Rouen Cathedral (Monet series)

Date

The Rouen Cathedral paintings, more than thirty in all, were made in 1892 and 1893 in Rouen, Normandy, then reworked in Monet’s studio in 1894. Monet rented spaces in Rouen across the street from the cathedral as his temporary studio. In 1895 he selected what he considered to be the twenty best paintings from the series for display at his Paris dealer’s gallery and sold eight of them before the exhibition was over. Camille Pissarro and Paul Cézanne visited the exhibition and praised the series highly.

Historically, the series was well-timed. In the early 1890s, France was seeing a revival of interest in Catholicism and the subject of one of its major cathedrals was well received. Apart from its religious significance, Rouen Cathedral—built in the Gothic style—could be seen as representing all that was best in French history and culture, given that it was a style of architecture that was admired and adopted by many European countries during the Middle Ages.

Painting light

When Monet painted the Rouen Cathedral series, he had long since been impressed with the way light imparts to a subject a distinctly different character at different times of the day and the year and as atmospheric conditions change. For Monet, the effects of light on a subject became as important as the subject itself. Like his other series (such as the famous Water Lilies) in which Monet painted many views of the same subject under different lighting conditions, these works are an attempt to illustrate the importance of light in our perception of a subject at a given time and place. He spent much of his career in attempts to capture these nuances, as exemplified by his frequent saying, "Nature never stands still."

Image:Claude Monet - La Cathédrale de Rouen, Le Portail au Soleil.jpg|Rouen Cathedral, West Façade, Sunlight 1894 National Gallery of Art Washington, D.C., USA File:RouenCathedralSerbia05.jpg|Rouen Cathedral, red, Sunlight 1892 National Museum of Serbia Belgrade, Serbia Image:Claude Monet - Cathédrale de Rouen. Harmonie bleue et or.jpg|La Cathédrale de Rouen. Le portail et la tour Saint-Romain, plein soleil; harmonie bleue et or 1892–1893 Musée d'Orsay Paris, France Image:Claude Monet - Cathédrale de Rouen. Harmonie bleue.jpg|La Cathédrale de Rouen. Le portail, soleil matinal; harmonie bleue 1892–1893 Musée d'Orsay Paris, France Image:Claude Monet - Rouen Cathedral, Facade (Sunset).JPG|Rouen Cathedral, Facade (sunset), harmonie in gold and blue 1892–1894 Musée Marmottan Monet Paris, France

Robert Pelfrey, in Art and Mass Media, wrote: "By focusing on the same subject through a whole series of paintings, Monet was able to concentrate on recording visual sensations themselves. The subjects did not change, but the visual sensations – due to changing conditions of light – changed constantly."

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 these calls were not heeded and the series was divided.

Technique

Painting the cathedral was a challenging task, even for Monet. Michael Howard, in his Encyclopedia of Impressionism, writes:

Monet found that the thing he had set out to paint—light—was an almost impossible thing to capture because of its ever-changing nature and its extreme subtlety. He was assisted, however, by his ability to capture the essence of a scene quickly, then finish it later using a sketch combined with his memory of the scene. For these paintings, he used thick layers of richly textured paint, expressive of the intricate nature of the subject. Paul Hayes Tucker, in Claude Monet: Life and Art, writes:

The subtle interweaving of colors, 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.

Gallery

Image:getty_monet_rouen_cathedral.jpg|The Portal of Rouen Cathedral in Morning Light, 1894, J. Paul Getty Museum. Image:Claude Monet 032.jpg|The portal and the tower of the saint-romain at morning sun, Harmony in Blue 1893 Musée d'Orsay Paris, France Image:Claude Monet - Rouen Cathedral, Facade (Morning effect).JPG|Rouen Cathedral, Facade (Morning effect) 1892–1894 Folkwang Museum Essen, Germany Image:Claude Monet - Rouen Cathedral, Facade I.jpg|Rouen Cathedral, Facade 1 1892–1894 Pola Museum of Art Hakone, Japan Image:Claude Monet La cathédrale de Rouen, le portail.jpg|Rouen Cathedral, The Façade in Sunlight 1894 Clark Art Institute Williamstown, USA Image:Rouen Cathedral, West Facade.JPG|Rouen Cathedral, West Facade, 1894, National Gallery of Art Image:Claude Monet - Rouen Cathedral, West Facade, Sunlight.jpg|Rouen Cathedral, West Facade, Sunlight, 1894, National Gallery of Art Image:Rouen Cathedral- Setting Sun, Symphony in Grey and Pink.jpg|Rouen Cathedral- Setting Sun, (Symphony in Grey and Pink), 1894, National Museum Cardiff, Great Britain Image:Monet-cathedrale-rouen.jpg|Rouen Cathedral, Facade and the Tour d'Albane. Grey Weather, 1894, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen Image:Claude Monet - Cathédrale de Rouen. Harmonie blanche.jpg|La Cathédrale de Rouen. Le portail et la tour Saint-Romain, effet du matin; harmonie blanche 1892–1893 Musée d'Orsay Paris, France Image:Claude Monet - Rouen Cathedral, Facade and Tour d'AlbaneI.JPG|Rouen Cathedral, Facade and Tour d'AlbaneI, dull day 1892–1894 Beyeler Museum Riehen, Switzerland Image:Claude Monet, The Portal of Rouen Cathedral, le Portal vu de face.jpg|Rouen Cathedral, the West Portal, Dull Weather 1892 Musée d'Orsay Paris, France

Public display

In 1994, the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen exhibited sixteen paintings of the series.

The Musée d'Orsay has five paintings of the series on permanent display.

In 2018, the National Gallery in London exhibited five paintings of the series, together in a single room, for the duration of a temporary exhibition titled Monet & Architecture, devoted to Claude Monet's use of architecture as a means to structure and enliven his art. This was a rare occurrence because no museum other than the Musée d'Orsay owns or exhibits more than three in a permanent collection and none of the museum's examples were included in the exhibition.

The five paintings exhibited were the examples from the following collections:

• National Museum Cardiff
• Klassik Stiftung Weimar
• Museum of Fine Arts
• Beyeler Foundation
• An undisclosed private collection

References

References

1. (2009). "Gardner's Art through the Ages: The Western Perspective". Cengage Learning.
2. (1990). "Monet's cathedral : Rouen, 1892-1894". Knopf.
3. Sumner, Ann. (2005). "Colour and Light: Fifty Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Works at the National Museum of Wales". National Museum of Wales.
4. (1990). "Monet in the '90s: The Series Paintings". Yale University Press.
5. Mannering, Douglas. “Rouen Cathedral.” Masterworks of Monet, Parragon, 1998, pp. 195–200.
6. (1985). "Art and mass media". Harper & Row.
7. (1997). "Encyclopedia of impressionism". Thunder Bay Press.
8. (1995). "Claude Monet: Life and Art". Yale University Press.
9. "Collections du musée d'Orsay".
10. (April 2018). "Monet & Architecture".
11. Cumming, Laura. (8 April 2018). "Monet & Architecture".