Claude Monet

Ernest and Victorine Donop de Monchy, Paris (by circa 1894-97)
Sale: Martin & Courtois, Hôtel des Ventes, Angers, December 14, 1977, lot 155
Private Collection, Paris
Acquired from the above (through Brame & Lorenceau, Paris)

Paris, Musée de l'Orangerie, Centenaire Monet-Rodin, 1940, no. 61

Georges Lecomte, "Claude Monet et l'Impressionisme," L' Illustration, Christmas Edition, Paris, December 6, 1941, illustrated in color p. 44 
Remus Niculescu, "G. de Bellio, L'ami des Impressionnistes," in Revue roumaine d'Histoire de l'Art, 1964, vol. I, no. 2, p. 269
Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet catalogue raisonné, vol. V, Lausanne, 1991, no. P73, illustrated p. 168

Executed on buff colored wove paper affixed to a mount around the perimeter on verso. The edges of the sheet are deckled. The medium is quite bright and fresh and well preserved aside from a few small surface scuffs at lower portion of right edge and center of bottom edge, likely from prior framing. Nick to the sheet at extreme lower right corner and possibly one further nick at extreme left edge near center, otherwise fine. This work is in overall very good condition.
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.

Claude Monet's skill as a draughtsman is relatively under-appreciated, and pastels are especially rare in his œuvre. Most of Monet's pastels appear to date from the early years of his career, at a time when Impressionism was beginning to flourish, and the majority of his work in this medium is dedicated to recording the landscapes of his beloved Normandy, where he spent much of his youth. As he began to develop as a painter, it was to Normandy that he returned, joining his fellow artists Boudin, Sisley, Jongkind and Daubigny.

The intimate and informal nature of Chemin Creux, effet de lunière make it a perfect example of true plein air painting, the pastel medium being ideally suited to capturing the artist's impression of the forest scene before him. Monet displays a great mastery in his handling of pastel in this work, allowing the viewer a glimpse of his extraordinary sense of luminosity, harmony and color. Monet is using the pastel medium to amplify the textural and atmospheric elements of the landscape before him, seen in the contrast between the broadly applied passages punctuated by quick staccato strokes, with rising verticals of the windswept trees giving rhythm and structure to this dense composition. James A. Ganz and Robert Kendall describe comparable pastels of this subject and from this period, noting that “color and mark, palpability and sensation take on a heightened significance, partially replacing the lure of narrative or the seduction of fine detail. We do not marvel at Monet’s sleight of hand, in other words, but at the intensity and subtlety of his grasp of the experienced subject” (The Unknown Monet: Pastels and Drawings, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, exh. cat., 2007, p. 147).

Early owners of the present work were Ernest and Victorine Donop de Monchy, heirs to the extraordinary collection of Dr. Georges de Bellio, friend and patron of the Impressionists. At the time of Dr. de Bellio’s death in 1894, the inventory of the collection was staggering, including masterpieces by Pissarro, Renoir, Manet and over two dozen works by Monet.