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Lot Essay
Having already worked extensively in the Ile-de-France, along the coast of the English Channel and on shores of the Mediterranean, Claude Monet was eager to seek out new and unfamiliar surroundings, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir had enthusiastically recommended the coast of Brittany. On 12 September 1886, having collected an advance of 3000 francs from his dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, Monet took a ferry from the mainland to the island of Belle-Ile-en-Mer. He planned to stay two weeks, and on the way home visit his friend Octave Mirbeau, who had a country house in Noirmoutier, Brittany. He ended up staying in Belle-Ile for the next three months, returning to Giverny in late November.
Belle-Ile was the wildest landscape that the painter had thus far encountered. Swept by constant winds and frequently buffeted by storms roaring out of the Atlantic, Belle-Ile was rocky and largely barren, and inhabited by hardy fisherfolk and herders. Monet left his hotel in the town of Le Palais, and found a small peasant house in Kervilahouen, a village of about twelve dwellings on the side of the island facing the Atlantic, near a place called 'La Mer Terrible'. "It's well named", Monet wrote on 14 September to Alice Hoschedé, the artist's companion and later his wife, who had remained behind in Giverny, "not a tree for ten kilometers, some rocks and wonderful grottoes; it's sinister, diabolical, but superb" (quoted in P.H. Tucker, op.cit., p. 129). Monet found the landscape to be very different from even the dramatic cliffs at Etretat in Normandy, and was especially drawn to the fantastic rock formations that jutted out of the swirling surf.
Painting in this locale proved to be an extraordinary challenge. Monet had to lash down his canvas, easel and protective parasol against the overpowering winds. The ebb and flow of the tides was so drastic that the artist was compelled to paint in series, heading out each day with a cart full of partially painted canvases that he worked on sequentially, in order to capture the unique character of the tide and light at a specific time of day. Rain sometimes slowed his progress, but he resolved to work through thick and thin, and was forced to remain indoors for only two days during his entire visit, and once even painted in a hailstorm. Monet hired an ex-lobsterman as a porter, who fashioned a waterproof slicker to protect the artist from the elements.
In October, Monet was already asking Alice to send more canvases, and by the end of month Monet reported to her that he had painted 38 canvases, 25 of which were more than sketches and would be worthwhile finishing. There were casualties among his pictures as well: on 14 November, his forty-sixth birthday, he wrote: "This morning I totally lost one canvas that satisfied me after at least twenty sessions: it was necessary to scrape it completely off; what a rage I was in!" (quoted in C.F. Stuckey, Claude Monet, exh. cat., The Art Institute of Chicago, 1995, p. 214). Although Monet tried to work the pictures as far as possible in front of the motif, he realized that he would have to complete them in his Giverny studio.
By early November Octave Mirbeau grew tired of awaiting Monet's promised visit, and with a party of friends traveled to Belle-Ile to see the painter at work. He was impressed by what he saw, and no less by the adverse conditions under which the artist toiled. Mirbeau wrote to Auguste Rodin: "This will be a new aspect of this talent: a terrible and formidable Monet, unknown until now. But his works will please the common public less than ever. [He] will bring home only three or four finished paintings and thirty more in which he has indicated his intentions" (quoted in ibid.). Mirbeau later selected the present painting, the most storm-tossed of the series, for his own collection. Near the end of November Monet had packed up his canvases and on 25 November he stopped by to see Mirbeau in Noirmoutier. He arrived home four days later.
In January 1887 Monet sold two Belle-Ile paintings to Durand-Ruel. In April Boussod & Valadon made their first purchases of works by Monet; Theo van Gogh, the director of their contemporary art section, chose two Belle-Ile paintings, and a few weeks later returned to buy four more. Monet included ten Belle-Ile paintings in a group of pictures he exhibited in the Sixth Annual International Exhibition at the Galerie Georges Petit in May. Viewers noticed that the paint on some of them was still wet. Monet had never received such enthusiastic reviews. Alfred de Lostalot called Monet "the most significant landscape painter of modern times...You have to admire these feverish canvases, for despite their intense color and rough touch, they are so perfectly disciplined that they easily emit a feeling for nature in an impression filled with grandeur" (quoted in P.H. Tucker, op. cit., p. 131).
