.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
In 1889, Claude Monet embarked on what was to become his first series of paintings which focused on the landscape at different times of the day and in different weathers. He wrote to Berthe Morisot, "Here I am again in a remote land . . . its superb, with a real savagery that reminds me of Belle-Ile."
Commenting on this group of formidable paintings, Paul H. Tucker observed:
The Creuse paintings speak about certain fundamentals of art and nature in even stronger language than any previous group of paintings . . . one senses them in many aspects of the series, particularly in the conjucture of the natural elements in the sites--the two rivers flowing into each other, the conjoined river pushing into the hills and plowing still deeper into the earth, the hills themselves reaching toward each other as if trying to be reunited. They can also be felt in the contrasting shapes of those natural forms--The bulbous hills, the triangular river, the elongated rectangle of sky--and how they react. Indeed, from where Monet chose to paint these pictures of the confluence, the water becomes a wedge that drives into the hills, forcing apart, and effectively causing them to rise . . . These subtleties contribute to the sense of elemental in these paintings, a quality that Monet felt deeply, as is evident not only in the relationships he establishes in them, but also in the extraordinary palette, the vigorous brushwork, and the grandeur he captures in the other views of the site (P.H. Tucker, Monet in the 90's: The Series Paintings, exh. cat., Boston, 1989, pp. 42-46).
Commenting on this group of formidable paintings, Paul H. Tucker observed:
The Creuse paintings speak about certain fundamentals of art and nature in even stronger language than any previous group of paintings . . . one senses them in many aspects of the series, particularly in the conjucture of the natural elements in the sites--the two rivers flowing into each other, the conjoined river pushing into the hills and plowing still deeper into the earth, the hills themselves reaching toward each other as if trying to be reunited. They can also be felt in the contrasting shapes of those natural forms--The bulbous hills, the triangular river, the elongated rectangle of sky--and how they react. Indeed, from where Monet chose to paint these pictures of the confluence, the water becomes a wedge that drives into the hills, forcing apart, and effectively causing them to rise . . . These subtleties contribute to the sense of elemental in these paintings, a quality that Monet felt deeply, as is evident not only in the relationships he establishes in them, but also in the extraordinary palette, the vigorous brushwork, and the grandeur he captures in the other views of the site (P.H. Tucker, Monet in the 90's: The Series Paintings, exh. cat., Boston, 1989, pp. 42-46).