Claude Monet

(possibly) Durand-Ruel, Paris (acquired from the artist in December 1885)
(possibly) M. Hertz (acquired from the above on January 19, 1886)
James F. Sutton, New York (acquired circa 1905)
Mrs. James F. Sutton, New York (acquired from the above and sold: Plaza Hotel, New York, January 16-17, 1917, lot 147)
Durand-Ruel, New York (acquired at the above sale and at least until 1947)
(possibly) Wildenstein & Co.
Baron and Baroness Philippe de Rothschild, Paris (1960)
E.V. Thaw & Co., New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1968

(possibly) New York, American Art Galleries and National Academy of Design, Works in Oil and Pastel by the Impressionists of Paris, 1886, no. 123
(possibly) New York, American Art Galleries, Modern Paintings, 1886-87, no. 6
(possibly) Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, Monet-Rodin, 1889, no. 70
Boston, Copley Hall, Monet-Rodin, 1905, no. 92
New York, The Museum of Modern Art; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Cl. Monet, Seasons and Moments, 1960, no. 37
New York, Richard L. Feigen, Cl. Monet, 1969, no. 22
Art Institute of Chicago, Painting by Monet, 1975, no. 69
New York, Acquavella Gallery, Cl. Monet, 1976, no. 46
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, A Day in the Country: Impressionism and the French Landscape, 1984, no. 119
Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, L'Impressionnisme et le paysage français, 1985, no. 119

Lionello Venturi, Les origines de l’Impressionnisme, vol. I, Paris, 1939, p. 304
Daniel Wildenstein, Monet, vie et oeuvre, vol. II, Lausanne-Paris, 1979, no. 1035, illustrated p. 179; discussed in letter no. 644
Daniel Wildenstein, Monet, Catalogue Raisonné, vol. III, Cologne, 1996, no. 1035, illustrated p. 391
Monet: The Seine and the Sea 1878-1883 (exhibition catalogue), Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 2003, discussed p. 149

One of the most dramatic vistas in Monet’s oeuvre of the 1880s is this view of the Manneporte, a vast natural archway that extended out onto the bay near Etretat.   This natural wonder, which could only be accessed through a damp tunnel at low tide, was a result of the relentless pounding of the sea against a massive rock that jutted out into the water.  Monet painted this view from somewhere along the foreshore beneath the cliff known as the Valleuse de Jambourg, west of Etretat and between the Manneporte and another portal, the Porte d’Aval.  According to Daniel Wildenstein, this picture shows the Manneporte at high tide, a time which would have presented logistical difficulties for the artist.  Monet must have set up his easel from a safe distance on a higher perch, allowing himself to paint as the waters rose.  Other elements, though, were in his favor.  The cumulous clouds in the sky and the sailboat far off in the distance indicate that the weather must have been pleasant that day.  In another more sketchy depiction of the same view, Vaues à la Manneporte (Wildenstein no. 1036), Monet paints the water as it crashes and breaks against the rock.  In La Manneporte, marée haute, the sea is placid, and the artist is more detailed in his rendition, painting the ripples of the water with consistent, abbreviated brush strokes.

Monet had first painted depictions of the Manneporte two years earlier, during his first trip to Etretat in 1882-83.  In one of these canvases, now at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, he renders both sides of the massive archway so that it frames the sea.  Returning to this site again in 1885 for the present work, he shifts his focus so that the Manneporte extends from beyond the left side of the canvas.  There is no indication of the land from which the rock is connected, nor is there any sense of where Monet could have been standing while he was painting this view.  The perspective of the composition, with its dramatic cropping, is precocious for a picture of the 1880s.  Truly an avant-garde composition, La Manneporte, marée haute demonstrates a level of abstraction that would not be more fully exploited by Monet and his contemporaries until the next decade.