CLAUDE-ÉMILE SCHUFFENECKER | Une vue des falaises d'Étretat

(possibly) Durand-Ruel, Paris
Private Collection (acquired in the 1930s)
Nathalie Goss, Paris (by descent from the above)
Jane Roberts Fine Arts, Paris
Private Collection, Europe (acquired from the above in April 2009. Sold: Sotheby's, London, 24th June 2014, lot 179)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Please contact the Impressionist and Modern Art Department (Phoebe.Liu@sothebys.com) for the condition report for this lot.
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In 1872, Claude-Émile Schuffenecker joined the stockbroking firm of Bertin in Paris, where he met and befriended Paul Gauguin. Alongside their financial work, the pair went on trips to the Musée du Louvre to inspect the works of the Old Masters, while simultaneously studying at the Académie Suisse and the Académie Colarossi. The crash of the stock market in 1882 gave Schuffenecker the impetus he needed to pursue a full-time career in the arts. He became one of the co-founders of the Salon des Indépendants in 1884, which marked a crucial turning point in his career; his interaction with the Neo-Impressionists would influence his artistic style for the remainder of the decade. As Une vue des falaises d’Étretat demonstrates, the pointillist theory and techniques developed by Georges Seurat and Paul Signac in 1886, only two years before this work was painted, resonated with Schuffenecker’s artistic sensitivity and his objective to reflect the divine nature of the world. The present painting was executed at Étretat, a picturesque stretch of the Normandy coastline, halfway between Le Havre and Dieppe and host to some of the most famous rock formations in France. The dramatic white cliffs, with their striated limestone surfaces, capped by lush green grass, are depicted via the application of small dots of colour. Schuffenecker brings the viewer extremely close to the cliffs in this distinctive composition, intended to emphasise the magnitude of nature. Schuffenecker’s most accomplished works date from the mid to late 1880s when he spent his summers at Étretat and Yport on the coast of Normandy. A joyful painting, Une vue des falaises d’Étretat captures the effects of shimmering light on the sea. Schuffenecker enlivens the work through delicate touches of light blue, green, purple and orange hues, combined with a pervading white pigment, which enhances the effect of ethereality. 



Jill-Elyse Grossvogel, author of the forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné, has kindly confirmed the authenticity of this work.