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’. [Read more →]

Claude Monet, Plage de Pourville, 1882. Oil on canvas (60 X 73 cm). © National Museum in Poznań, Poland.

Writing about the recovery of Poland’s only Monet painting, The Beach at Pourville (Plage de Pourville), recently got me doing more research on his time on the Normandy coast. Most people, with even the slightest interest in Monet’s work, are aware of his house and gardens in Giverny and that he made a few paintings along the Normandy coast. But the time Monet spent on the Normandy coast over a period of 7 years produced a group of paintings that far outnumber all others. And one of his more prolific years was 1882 when he spent a few months at Pourville in Winter, and then returned there later with his family in the summer. [Read more →]

The entrance to the Musée des Impressionnismes, Giverny.

The main attraction in Giverny is obviously Monet’s house and gardens. But any visitor to Giverny really should not miss the new impressionist museum. The Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny opened its doors 1 May 2009, taking over from the Terra Foundation’s Museum of American Art in Giverny. [Read more →]

“My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece.” Claude Monet.

For almost 43 years, from 1883 to 1926, Claude Monet lived in Giverny, Normandy. There he combined his passion for colour, flowers and gardening and created one of the now most famous and well known historical gardens in World. A garden that most people know having seen reproductions of his wonderful paintings. [Read more →]

One of the many events planned for Rouen as part of the Normandie Impressionniste 2010 festival this summer is ‘Les Nuits Impressionnistes‘. The Impressionists by Night is a spectacular combination of sound and light, modern technology and cultural heritage, a Cathedral and a Fine Art Museum. [Read more →]

Camille Pissarro, View of Rouen, 1898, oil on canvas. © Honolulu Academy of Arts

The role played by the city of Rouen in the history of Western art at the end of the nineteenth century is immense. Camille Pissarro is said to have remarked that “Rouen is a beautiful as Venice”.

This summer the museum of Fine Art in Rouen will host a major exhibition of Impressionist artists as part of the Normandie Impressionniste 2010 festival:

“These would-be artists call themselves revolutionaries, “Impressionists”. They take a piece of canvas, colour and brush, daub a few patches of paint on it at random, and sign the whole thing with their name. It is a delusion of the same kind as if the inmates of Bedlam picked up stones from the wayside and imagined they had found diamonds.” Anonymous 1876

Anyone with a passing interest in Western art and its history knows what ‘Impressionism’ is: it is a movement that originated in France in the 1860s where artists were no longer concerned with giving a factual image of a scene but rather they wished to capture the visual impression made by a scene. Artists like Edouard Manet and Claude Monet began by suggesting that painters should be painting their subjects as they see them, not in the confines of their studios with limited or monotonous sources of light. [Read more →]

“Dieppe is a wonderful place for a painter who likes life, movement and colour.” Camille Pissarro, 1902

In the 1820s Dieppe became one of France’s premier swimming resorts. In the following decades the town became very popular with artists, particularly painters, and for the impressionists Dieppe was a gift, as the above quote from Pissarro shows. The painters were attracted by the light, the wind, the sea and the air. And the town itself presented painters with varied sources of inspiration, great views of the sea from striking white cliffs, as well as the bustling activities of a busy seaside port. [Read more →]

“I count on doing a large canvas of the cliffs of Etretat, although it is certianly bold of me to do that after after Courbet who did it admirably, but I will try to do it differently …” Claude Monet, January 1883

Claude Monet spent a great deal of time at the coastal fishing town of Étretat, painting the white cliffs, the fishing boats and some inland scenes in all light and weather. His first series of paintings of this area were made during an extended visit to Etretat in 1883-1884. Then again in September 1885 he returned to Etretat with his family, and stayed on in the town once they had returned to Giverny in October until early January, with some brief sojourns to Paris and Giverny. [Read more →]

In 2010 the two administrative departments that constitute Upper Normandy will be co-hosting what promises to be a wonderful celebration of impressionism – Normandie Impressionniste 2010. [Read more →]