Claude Monet

Frédéric Bonner, New York (sold: The American Art Association, New York, April 10, 1900, lot 68)
Durand-Ruel, New York (acquired at the above sale)
Mrs. Clark Zantzinger, Philadelphia
Alfred Zantzinger, New York
Wildenstein Gallery, New York (acquired from the above in 1970 and sold: Sotheby's, London, December 1, 1971, lot 37)
Marlborough Gallery, London (acquired at the above sale)
Fred de Andrea
Sale: Sotheby's, London, June 20, 1981, lot 14
Richard L. Feigen & Co., New York
Acquired from the above

New York, Union League Club, Claude Monet, 1902, no. 18
Brooklyn, Pratt Institute, Claude Monet, 1903
(possibly) New York, Durand-Ruel, Monet, 1907, no. 9                                                                          The Art Institute of Chicago, Claude Monet: 1840-1926, 1995, no. 69
Treviso, Casa dei Carraresi, L'Impressionismo e l'età di Van Gogh, 2002
Edinburgh, National Galleries of Scotland, Monet: The Seine and the Sea, 1878-1883, 2003, no. 51

Daniel Wildenstein, Monet, vie et oeuvre, vol. II, Lausanne-Paris, 1979, no. 795, illustrated p. 91
Robert Gordon and Andrew Forge, Monet, New York, 1983, illustrated p. 94
Daniel Wildenstein, Monet, vie et oeuvre, vol. V,  Lausanne-Paris, 1991, no. 795, discussed p. 40
Daniel Wildenstein, Monet, Catalogue Raisonné, vol. II, Cologne, 1996, no. 795, illustrated p. 295

Monet painted the present composition in 1882 at the foot of the Varengeville cliff on the Normandy coast.  In the distance we can just make out the Falaise d'Amont in far away Pourville.  Monet had set up his easel in this exact spot earlier in 1882, when the tide covered more of the rocks at the base of the cliff.   The tide was low when Monet painted the present work, and he was able to depict the cliff from a more dramatic angle, direcly below the church.  The cliff sparkles as it is bathed in the light of the morning sun, and the church, which appears diminutive atop this giant geological mass, is a reminder of man's insignificance in comparison to the overwhelming grandeur of nature.

Monet painted the church of Varengeville several times in 1882.  This thirteenth-century structure and its surrounding graveyard functioned as a church and burial-ground for sailors.  Paul Tucker tells us that the interior of the church looked more like a ship's hull than a Gothic edifice, and that the tombstones were decorated with nautical symbols and other references to the sea.  Tucker considers that, like Monet's famous series of the custom's house at Varengeville,  "the church takes on several personae.  It too is like a ship navigating its way through perilous waters, or a stand-in for the seafaring family anxiously awaiting the return of a loved one" (Paul Hayes Tucker, Monet, Life and Art, New Haven, 1995, p. 113).

Fig. 1 The church at Varengeville.  Photograph David Joel and Mike Parsons 2001.