Lot Essay
In 1882, Monet, then living at Poissy to the north-west of Paris, undertook a major painting trip along the shores of Upper Normandy. He had visited his native region a number of times during the 1870s, but 1882 was a year of unrivalled productivity:
Without doubt his favorite site during the 1880s was the Normandy coast; it obviously was in his blood from his childhood in Le Havre and Saint-Adresse and was easily accessible from Vétheuil and later from Giverny where he moved in 1883. Of all the places he visited on the coast, several became his most frequented -- Pourville, Varengeville, Étretat, and Dieppe.... Their appeal lay primarily in their dramatic cliffs and stretches of beach, their simplicity, starkness, and past history. Varengeville was particularly attractive because of a gorge that time and nature's forces had carved out of the cliffs. It was also the site of a small town house, built during the Napoleonic blockade of Europe as a look-out post for ships attempting to skirt the seige and deliver cargo without being taxed. After Napoleon's demise the house was appropriated by local fishermen and used for storage and refuge. Monet painted it no fewer than twenty times in 1882 and returned to render it almost as frequently again in 1896 and 1897. It therefore was of considerable significance to him and rightfully so. Perched high above the water and rocky beach, the house commanded a spectacular view of the channel. The site also afforded him the opportunity to look to the north and follow the coast as it wound its way up to Dieppe and the Belgian border. And when he crossed the gorge and looked back to the house from the east, it suddenly became a humble element nestled in the crook of the undulating cliff as the hill abruptly but comfortingly rose above the structure.
In almost all of these views, Monet depicts the house as isolated and alone, vulnerable and steadfast, as if it were a human being.... Whether blown by the winds or bathed in brilliant sunlight, the house also takes on the attributes of a landscape painter alone with his motifs, enduring the elements in order to be one with them much like Monet himself. Little wonder therefore, that he was so excited when he returned to the same site in 1896 and again in 1897, telling Alice Hoschedé it was 'just as I had left it' and that he had obtained keys to the house so that he could use it just like local residents. (P. Tucker, Claude Monet, Life and Art, London, 1995, pp. 107-109)
Monet painted the cabin from a number of different vantage points and under varying conditions, as seen in Wildenstein no. 739 (Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge), Wildenstein no. 743 (Museum of Art, Philadelphia) and Wildenstein no. 735 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). As Steven Levine has pointed out, more than ten years before the Meules or Peupliers of 1891, which are considered Monet's first true series paintings, these works depicting the cliffs under diverse lighting effects constituted a more or less unconscious advance in the direction of the serial treatment of motifs.
Without doubt his favorite site during the 1880s was the Normandy coast; it obviously was in his blood from his childhood in Le Havre and Saint-Adresse and was easily accessible from Vétheuil and later from Giverny where he moved in 1883. Of all the places he visited on the coast, several became his most frequented -- Pourville, Varengeville, Étretat, and Dieppe.... Their appeal lay primarily in their dramatic cliffs and stretches of beach, their simplicity, starkness, and past history. Varengeville was particularly attractive because of a gorge that time and nature's forces had carved out of the cliffs. It was also the site of a small town house, built during the Napoleonic blockade of Europe as a look-out post for ships attempting to skirt the seige and deliver cargo without being taxed. After Napoleon's demise the house was appropriated by local fishermen and used for storage and refuge. Monet painted it no fewer than twenty times in 1882 and returned to render it almost as frequently again in 1896 and 1897. It therefore was of considerable significance to him and rightfully so. Perched high above the water and rocky beach, the house commanded a spectacular view of the channel. The site also afforded him the opportunity to look to the north and follow the coast as it wound its way up to Dieppe and the Belgian border. And when he crossed the gorge and looked back to the house from the east, it suddenly became a humble element nestled in the crook of the undulating cliff as the hill abruptly but comfortingly rose above the structure.
In almost all of these views, Monet depicts the house as isolated and alone, vulnerable and steadfast, as if it were a human being.... Whether blown by the winds or bathed in brilliant sunlight, the house also takes on the attributes of a landscape painter alone with his motifs, enduring the elements in order to be one with them much like Monet himself. Little wonder therefore, that he was so excited when he returned to the same site in 1896 and again in 1897, telling Alice Hoschedé it was 'just as I had left it' and that he had obtained keys to the house so that he could use it just like local residents. (P. Tucker, Claude Monet, Life and Art, London, 1995, pp. 107-109)
Monet painted the cabin from a number of different vantage points and under varying conditions, as seen in Wildenstein no. 739 (Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge), Wildenstein no. 743 (Museum of Art, Philadelphia) and Wildenstein no. 735 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). As Steven Levine has pointed out, more than ten years before the Meules or Peupliers of 1891, which are considered Monet's first true series paintings, these works depicting the cliffs under diverse lighting effects constituted a more or less unconscious advance in the direction of the serial treatment of motifs.