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Lot Essay
The present work, painted towards the end of the momentous decade of the 1870s, is a view towards Lavacourt, a hamlet on the opposite side of the Seine from Vétheuil. Monet spent three years from 1878 living in Vétheuil, some forty miles downriver from Paris, where, despite persistent financial worries, he found sanctuary from the increasing congestion of Argenteuil. Vétheuil's seclusion also offered Monet an opportunity to advance his art, and from this period onward he avoided all urban, Parisian subjects in favour of landscape and the natural world.
By 10 December 1879 the 'pitiless winter', as it became known, meant temperatures of minus 25 degrees centigrade and the Seine froze over completely at Vétheuil. Monet, showing great fortitude, set out with his easel to record the light effects of this deep-freeze and Les glaçons à Lavacourt was in all likelihood painted at this time. Other works from the series are recorded by Daniel Wildenstein under numbers 553 to 558 (op. cit.), with the present work relating most closely of all to Soleil d'hiver, Lavacourt (W.557; Le Havre, Nouveau musée des Beaux Arts). As the temperature rose towards the end of December, Monet continued his investigations into light effects with his series of ice-breaks, or débâcles.
In Les glaçons, Lavacourt Monet describes his simple composition - a characteristic of his Vétheuil years - with broad, gutsy brushstrokes of cool hue, all hinged on a bright primed canvas, as a frosty mist seems to descend on the ice-locked boats. This type of extemporary handling is reminiscent of Impression, soleil levant (W.263; Paris, Musée Marmottan), the eponymous masterpiece of what became known as the First Impressionist Exhibition in 1874, as well as Coucher de soleil à Lavacourt, a work apparently executed from exactly the same position as the present work but following the thaw.
By 10 December 1879 the 'pitiless winter', as it became known, meant temperatures of minus 25 degrees centigrade and the Seine froze over completely at Vétheuil. Monet, showing great fortitude, set out with his easel to record the light effects of this deep-freeze and Les glaçons à Lavacourt was in all likelihood painted at this time. Other works from the series are recorded by Daniel Wildenstein under numbers 553 to 558 (op. cit.), with the present work relating most closely of all to Soleil d'hiver, Lavacourt (W.557; Le Havre, Nouveau musée des Beaux Arts). As the temperature rose towards the end of December, Monet continued his investigations into light effects with his series of ice-breaks, or débâcles.
In Les glaçons, Lavacourt Monet describes his simple composition - a characteristic of his Vétheuil years - with broad, gutsy brushstrokes of cool hue, all hinged on a bright primed canvas, as a frosty mist seems to descend on the ice-locked boats. This type of extemporary handling is reminiscent of Impression, soleil levant (W.263; Paris, Musée Marmottan), the eponymous masterpiece of what became known as the First Impressionist Exhibition in 1874, as well as Coucher de soleil à Lavacourt, a work apparently executed from exactly the same position as the present work but following the thaw.