Claude Monet

Galerie Durand-Ruel et Cie., Paris (acquired from the artist in November 1883)

Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York (acquired from the above on June 3, 1897)

Sam Salz Inc., New York (acquired from the above)

Etta Steinberg, St. Louis

Nieson N. Shak, United States

Private Collection (acquired on February 21, 1989 and sold: Christie's, New York, November 1, 2005, lot 58)

Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

New York, Durand-Ruel Galleries, Exhibition of Paintings by Claude Monet, February 1902, no. 16

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; North Carolina Museum of Art; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Monet in Normandy, 2006, no. 63

Lionello Venturi, Les archives de l'impressionnisme, Paris, 1939, discussed pp. 262-263

Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet, Biographie et Catalogue raisonné, vol. II, Lausanne, 1979, no. 831, illustrated p. 105

Daniel Wildenstein, Monet, Catalogue raisonné, vol. II, Cologne, 1996, no. 831, illustrated p. 307

 

In good condition. The canvas is relined. Under ultra-violet light there are a number of small specks of inpainting scattered about the sky with more of concentration of spots in between the 2 rocky structures to the right as well as some inpainting along the extreme left edge.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

One of the most dramatic vistas in Monet's oeuvre of the 1880s is his views of Étretat (see fig. 1). This part of the Normandy coast, with the Falaise d'Amont and the Aiguille (needle) in front of the Porte d'Aval, had been popular with writers and painters of the preceding generation, such as Delacroix, Corot, and Courbet, the latter exerted a strong influence of Monet's work.  Monet himself had spent some weeks there in 1868-69 and he returned in 1883, first to Le Havre and then to Étretat where he stayed for three weeks.  The views of the spectacular cliff formations of chalk arches and flying buttresses between Dieppe and Le Havre inspired at least eighteen canvases.  In these works of Normandy there is a "clear debt to Courbet and their concomitant fascination with the almost mythic natural landscape of the north coast. [...] The viewer, like Monet himself, is most often alone - walking on the beaches, clinging to the cliffs, staring at the waves that crash again the coast of France itself" (Monet in Normandy, (exhibition catalogue), Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; North Caroline Museum of Art; The Cleveland Museum of Art, New York, 2006, p. 46).  Dr. David Steel notes the detail of the tiny figures in the rowboat, "give the composition a sense of scale.  On this tranquil afternoon, their presence testifies to nature's gentler aspect, rather than its raw, sublime power" (ibid., p. 138).

According to Daniel Wildenstein, in the present composition, "the painter worked from the foreshore underneath the cleft in the cliff known as the Valleuse de Jambourg, west of Étretat beach, between the Porte d'Aval and the Manneporte.  The picture was painted looking eastwards, showing the Porte d'Aval and the Needle at low tide, lit by the setting sun" (Daniel Wildenstein, Monet, Catalogue raisonné, vol. II, Cologne, 1996, p. 309). 

Fig. 1, A view of Étretat, as depicted by Monet in the present work