Monet, Varengeville and the cliff-top church

Claude Monet. The church of Varengeville, effect of morning. 1882. Oil on canvas. 60 cm x 73 cm. Private Collection.

Of all the 90 or so paintings Claude Monet is said to have done while staying in Pourville during the winter and again in the summer of 1882, my favourite is definitely The Church of Varengeville, Effect of Morning (above). For me, it is one of those paintings that so epitomises the impressionist project, from the manner in which it was created to the finished product’s title, ‘the effect of morning’.

The church at Varengeville form the beach, today.

I had visited the dramatically placed cliff-top church at Varengeville before, but from above. Last weekend I wanted to get to see the church from the vantage point Monet had painted this particular canvas in 1882. I all but failed, I think. For a start, Monet painted the above canvas during summer when the sun plays with the crumbling chalky white cliffs so characteristic of this part of the Normandy coast; my visit (photograph above) was at the very start of spring. Also, the tide was just coming in as I was heading to the spot where Monet must have studied his subject. I was strangely torn between wanting to collect some fresh mussels from the exposed mussel beds and getting a decent photograph of the church from the beach (above). You will be pleased to know that first I set to getting as good a photograph as I could given the lighting conditions, and only then did I literally grab a few mussels for supper.

The thirteenth century church of St. Valery, Varengeville.

Much of the character of the church at Varengeville rest in its cliff-top location; it is certainly in a very dramatic position, and I feel Monet has captured this quality with equally dramatic effect his painting; it looks as if the church is about to fall into the sea. The apparently fragile church of St. Valery dates back to the thirteenth century. The cemetery has a sixteenth-century sandstone cross and contains the tombs of some famous Frenchmen, including Porto-Riche, Albert Roussel, Georges Braque and Paul Nelson. The cubist artist, Georges Braque, created a stained-glass window for the church that depicts the Tree of Jesse.

The white, chalk cliffs at Varengeville – the brown stains are created by water leeching down through the chalk.

Because of the time of year, my photograph of the church atop the cliff above does not adequately capture the character of the cliff face. The cliff face is literally dripping with brown stains created by oxidising water leeching through the chalk.

Tides allowing, I thoroughly recommend both a visit to the charming coastal town of Varengeville (besides the church there is also the Bois des Moutiers, a 12-hectare park conceived by Guillaume Mallet in 1898 that contains a house designed by the English architect Sir Edwin Lutyens with gardens designed by Miss Gertrude Jekyll. The park is said to have the biggest collection of hydrangeas in the world, with over a thousand varieties.) and a walk along the beach below from the Pointe d’Ailly.