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Lot Essay
Monet had grown up on the coast and the motif of beaches and cliffs was a regular subject in his work. 1880, the year in which Monet announced his independence from the Impressionist group, marked an important change in his style and choice of subjects, and from 1881 he approached these familiar sites with a fresh approach to depicting the topography.
The artist was particularly enamored of the sea, later writing to Alice, "You know my passion for the sea. I'm mad about it" (quoted in D. Wildenstein, Claude Monet, Biographie et Catalogue raisonné, Lausanne, 1974, vol. I, letter no. 730). He channeled his enthusiasm directly into painting, working on as many as eight separate canvases in one day, and producing in total about one hundred pictures during his stay. These works were immediately successful, both with critics and collectors. Monet's dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, purchased paintings from him both in April and October of 1882, paying over 31,000 francs.
The cut-off compositions of this series reflect Monet's interest in Japanese woodprints, notably those of Hokusai and Hiroshige. William Seitz writes,
Certain common procedures and solutions underlie the works of this period, though they inhere as much in the motif as in its interpretation. As before, compositions are "discovered by blocking off a portion of a scene without rearranging its elements, but now it is done with much less regard for the Western landscape tradition. The radical cropping calls to mind Japanese prints, of which Monet became an avid collector . . . the surface is often divided into a very few large areas. Horizontal recessions are avoided or gently coerced towards the vertical. Within the thoughtfully contoured shapes a broad vocabulary of coloristic calligraphy simultaneously translates into pigment both the vibration of light and the rhythms and textures of grasses, earth, clouds, foliage, rock surfaces, and waves . . . (W. C . Seitz, Seasons and Moments, exh. cat., New York and Los Angeles, 1960, p. 16).
The scene is painted at the foot of the Falaise d'Aval. Above the beach at Fécamp is the Falaise d'Amont with the church of Notre-Dame-du-Salut.
The artist was particularly enamored of the sea, later writing to Alice, "You know my passion for the sea. I'm mad about it" (quoted in D. Wildenstein, Claude Monet, Biographie et Catalogue raisonné, Lausanne, 1974, vol. I, letter no. 730). He channeled his enthusiasm directly into painting, working on as many as eight separate canvases in one day, and producing in total about one hundred pictures during his stay. These works were immediately successful, both with critics and collectors. Monet's dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, purchased paintings from him both in April and October of 1882, paying over 31,000 francs.
The cut-off compositions of this series reflect Monet's interest in Japanese woodprints, notably those of Hokusai and Hiroshige. William Seitz writes,
Certain common procedures and solutions underlie the works of this period, though they inhere as much in the motif as in its interpretation. As before, compositions are "discovered by blocking off a portion of a scene without rearranging its elements, but now it is done with much less regard for the Western landscape tradition. The radical cropping calls to mind Japanese prints, of which Monet became an avid collector . . . the surface is often divided into a very few large areas. Horizontal recessions are avoided or gently coerced towards the vertical. Within the thoughtfully contoured shapes a broad vocabulary of coloristic calligraphy simultaneously translates into pigment both the vibration of light and the rhythms and textures of grasses, earth, clouds, foliage, rock surfaces, and waves . . . (W. C . Seitz, Seasons and Moments, exh. cat., New York and Los Angeles, 1960, p. 16).
The scene is painted at the foot of the Falaise d'Aval. Above the beach at Fécamp is the Falaise d'Amont with the church of Notre-Dame-du-Salut.