Belle-Ile was the wildest landscape that the painter had thus far encountered. Swept by constant winds and frequently buffeted by storms roaring out of the Atlantic, Belle-Ile was rocky and largely barren, and inhabited by hardy fisherfolk and herders. Monet left his hotel in the town of Le Palais, and found a small peasant house in Kervilahouen, a village of about twelve dwellings on the side of the island facing the Atlantic, near a place called 'La Mer Terrible'. "It's well named", Monet wrote on 14 September to Alice Hoschedé, the artist's companion and later his wife, who had remained behind in Giverny, "not a tree for ten kilometers, some rocks and wonderful grottoes; it's sinister, diabolical, but superb" (quoted in P.H. Tucker, op.cit., p. 129). Monet found the landscape to be very different from even the dramatic cliffs at Etretat in Normandy, and was especially drawn to the fantastic rock formations that jutted out of the swirling surf.
Painting in this locale proved to be an extraordinary challenge. Monet had to lash down his canvas, easel and protective parasol against the overpowering winds. The ebb and flow of the tides was so drastic that the artist was compelled to paint in series, heading out each day with a cart full of partially painted canvases that he worked on sequentially, in order to capture the unique character of the tide and light at a specific time of day. Rain sometimes slowed his progress, but he resolved to work through thick and thin, and was forced to remain indoors for only two days during his entire visit, and once even painted in a hailstorm. Monet hired an ex-lobsterman as a porter, who fashioned a waterproof slicker to protect the artist from the elements.
In October, Monet was already asking Alice to send more canvases, and by the end of month Monet reported to her that he had painted 38 canvases, 25 of which were more than sketches and would be worthwhile finishing. There were casualties among his pictures as well: on 14 November, his forty-sixth birthday, he wrote: "This morning I totally lost one canvas that satisfied me after at least twenty sessions: it was necessary to scrape it completely off; what a rage I was in!" (quoted in C.F. Stuckey, Claude Monet, exh. cat., The Art Institute of Chicago, 1995, p. 214). Although Monet tried to work the pictures as far as possible in front of the motif, he realized that he would have to complete them in his Giverny studio.
By early November Octave Mirbeau grew tired of awaiting Monet's promised visit, and with a party of friends traveled to Belle-Ile to see the painter at work. He was impressed by what he saw, and no less by the adverse conditions under which the artist toiled. Mirbeau wrote to Auguste Rodin: "This will be a new aspect of this talent: a terrible and formidable Monet, unknown until now. But his works will please the common public less than ever. [He] will bring home only three or four finished paintings and thirty more in which he has indicated his intentions" (quoted in ibid.). Mirbeau later selected the present painting, the most storm-tossed of the series, for his own collection. Near the end of November Monet had packed up his canvases and on 25 November he stopped by to see Mirbeau in Noirmoutier. He arrived home four days later.
In January 1887 Monet sold two Belle-Ile paintings to Durand-Ruel. In April Boussod & Valadon made their first purchases of works by Monet; Theo van Gogh, the director of their contemporary art section, chose two Belle-Ile paintings, and a few weeks later returned to buy four more. Monet included ten Belle-Ile paintings in a group of pictures he exhibited in the Sixth Annual International Exhibition at the Galerie Georges Petit in May. Viewers noticed that the paint on some of them was still wet. Monet had never received such enthusiastic reviews. Alfred de Lostalot called Monet "the most significant landscape painter of modern times...You have to admire these feverish canvases, for despite their intense color and rough touch, they are so perfectly disciplined that they easily emit a feeling for nature in an impression filled with grandeur" (quoted in P.H. Tucker, op. cit., p. 131).