866/67
Boudin and Courbet and begins a large call the show an 'Exhibition of Im-
Red chalte drawing
seascape. USA private collection
pressionists.' Since Durand-Ruel is in
financial difficulties and unable to pur-
1867 Bazille offers him accommoda- chase paintings, Monet once again suf-
tion in his Paris studio, where Renoir fers a financial crisis. In summer he
is already living. Monet's Woman in of his son Jean. In Trouville in Nor- paints in Argenteuil with Manet and
the Garden is rejected by the Salon. mandy, where Monet is painting with Renoir. At the end of the year the 'So-
Latouche exhibits it in the window of Boudin, news arrives of the death of ciete Anonyme' goes bankrupt and has
his shop for artist's materials, but his aunt, Maria-Jeanne Lecadre, on 7 to be dissolved.
Monet considers it a failure. Bazille July and of the outbreak of war be-
buys the painting and pays for it in in- tween France and Germany on 19 1875 Monet's finances allow him to
stalments. Claude and Camille's son July. His friend Bazille is killed in ac- live only a very meagre existence in
lean is born in Paris on 8 August. The tion in November. Monet goes to Lon- Argenteuil. Paints snowscapes.
couple are again in financial difficul- don. Encounters the work of William
ties. Turner (1775-1851) and John Con- 1876 Becomes friends with the depart-
stable (1776-1837). Daubigny intro-
ment-store magnate and art speculator
1868 Takes a room in Bennecourt on duces him to the Parisian art dealer Ernest Hoschede, who invites him and
the Seine, where his financial worries Paul Durand-Ruel, who exhibits works Manet to his country house at Montge-
leadhim to attempt to drown himself. by French artists in London. He now ron near Paris. Monet's wife Camille
Only one of his two large paintings of also supports Monet and shows his falls seriously ill, possibly following an
Le Havre harbour is accepted for the Harbour Entrance at Trouville. abortion attempt. Towards the end of
Salon,- this is again praised by Zola. In the year he returns to Paris and starts
summer, goes to Fecamp in Normandy 1871 In London learns of the death of the Gare Saint-Lazare series (1876 and
with Camille and Jean in order to his father on 17 January and of the 1877).
work undisturbed. His patron, Gau- truce between France and Germany on
dibert, buys back the paintings seized 28 January. Durand-Ruel submits two 1877 Caillebotte rents Monet a small
by creditors and commissions a por- of Monet's paintings to the interna- studio near the Gare Saint-Lazare,
trait of his wife. Encouraged by Gau- tional exhibition at the South Kensing- from where he continues his series. Of
dibert's support he paints The Lunch- ton Museum. Monet travels to Hol- the 30 pictures which Monet shows in
eon, but subsequently abandons figure land. Purchases Japanese prints in the third Impressionist exhibition in
painting. Amsterdam. In autumn, an inheritance April, seven belong to this series; they
from his father and Camille's dowry again attract Zola's praise. The Im-
1869 Latouche once again exhibits enable him house in Argen-
to rent a pressionists publish their own journal,
the paintings rejected by the Salon, this teuil on the Seine with a flourishing 'L'Impressioniste'. In August Hoschede
time views of Paris and Saint-Adresse. garden, where he begins a more com- is forced to declare himself bankrupt.
In summer Monet goes to Saint- fortable lifestyle. Monet and his family are once again
Michel near Bougival on the Seine in severe financial difficulties.
where, together with Renoir, he paints 1872 Takes part in an exhibition in
colourful scenes of bathing and boat- Rouen. Durand-Ruel buys numerous 1878 Manet and Caillebotte help the
ing at La Grenouillere. paintings, some of which he exhibits Monet family to move from Argen-
in London. Monet buys a boat and con- teuil to Paris. Monet's second son,
1870 His pictures are again rejected verts it into a floating studio. In Le Michel, is born on 17 March. Ho-
by the Salon. On 26 June he marries Havre, paints Impression, soleil le- schede's art collection is auctioned,
Camille Leonie Doncieux, the mother vant; returns to Holland in summer whereby works by Monet and his
213
1881 Numerous painting trips to the
Normandy coast (Dieppe, Fecamp,
Pourville, Varengeville, Etretat, Trou-
ville).Monet's expenses are advanced
by Durand-Ruel, whose economic situ-
ation has now improved. Towards the
end of the year, Monet moves from Ve-
theuil to Poissy on the Seine; he is ac-
companied - contrary to her husband's
wishes - by Alice Hoschede and chil-
dren.
214
brother of Vincent van Gogh 1853 — ( Monet and other Impressionists. The
1890). Revisits London in July. Follow- 'Societe des Vingt' in Brussels is dis-
ing his return, refuses to accept the solved.
