Claude Monet. Volume 2. Nina Kalitina
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the years, work in the studio became increasingly important for the artist.
It is unlikely that the canvasses executed in Rouen in 1892 remained untouched in Giverny, and it is certain that after his return from the second visit to Rouen he was still bringing them to perfection.
One cannot disagree with Pissarro’s judgement that the Rouen Cathedral series must create its strongest impression when all twenty canvasses are collected together – alas, a spectacle almost unrealisable today, since the paintings are scattered among numerous museums and private collections throughout the world.
Best endowed in this respect is the Musée d’Orsay in Paris which holds five paintings: Rouen Cathedral, the West Portal, Dull Weather (1892), Rouen Cathedral, the Portal and the Saint-Romain Tower, Morning Effect: Harmony in White (1893), Rouen Cathedral, the Portal, Morning Sun: Harmony in Blue, Rouen Cathedral, Full Sunlight: Harmony in Blue and Gold, and the cathedral without indication of the time it was painted, Rouen Cathedral, the Portal Seen from the Front: Harmony in Brown (1892).
Rouen Cathedral Façade and Tour d’Albane (Morning Effect), 1894. Oil on canvas,
106.1 × 73.9 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
The Doge’s Palace (Le Palais ducal), 1908.
Oil on canvas, 81.3 × 99.1 cm. Brooklyn Museum, New York.
San Giorgio Maggiore, 1908. Oil on canvas,
59.2 × 81.2 cm. National Museum Wales, Cardiff.
The Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, 1908.
Oil on canvas, 64.8 × 91.4 cm.
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis.
The gaze of the visitor to the museum passes quickly from one picture to the next, then returns and runs again across the uneven surface of the canvasses, studying the changes of light. The repeated motif of the portal, painted, moreover, on vertical canvasses of approximately uniform dimensions, recedes, in proportion to the length of time spent in contemplation, further and further into the background, until the viewer is wholly enthralled by the astonishing skill of the painter.
The Rouen Cathedral at Noon and Rouen Cathedral in the Evening (1894, Pushkin Museum, Moscow) carry the intense blue of the sky above, the dark-blue and violet shadows below, and between them a scattering of golden, pink, and slightly lilac tones, alternating with light sprinklings of pale blue – these are the colours Monet used to reproduce the façade of the cathedral in the evening.
Darker blue and lilac tones are distinctly more evident in the second painting, where pinks are almost extinguished and gold is shot with orange and red.
Whilst on the Riviera in 1888 Monet wrote to Rodin: “I am arming myself and doing battle with the sun… Here one ought to paint with pure gold and precious stones.” These words could be related to the Rouen Cathedral series as well, for here too, Monet was waging war with the sun, and the surfaces of the canvasses really are reminiscent of a scattering of precious stones being played upon by rays of sunlight.
By the time the Cathedrals were being created, the nervousness of Monet’s brushstrokes and the intensity of his colour combinations had lessened noticeably, and he was now more concerned with shades and nuances of colour.
O. Reuterswärd has perceptively noted that one of the most remarkable features of the series lies in the variations of values: “…spots of paint, both strong and weak in terms of light, interlacing in ever-new combinations of tones, the vivid play of colours conveying almost imperceptible light effects.”
Critics within Monet’s circle, Mirbeau and Geffroy among them, greeted the Rouen Cathedral series ecstatically.
The greatest impression was, however, made by the review of Georges Clemenceau, a close acquaintance of Monet’s since the 1860s. Briefly abandoning questions of politics, the leader of the radicals took up his pen and published an enthusiastic article in Justice. Upon reading the article, Monet wrote to Clemenceau: “If one sets aside modesty and my person, then everything is said beautifully.”
The Grand Canal, Venice, 1908. Oil on canvas,
73.7 × 92.4 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
This delight was by no means shared by all artists and critics. The opposition’s opinion was most laconically expressed by the ageing Gérôme, himself crowned with all the laurels and distinctions of the official art world, when he called the Cathedrals and all Monet’s other works of this period “rubbish”. The following years saw no fundamental changes in Monet’s career, though the artist continued to experiment in spite of his age.
During the winter of 1895 the weather in Europe was unusually cold. The Seine froze all the way to Honfleur.
At a banquet in Paris, Monet met a Norwegian landscape painter, Fritz Thaulow. When he learned that Monet’s stepson was fulfilling his military service in Norway, Thaulow set about convincing Monet to go there precisely in winter.
Thus it came about that, at the end of January, Monet left for Christiania. Monet saw the winter there, which would have been strange to a Frenchman, in all its splendour.
The ice had blocked access to all the Scandinavian ports, and travellers on the sea routes were halted by numerous snow slides. At first he thought the ice and the wind would make working in the open air impossible.
But this Nordic land, with its clear air, was so lovely that Monet went out in the glacial cold. He took a four-day trip by sleigh in the mountains, towards the fjords and over the lakes.
In a letter to Geffroy, the painter wrote that he never saw any water anywhere because everything was frozen. During the day, the temperature was always around twenty-five degrees below zero! He felt wonderful in spite of all this and, most importantly, worked with enthusiasm.
For the winter motifs, Monet followed, above all, Courbet, who captured this theme in some of his genre paintings. In contrast to those by Courbet, Monet’s pictures are characterised by loneliness, in which man plays a subordinate role.
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