Claude Monet’s life-long fascination with light, particularly with the effect of its reflection on water, created some of the most iconic and epoch-defining paintings of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The present pastel is a stunning example of Monet’s unique ability to capture the transient effect of the sun setting on water, creating a magical interplay of surface, colour and light.
Filled with a rich combination of peach, gold and blue tones, Coucher de soleil sur la mer becomes an almost abstract play of colour, the horizon line culminating in an intense array of gestural strokes of pastel. Displaying a keen sense of the momentary nature of the scene, the composition is suffused with a sense of the urgency, as the artist attempts to capture nature’s nuances before they shift and disappear. With the immediacy of the pastel, Monet develops an intensely tactile, sensuous dialogue with the motif. This gestural inventiveness is a direct result of the speed with which the artist sought to match the pace of the natural phenomena before him, evocatively rendered through bold and expressive strokes of colour.
Although born in Paris, Monet moved to the town of Le Havre in Normandy as a small child, thus beginning an enduring relationship with the region. It was especially the coastline at Étretat, with its stunning natural features such as the cliffs of the Porte d'Amont, that made a profound impact on Monet. The dramatic coastline became a particularly important and popular motif with the artist, inspiring several of his most significant early works of the 1860s and providing a source of imagery that he would return to throughout his career (fig. 1).
Monet’s experiments with pastel may be traced back to the influence of one of his earliest mentors, Eugène Boudin. Boudin was a great proponent of working en plein air and his use of pastel was central to this practice. The pliable texture of the medium allowed him to make swift visual renderings of any changing scene that would later act as an aide memoire when executing works in his studio. According to Boudin, 'everything painted directly on the spot always has a strength, a power, a vividness of touch that one doesn’t find again in the studio' (Boudin quoted in J. A. Ganz & R. Kendall, The Unknown Monet: Pastels and Drawings, New Haven & London, 2007, p. 61). Monet took this approach one step further by creating fully executed works of art in this medium.
“For the Impressionists, pastel offered a medium well suited to recording the sudden excitement of visual sensations, the fresh colours of nature and fleeting effects of light. The fragility of its texture corresponded to the evanescence of sense perceptions.”
For Monet, pastel’s easy handling combined a freedom of expression with other practical advantages - it is a medium that is direct, and unlike oil paint, requires little preparation and no drying time, which allows it to be used spontaneously. In addition, the absence of yellow resins in the composition of the pastel medium and the reflection of light from the innumerable facets of the finely ground powder created an ideal optical vibrancy that was greatly appreciated by the artist. The immediacy of the medium is acutely felt in the present work, and only further enhanced by the confident and adept application of colour.