Cross of the Legion of Honour. Paints
in Giverny in summer and begins 1894 Durand-Ruel refuses to pay the
Grain Stacks series (until 1893). 15,000 Francs which Monet is asking
for each picture in his Cathedral
1889 Paints in Fresselines on the series. Collector Count Isaac de Ca-
Creuse in the depart ement of the monde buys four versions, however.
same name in central France. A chron- Together with Cezanne, the American
ological retrospective held at Petit's in artist Mary Cassatt (1845-1926) visits
Paris in June, featuring 145 paintings Monet in Giverny in November,- he in-
by Monet coupled with works by his troduces her to Rodin, Clemenceau
contemporary Auguste Rodin (1840- and Geffroy.
1917), proves a huge success. Mirbeau
writes the introduction to the cata- 1895 From January to April, visits his
logue, where he denounces the blind- step-son Jacques Hoschede in the vil-
ness of the Salon Jury to Monet's art. lage of Sandvika near Oslo on the
Monet organizes a private collection slopes of Mount Kolsaas,- paints Nor-
with the aim of purchasing Manet's wegian landscapes. In spring builds a
Olympia from the latter's widow and Japanese-style bridge in his garden at
presenting it to the Louvre as a gift to Giverny and paints it for the first time.
the nation. In October Theo van Gogh
obtains a record price of over 10,000 1896 In February and March Monet
Francs for a Monet painting. undertakes a form of pilgrimage to the Claude Monet, c. 1900
places in Normandy where he had
1890 Further work on the Grain worked fifteen years earlier, and paints
Stacks series, partly in his studio. again in Dieppe, Pourville and Varenge-
new ville. Begins series of Early Morn-
years. In London in autumn he starts
Starts poppy fields and
series of
poplars on the banks of the Epte (until ings on the Seine (until 1897) near
a new series of Thames paintings
(until 1905) which he paints from his
1891). Purchases the house and its Giverny.
grounds in Giverny where he has been
hotel room in the Savoy.
living since 1883 and devotes himself 1897 Has a second studio built in his
to the garden. garden where he can paint in winter.
1900 Resumes the Thames series in
London and is visited there by Clemen-
Paints the Normandy cliffs and
1891 Ernest Hoschede dies on 18 ceau and Geffroy. Subsequently paints
beaches in Pourville from January to
March. The ambiguity previously sur- in Vetheuil on the Seine. Following an
March. His oldest son Jean marries his
rounding Monet's relationship with accident in the summer he tempo-
step-daughter Blanche Hoschede on 9
Alice Hoschede can now be resolved. rarily loses his sight and has to take a
June; the couple live in Rouen. In sum-
An exhibition of 22 paintings at Du- month's rest. On 31 October, Theo-
mer the Second Biennale in Venice
rand-Ruel's in May, including 15 dore Butler, Suzanne's widower, mar-
shows 20 paintings by Monet. After
Grain Stacks, is a tremendous success. ries her sister Marthe, who has looked
lengthy opposition from the auth-
after his children since Suzanne's ill-
orities, the paintings from Caillebotte's
1892 Begins Rouen Cathedral series ness in 1894.
bequest are finally hung in the Musee
(until 1894), which he paints from the de Luxembourg, whereby Impression-
window of a nearby house. On 16 July ism receives its first official recogni-
1901 Paints Thames series in London
he marries Alice Hoschede, nee Raingo. for the last time, but continues finish-
tion.
Only a few days later, his step-daughter ing work in his Giverny studio until
Suzanne marries the American painter 1898 In his article 'J'accuse' in
Theodore Butler, one of Monet's pupils. Clemenceau's paper 'L'Aurore', Zola en-
ters the public debate surrounding the Giverny, September 1900
1893 During another very hard winter trial of the French captain Alfred Drey- From left to right: Germaine Hoschede, Lily Butler,
he paints the breakup of the ice on fus (1859-1935) and is subsequently Madame Joseph Durand-Ruel, Georges Durand-Ruel
and Claude Monet
the Seine at Bennecourt and Port-Vil- himself attacked. Monet supports
lez. In February purchases a larger Zola's Dreyfus campaign and signs the
piece of land near his house in Giver- intellectual's manifesto in 'L'Aurore'.
ny,- it contains a watercourse and a
215
1905. Purchases land in order to culti- proceeding only slowly and unsatisfac- inautumn does he resume work (from
vate further exotic plants and to en- torily. He frequently paints over his memory) on the Venice pictures and
large his water garden, through which pictures, destroys others in despairand on paintings of his water and flower
he permitted to divert a side arm of
is postpones the planned exhibition of garden.
