Claude Monet

Sale: Hôtel Rameau, Versailles, June 18, 1974, lot 114
Sale: Cornette de Saint-Cyr, Hôtel George V, Paris, June 10, 1975, lot 57
Acquired circa 1980

Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue Raisonné, Vol V., Lausanne 1991,  no. P76, illustrated p. 168

The work is executed on cream wove paper, not laid down. The sheet is fixed along the edges to a 1cm wide band of paper which could be the remnants of an old mount. The pastel has not been fixed. Apart from a very minor area of rubbing on the top right edge, the work is in almost perfect condition.
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 returned to Étretat in September 1885 and spent the autumn painting this stretch of the Normandy coast under different effects of light and weather. The dramatic cliff formations stimulated the artist into compositions of a daring simplicity and almost abstract modernity.

Guy de Maupassant, who also used to stay at Étretat, watched Monet at work and marvelled at his ability to capture the light characteristic of this coastline. He wrote that he had seen Monet 'seize a sparkling fall of light on a white cliff, and fix it with a couple of yellow tones which sharply represent the astonishing fugitive effect of this ungraspable and dazzling brightness' (Guy de Maupassant, ''La Vie d'un paysagiste'', in Gil Blas, September 28, 1886).

Fig. 1 Claude Monet, The Cliff, Étretat, Sunset, 1882-83, North Caroline Museum of Art