Claude Monet

Durand-Ruel, Paris (acquired from the artist in March 1907)

Mme Edith Zerlaut-Rauscher (acquired from the above in 1948 and sold: Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, January 6, 1949, lot 73)

Knoedler Gallery, New York (acquired at the above sale and sold: Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, March 30-31, 1949, lot 89

M. Knoedler & Co., New York (acquired as agent at the above sale)

Mr and Mrs Roger L. Stevens, United States (circa 1960 and until at least 1971)

Sale: Christie's, New York, May 16, 1984, lot 19

Private Collection, France (acquired at the above sale and sold: Sotheby's, London, December 2, 1986, lot 29)

Private Collection (acquired at the above sale)

Acquired by the present owner in 1995

Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Monet, 1895, no. 7

(probably) New York, The American Art Galleries, Marvelous Paintings by Claude Monet. Cathedral Rouen, 1896

Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, Monet, 1898, no. 1

Worcester, Art Museum, 1912

Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Monet, 1914, no. 16

Holland; Sweden & Norway, Art Français, Traveling Exhibition, 1916-1918, nos. 5, 17 and 31

Berlin, Galerie Thannhauser, Claude Monet, Gedächtnisausstellung, 1928, no. 49

London, Arthur Tooth & Sons, Selected paintings of all periods by Claude Monet, 1939, no. 30

New York, Museum of Modern Art & Los Angeles, County Museum, Claude Monet, Seasons and Moments, 1960, no. 64

Pasadena, The Art Museum, Serial Imagery Exhibition, 1968, no. 2

 

André Michel, Notes sur l'art moderne, Paris, 1896, p. 291

Maurice Guillemot, "Claude Monet," La Revue illustrée, Paris, March 15, 1898

Gustave Geffroy, "Claude Monet," Le Journal, Paris, June 7, 1898, p. 1

Gustave Geffroy, Claude Monet, sa vie, son temps, son oeuvre, Paris, 1922, discussed pp. 209 and 214

Florent Fels, Claude Monet, Paris, 1925, p. 211

Lionello Venturi, Les Archives de L'Impressionnisme, vol. I, Paris, 1939, listed in letter no. 304, p. 407

Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et Catalogue raisonné, vol. III, Lausanne & Paris, 1979, no. 1349, illustrated p. 167

Rouen des Cathédrals de Monet (exhibition catalogue), Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, 1994, illustrated p. 97

Daniel Wildenstein, Monet, Catalogue raisonné, vol. III, Cologne, 1996, no. 1349, illustrated in color p. 550

The canvas has been lined and is on a new stretcher. Under ultra-violet light, the only areas of restoration visible under a thick layer of varnish are two very thin vertical lines of retouching, approximately 3 cm in total, just in from the left of the framing edge, and some very small spots of retouching in the lower right, just above the horizontal framing edge. This work is in good and stable condition. Colors: The colors are more luminous than they appear in the catalogue illustration.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Monet's views of Rouen Cathedral are a crowning achievement of his oeuvre and the entire Impressionist movement.   Together, these paintings recorded the effects of light and shadow at different times of day and during varient weather conditions, and they have come to define the objective of Monet's Impressionist agenda.  La Cathédrale dans le brouillard, which depicts the gothic façade cloaked in a thick blue-gray fog, is one of the most atmospheric of all these compositions. 

As George Heard Hamilton has commented, "... we can describe these paintings as the climax of Impressionism, its climax, destruction, and transformation. Upon the basis of a technique painstakingly developed through thirty years of experimentation and directed toward the depiction of separate, isolated, unrelated instants in the outer world of positivist, physical causality, the world of the railroad train, Monet erected a new kind of painting which reveals the nature of perception rather than the nature of the thing perceived" (G. H. Hamilton, Claude Monet's Paintings of Rouen Cathedral, Williamstown, 1969, pp. 26-27).

Monet had painted a view of Rouen cathedral in 1872, right before the official debut of the Impressionist movement.   His rendition at the time depicted the cathedral as part of the general landscape, but the ornate architectural features were obscured by the distance.  When he returned to this subject twenty years later, he became more focused on the building itself, eclipsing in scope and visual impact the famous, similarly-themed series by the British artist John Constable of Salisbury Cathedral from the early 19th century.   Now Monet's thirty oils of Rouen Cathedral, produced during February-April 1892 and February-March 1893, are perhaps the most recognized examples of architectural painting in the history of modern art. 

Monet's series was painted from the second storey of 23 place de la Cathédrale (1892) and 81 rue Grand Pont (1893), and depict the great medieval structure from a midpoint that perfectly frames the elaborate fenestrations and ogival archways of the portico. Twenty-seven finished paintings, one unfinished painting, and one sketch depict the façade alone.  La Cathédrale dans le brouillard is ascribed to the group begun in 1893.  The picture, however, bears the date 1894 in the lower right corner, probably because Monet took it back to his studio in Giverny and signed it when he finished the entire series.  This was most likely the case for each of the twenty canvases that were shown together as a discrete series in his exhibition at the Galerie Durand-Ruel in 1895.   At the time of the exhibition, the Rouen Cathedral paintings were especially well received, selling for the significant sums of 15,000 francs per canvas.

La Cathédrale dans le brouillard was one of the works specifically selected by the artist for the 1895 exhibition, and the overarching significance of that exclusive group has been summarized by Hamilton: "The twenty moments represented by the twenty views of Rouen [Cathedral] are less views of the cathedral (one alone would have been sufficient for that), less even twenty moments in the going and coming of the light (which is an insignificant situation), than twenty episodes in Monet's private, perceptual life. They are twenty episodes in the history of his consciousness, and in thus substituting 'the laws of subjective experience for those of objective experience' he revealed a new psychic rather than physical reality" (G. H. Hamilton, op. cit., p. 26).

 

There were several logistical factors that Monet took into consideration when he painted La Cathédrale dans le brouillard, most important of which was the time of day.  According to Daniel Wildenstein, "the direction in which Rouen cathedral faces is such that the sun begins to illuminate the façade from right to left, after 12 o'clock Greenwich Mean Time which was, formerly, French standard time. Monet therefore insisted on 'being at work from midday to two o'clock' to capture this effect" (D. Wildenstein, op. cit.,  p. 539).  Each of the paintings included in the series focuses on a relatively short-lived-experience that could only be captured in a relatively rapid manner of execution.   But while the Rouen Cathedral series represents a further manifestation of the Impressionists' fascination with light and color, Hamilton notes that "the reality of nature, experienced as the coming and going of light in time, is observed against the impersonal, non-natural man-made material of the cathedral. The phenomena of change are powerless to affect the object; they affect only the subject, the observer, whose experience changes from moment to moment... What was changing was the perceptual experience of the observer himself" (G. H. Hamilton, op. cit., p. 19).  What Hamilton proposes, then, is that these paintings are as much about the artist's own subjective interpretations as they are records of the transient effects of changing light on the façade.  Furthermore, the fact that Monet's subject here is a building with obvious religious significance cannot be overlooked. This grand structure had withstood time and the elements, much in the same way that the institution of the Church had weathered the storms of its own past.  Here we see the imposing and symbolic edifice in all of its glory, holding strong amidst the fog of turn-of-the-century France.