the Epte. An arched espalier for wis- the series. His friend Cezanne dies on
teria is added to the Japanes bridge. 22 October in Aix-en-Provence. His 1912 Completes the Venice series
friend Clemenceau is elected Prime from memory. The exhibition of 29 of
1902 In February the Bernheim-Jeune Minister in October (until July 1909 these pictures at the Bernheim-Jeune
gallery in Paris shows new works by and from November 1917 to January gallery in Paris in May and June is an
Pissarro and Monet, including six pic- 1920). enormous success. Mirbeau writes the
tures from the Vetheuil Seine series. introduction to the catalogue. Follow-
Brief trip to Brittany at the end of 1907 Works almost exclusively on the ing a further deterioration in Monet's
February. Nympheas series. The State buys one vision, a Paris eye specialist diagnoses
picture from the second Nympheas eyesight - the first symptoms of his water mural decorations and pre-
lily
series (until 1908). His old friend Pis- grey cataracts - and occasional illness. sent them to the State. This project is
sarro dies on 12 November in Paris. Lengthy painting trip to Venice with to occupy him until his death. His el-
Alice from September to December. dest son Jean dies on 10 February after
1904 Buys a car and travels to Madrid His Venice series is painted between a long illness. His widow, Monet's
with Alice for three weeks in October, 1908 and 1912, in part from memory. step-daughter Blanche, takes over the
in order to study the works of the Only resumes work on his Nympheas running household and becomes
of his
Spanish masters, in particular Velaz- paintings in his studio in December. his close companion. France enters the
quez, in the Prado. First World War on 3 August. Monet's
1909 Informs Durand-Ruel in January' younger son Michel and the husbands
1905 Continues work on the Thames that his wife Alice is suffering from an
of his step-daughters are called up for
and Nympheas series. December sees apparently chronic illness. Durand-Ruel military service.
the publication of the first photo- exhibits 48 pictures from the second
graphs of Monet's water garden in Nympheas series, painted between 1915 Builds a new, third studio which
Giverny in an article by Louis Vauxcel- L903 and 1908, in his Paris gallery. is 23 m long, 12 m wide and 15 m
les in the magazine 'L'Art et les Artis- Monet returns to Venice in autumn. high, in order to be able to paint his
216
1921 Continues painting in his garden
in Giverny despite his eye trouble. Is
again depressed and unsatisfied with
his work, and wishes to rescind his dona-
tion to the State. He thereby angers
Clemenceau, who has supported the
idea from the beginning. Spends a week
in Brittany in December.
217
Alphabetic list of paintings
The numbers that appear in the captions Festival at Argenteuil 66 Monet's Garden at Argenteuil (Dahhasl 72
(Wildenstein I. -IV.) are taken from the following Field of Yellow Ins near Giverny 147 Monet's Garden at Vetheuil 102
catalogue of Claude Monet's paintings: Flowering Garden 30 Monet's House at Argenteuil 73
Daniel Wildenstein: Monet, biographie et Four Poplars 168 Monet's Water Garden and the Japanese
catalogue raisonne, I (1840-1881), II (1882-1887), Footbridge. Giverny 190
III (1888-1898), IV (1899-1926). The Gare Saint-Lazaxe 94 Morning 200 '201
Lausanne and Paris, 1974, 1979, 1979, 1985 The Gare Saint-lazare: the Normandy Train 95 Morning with Willows 200 201
Gladioli 90 Mount Kolsaas, Pink Reflections l 77
Antibes, Afternoon Effect 150 Grain Stack in Sunshine 163
The Artist's Garden, Irises 193 Grain Stack, Snow Effect, Morning 162 On the Beach at Trouville 4 7
Avenue in the Artist's Garden, Giverny 205 Grain Stack, Snow Effect, Overcast Weather 162 On the Coast at Trouville 124
Avenue of Rose Trees, Giverny 205 Grain Stack, Sunset 164 On the Seine at Bennecourt 42
Gram Stack, Thaw, Sunset 163 Open-Air Study: Woman Turned to the Left 145
The Basin at Argenteuil 62 Gram Stacks, End of Summer Evening Effect 161 Open-Air Study: Woman turned to the Right 145
