All Rights Reserved. Toggle navigation Claude Monet. Rouen Cathedral - by Claude Monet Courtesy of www. Impression Sunrise. The cathedral series was not Monet's first series of paintings of a single subject, but it was his most exhaustive.
The subject matter was a change, however, for prior to this series, Monet had painted mostly landscapes. The cathedral allowed him to highlight the paradox between a seemingly permanent, solid structure and the ever-changing light which constantly plays with our perception of it. There were calls for the state to buy the entire series and exhibit them as a whole, but unfortunately these calls were not heeded and the series was divided.
Painting the cathedral was a challenging task, even for Monet. Michael Howard, in his Encyclopedia of Impressionism Carlton, , writes:. As always, the pictures gave him intense difficulties, which threw him into despair. Evidently, among the 31 canvases of the Cathedral series there are more differences than those caused by the different conditions of light and atmosphere.
However, as Monet finished most of the paintings in his workshop, it is more important the date in which each canvas was started mostly and Private collection. In May , Monet selected 20 of these canvases to be exhibited in the gallery of his friend and art dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel.
In spite of the elevated price of each one of the views — between 12, and 15, francs- the sale was a huge success. The stone itself is transformed into an organic substance, and one can feel how it changes in the same way that a little moment of the life is followed by another one.
The twenty chapters of samples of light in evolution have been wisely selected to create an ordered guideline of this evolution. More than a century later, and dispersed among several museums and private collections of the world, mostly in France and the United States; the views of the Cathedral by Monet are not only artworks coveted by any Museum or serious Art collector, but also the best pictorial testimony of the incomparable courage of Impressionism.
Follow us on:. The Rouen Cathedral by Monet. Monet's sensitivity to the natural effects he observed are just one factor that makes these pictures so remarkable; the way he manipulates his medium contributes to their majesty as well. See also the work on architectural paintings by John Singer Sargent. The subtle interweaving of colours, the keen perception of the artist and the use of texture all serve to create a series of shimmering images in light and color—masterpieces worthy of the grandeur of their subject matter.
Evidently, among the canvases of the Rouen Cathedral series, there are more differences than those caused by the different conditions of light and atmosphere. Monet chose five different points of view - two from the square and three from different rooms in the building in front of the Cathedral- representing the Cathedral's portal frontally or with the point of view slightly displaced to the right , or the portal and the d'Albane tower to the left of the portal , but always conserving that unusually nearby point of view.
However, as Monet finished most of the paintings in his workshop, it is more important the date in which each canvas was started mostly and The election of the palette reflects the different shades in which the daily light was dying the Cathedral facade: from the smooth blues of the morning to the vivid ochre and golden shades in the soil pictures, and browns and greys in the cloudy days.
Extending the building's encrusted stone surface to the richly varied impasto surface of his painting, he portrayed the cathedral perpetually re-emerging in the suffused light of early morning. Monet created several groups of paintings exploring the colour, light, and form of a single subject at various times of day, but his Rouen Cathedral series was his most intense effort on a single site.
He painted there in late winter in both and , then reworked his thirty canvases from memory in the studio through He began this example in , working in an improvised studio in the front room of a dressmaker's shop across from the cathedral. After creating a coherent ensemble, Monet selected twenty paintings that he considered "complete" and "perfect," including this one, for an exhibition at his Paris dealer's gallery in May Monet's early work is indebted to the Realists' interests in depicting contemporary subject matter, without idealisation, and in painting outdoors in order to capture the fleeting qualities of nature.
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