Claude Monet

Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris (acquired from the artist in 1873)

Gustave Caillebotte, Paris (acquired from the above in 1876)

Martial Caillebotte, Paris (by descent from the above)

Albert Chardeau, Paris (by descent from the above)

Sale: Galliera, Paris, June 12, 1964, lot 94

Maurice Lehmann, Paris

Sale: Galliera, Paris, June 20, 1968, lot 269 (withdrawn prior to the sale)

Lester Osterman, New York (1971)

Wildenstein Gallery, New York

Private Collection, United States (1975)

Wildenstein Gallery, New York

Acquired from the above

Marie Berhaut, Gustave Caillebotte: son oeuvre et sa collection, (unpublished thesis, Ecole du Louvre) Paris, 1947, discussed p. 290

Henri Perruchot, "Scandale au Luxembourg," L’Oeil, Paris, September 1955, discussed p. 45

C.M. Mount, Monet: a biography, New York, 1966, discussed p. 226

Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet, biographie et catalogue raisonné, vol. I, Paris-Lausanne, 1974, no. 216, illustrated p. 209

Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet, vie et oeuvre, vol. V, Paris, no. 216, discussed p. 26

Daniel Wildenstein, Monet, catalogue raisonné, vol. II, Cologne, 1996, no. 216, illustrated p. 96

Le mont Riboudet à Rouen au printemps is one of an important group of works completed in 1872 that would come to typify Monet’s approach to landscape painting over the next several years. In these pictures, the artist stressed the importance of light and shadow, rendering his compositions en plein air and applying pigment directly to the canvas without any preparatory drawings. The resulting depictions were marked with a sense of creative freedom and spontaneity, a style which would be labeled "impressionist" two years later by the critic Louis Leroy. Another contemporary critic, Jules-Antoine Castagnary, wrote that these paintings were not merely landscapes, but "the sensation produced by a landscape" (Jules-Antoine Castagnary, "Exposition du boulevard des Capucines – Les Impressionnistes," Le Siècle, Paris, April 29, 1974, translated from the French).

By the time he executed the present picture, Monet had developed a considerable market for his paintings, thanks largely to the support of his dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, who had purchased 29 works from him in 1872. With the income from these sales, the artist bought a large stock of painting supplies and rented a house for his family in Argenteuil, where he painted the surrounding area along the Seine. In 1872, his first full year of living in Argenteuil, he executed nearly 60 landscapes, 15 of which, including the present work, depicted the vistas of neighboring regions. Monet’s production during this year was his most prodigious to date, and many of these canvases, including one entitled Impression, sunrise, completed that summer, would be featured at the official debut of the Impressionist painters in 1874 at their first group exhibition in Paris.

The present work was completed in the early spring of 1872, while the artist was visiting his brother Léon in the outskirts of Rouen. During his brief stay he executed about a dozen paintings of this region, many of which incorporated the Gothic spires of Rouen Cathedral and the rapidly industrializing landscape of the suburbs of Déville and Robec (see fig. 2). These depictions were strikingly modern in that they provided a candid view of the landscape as it transformed to suit the demands of urban development and expansion. One such canvas, Le train (see fig. 3), painted around the same time as the painting under discussion, presents the view of a hillside that has been colonized by factories and traversed by the ultimate symbol of modern development, the locomotive. The present work, however, is one of the few compositions of this area that provides a more traditional conception of the French countryside, with its rolling hills and small cottages dotting the landscape. The site depicted in this composition is Mount Riboudet, situated on the eastern edge of the city. This view has since been obscured by industrial development, as was the case for much of the landscape in this part of France. But in this picture, there is yet no sign of the encroaching industrial sprawl, and the landscape possesses the rustic charm that is common in many of Monet’s canvases of Argenteuil dating from that year (see fig. 4).

In 1873, Paul Durand-Ruel purchased the present work, along with much of Monet’s production from 1872, for the sum of 19,000 francs. Three years later, the artist Gustave Caillebotte, who was one of first contributors to the Impressionist group exhibitions in Paris and a major patron of his fellow painters, purchased this work from Durand-Ruel for his private collection. Caillebotte bequeathed his collection to the French government upon his death in 1894, but in a well-publicized decision that raised doubts about the ability of cultural officials to evaluate modern art, the collection was rejected by the State in 1896. At that time this picture was returned to Caillebotte’s brother, Martial, who eventually left it to his son-in-law, Albert Chardeau.

Comparables:

Fig. 1, The artist in 1871, photograph by A. Greiner

Fig. 2, Claude Monet, Le Ruisseau de Robec, 1872, oil on canvas, Musée d’Orsay, Paris

Fig. 3, Claude Monet, Le train, 1872, oil on canvas, Private Collection

Fig. 4, Claude Monet, Vue de la plaine à Argenteuil, 1872, oil on canvas, Musée d’Orsay, Paris