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.

This photograph looks over the town of Pourville, southwards towards the cliffs and other settings Monet painted at Varengeville and Petit Ailly in 1882. The photograph was taken from a point above the cliffs in the middle of Monet's painting of Pourville beach above.

Pourville in Monet’s time was a small fishing village on the Norman coast just south of the city of Dieppe. Today there is a good supplier of oysters, but other than that it is a place where the better off have their summer houses, or commuters to Dieppe live.

In 1882 Monet stayed in Pourville for 7 very productive weeks starting early February. Encouraged by the reception of his Norman coast at the seventh Impressionist exhibition in March, Paris, he returned again that year in the summer, but this time bringing his and Alice’s families with him. From early February to early April, and then again from mid-June to early October, Monet painted over 90 paintings in and near to Pourville.

Looking at his letters to his agent of that year, it is generally accepted that he was driven by financial necessity. None the less, he still produced some of his more well known, and highly thought after paintings, including the various paintings of the fisherman’s and coastguard’s cottages on the cliffs between Pourville and Varengeville, the numerous cliffs he painted at Pourville, Pointe d’Ailly and Varengeville, and of course the church of Varengeville.

Looking northwards towards Pourville (and on to Dieppe in the distance) from the beach below much the same point above the cliffs where Monet must have painted ‘Plage de Pourville’ above.

Monet’s Plage de Pourville, painted in 1882 and stolen in 2000 from National Museum in Poznań, Poland, was recently recovered by the Polish police and presented to an eager press-pack in Poznań. And yesterday, 1 March, the man who stole Poland’s only painting by Monet was placed under psychiatric observation.

Yesterday, Monday 1 March 2010, a Polish court ordered an unemployed construction worker, known as Robert Z., who allegedly stole Monet’s Plage de Pourville (a small village on the Normandy coast), to be placed under psychiatric observation. “Psychiatric experts will have four weeks to observe Robert Z. and prepare their opinion,” Krystyna Blaszczak, spokeswoman for the Poznan regional court told AFP yesterday.

The 41-year-old suspect, who has been named only by his first name for legal reasons, reportedly visited the museum in Poznań to admire the painting just days before the painting was stolen. Robert Z. has admitted to cutting the canvas out of its frame and replacing it with a fake. He then hid stashed the painting in a wardrobe at his parent’s house in the southern Polish city of Olkusz, without them even knowing about it.

The Polish police recovered the painting on 12 January 2010 by tracing fingerprints left at the scene of the crime. According to a museum spokesperson, the artwork has been kept in a good condition and has not suffered any visible damage.

The painting had been valued by insurers at about 740 000 Euros. If found guilty, the 41 year old faces up to 10 years in prison.

Two women of the National Museum of Poznan hold the painting Plage de Pourville by Claude Monet during a presentation to media at the National Museum in Poznan, Poland, 13 January 2010.

Monet’s Plage de Pourville, National Museum in Poland, was stolen on 19 September 2000 and recovered 12 January 2010. The thief cut the poorly-protected painting out of its frame and replaced it with a forgery. Plage de Pourville is the only painting by Claude Monet in a Polish art collection.

Monet’s painting of the Plage de Pourville during a presentation to media in Poznan, Poland, on 13 January 2010 after its recovery by Polish police the day before.

Photographs © European PressPhoto Agency