Basket of Fruit (Apples and Grapes) 112 Grain Stacks, End of Summer, Morning Effect 160
Beach at Etretat 130 La Grenouillere 43 The Palazzo Contarini 187
The Beach at Sainte-Adresse 37 Palm Trees at Bordighera 138
Boating on the Epte 155 Hoar-Frost 109 Parisians Enjoying the Pare Monceau 99
Boats in Winter Quarters, Etretat 141 Houses on the Waterfront, Zaandam 55 Path m the lie Saint-Martin, Vetheuil 105
Boats: Regatta at Argenteuil 76 Hunting Trophies 12 Pears and Grapes 113
Bordighera 137 The Petit Bras at Argenteuil 60
The Boulevard de Pontoise at Argenteuil, Snow 85 Impression, Sunrise 77 The Picnic (Central Section) 27
The Boulevard des Capucines 56 In the Rowing-Boat L55 The Picnic (Left Section) 26
Branch of the Seine near Giverny 181 Irises by the Pond 192 The Picnic (Study) 25
Breakup of the Ice near Vetheuil 115 La Pointe de La Heve at Low Tide 19
The Bridge at Argenteuil 81 The lapanese Bridge 208/209 The Pont de 'Europe 97 1
Coastguard's Cottage at Varengeville 126 Madame Monet on the Sofa 48 Ravine at La Creuse, Sun Effect 156
Corner of the Pond at Giverny 197 The Magpie 39 Regatta at Argenteuil 67
The Manneporte near Etretat 134 Regatta at Sainte-Adresse 37
Early Morning on the Seine 1 8 The Manneporte, Etretat 132/133 The Road Bridge, Argenteuil 81
218
The Road to Vetheuil, Winter 106 Self-Portrait with Beret 142 View of the Esterel Mountains 151
The Rocks at Pourville, Low Tide 128 Snow at Argenteuil 84 View ot Vetheuil 179
Rose Portals, Giverny 198 Spring 147 Village Street in Normandy, near Hontlcur S
Rouen Cathedral, Portal and Still Life with Melon 74 Villas at Bordighera 139
Tour d'Albane in the Morning 172, 174 Storm, Belle-Ile Coast 148
Rouen Cathedral, Portal and Tour d'Albane, Full The Studio-Boat 65 Water Lilies, 195, 196
Sunlight, Harmony in Blue and Gold 173, 175 Sunflowers 110 Water Lilies, Formerlv Agapanthus 202/203
Rouen Cathedral, Portal and Tour d'Albane Watei Lily Pond in the Evening 204
Morning Effect, harmony in White P2 Terrace at Sainte-Adresse 36 The Water Lily Pond with Irises 202/203
Rouen Cathedral, Portal, Front View. The Thames and the Houses of Parliament S The Water Lily Pond, Harmony in Green 191
Rouen Cathedral, Portal, Morning Sun, Train in the Countryside 45 Wheat Field 1 1
Harmony in Blue 172 The Train in the Snow 85 The Wild Sea 149
Rouen Cathedral, Portal, Overcast Weather 173 The Tuilenes SS Willows at Giverny 146
Rough Sea 121 The Tuilenes, (Sketch) 89 Wisteria 214
Rough Sea at Pourville 185 The Turkeys 91 Woman Seated under the Willows 1 IN
The Rowing-Boat 154 Under the Poplars, Sun Effect 159 Madame Monet and Her Son 92
The Rue Saint-Denis on 30 June 1878 101 Unloading Coal 96 Women in the Garden 29
The Ruisseau de Robec jRouen) 61
Venice at Dusk 186 Zaandam 55
Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois 33 Vetheuil in Summer 1 1
7 Zaandam Harbour 53
The Seine at Argenteuil 62 View of the Argenteuil Plain from the
The Seine Bridge at Argenteuil 82 Sannois Hills 63
219
The publisher wishes to thank museums and institutions
mentioned in the captions for their kind permission to use
Thanks are also due to the following archives, libraries .\n<} institutions:
Document Archives Durand-Ruel: 52 left, 96, 120, 125, 142, 189, 215 below
Document Archives Durand-Ruel, all rights reserved: 210 below, 214 below, 214 above right,
26, 27, 29, 39, 41, 45, 48, 55 above, 59, 61, 62 above, 62 below, 63 below, 67, 68/69, 70/71, 76, 81 below, 83,
87, 89, 91, 94, 107, 108, 109, 115, 116, 129, 130 above, 145, 148, 149, 155 below, 160, 172 middle and right,
173, 175, 177, 181 below, 182, 191, 193, 199, 200/201, 202/203 below, 205 above and below
H. Roger- Viollet, Paris: 211 above
Archiv Walther, Ailing: 6, 72, 79, 183 above, 212, 214 above left, 216
Archives of the publishers: 52 above right, 52 below, 123, 144, 161 below, 213
Photograph © 1990, The Art Institute of Chicago, all rights reserved: 37 below, 42, 73, 95, 127,
220
Karin Sagner-Duchting, born in Erlabrunn-Stein-
heidel, studied art history, new German literature
in Munich.
warmly recommend."
Elie Wiesel, Nobel Laureate for Peace, 1986
Le Figaro, Paris