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Monet
By Jussi Pylkkänen

Monet's great series paintings of the 1890s established his reputation - and have grown in significance ever since.

Claude Monet's greatest series pictures are symphonies of color and of light. Their modernism speaks for itself - their moodiness equates to Rothko, their structure to Mondrian and their subtleties of texture to Jasper Johns. Their ethereal qualities also elevate them to the most sophisticated paintings of the Impressionist movement. With the passing of time, and the artistic development out of figurative painting into non-objectivity, their significance has become more and more apparent. Monet began his celebrated Matinée sur la Seine series in 1896. He would rise at 3.30 every morning to be on the river just before dawn. He would paddle the small flat-bottomed skiff - which he had used to paint his Poplars series - into the waters of the Seine and take up exactly the same painting position as the previous day. The damp air of the river, the fast-changing late-summer climate and the rising of each dawn provided him with a variation of light, color and mist effects that he had never experienced before. The resulting series of 21 paintings is a symphony of the subtlest color and light variations. They have a transcendental quality that is only matched by Rothko in the 20th century.

From an artistic standpoint, Monet's choice of subject was far from accidental. The very simplicity of the landscape view he chose forced him to focus on the way that he was painting rather than on what he was painting. This was noted by the keenest contemporary critics of Monet's generation, and, very conscious of the sophistication of Monet's intentions, they lampooned those amateur observers who claimed that Monet had somehow lost his way. Gustave Geffroy bluntly stated that Monet's 'choice of subject was always a keen and important preoccupation'.

Monet revealed how successful he felt his emancipation from subject had been when he told his fellow artist Lilla Cabot Perry in the 1890s that in this series he had 'carried his effects as far as he could'. Perry also said later that Monet had qualified this by adding that his success had rested on his choice of 'an easier subject and simpler lighting than usual'.

Aside from these artistic reasons, there may also have been practical reasons for Monet's choice of the area where the Matinées were painted. During his prolonged sojourn painting on the Normandy coast, his step-daughter, Suzanne Hoschedé, had not been well and Monet, ever close to his family, had perhaps decided that he should return closer to home.

The Matinée sur la Seine series was painted on a part of the Seine extremely near to Giverny. The Matinée sur la Seine exhibition, which opened at Galerie Georges Petit in June 1898, was an unqualified critical success. The most glowing tribute came from Le Gaulois, which devoted a special supplement (illustrated above) to Monet's recent work two weeks after the opening. The supplement also reprinted articles by eminent art historians who had reviewed his Cathedrals and Grainstack exhibitions. The cover carried a superb authoritative photograph of Monet taken by Nadar - a clear statement that Monet was the master artist of his generation. The 1890s had been a decade of incredible success for Monet. His great series paintings had established his reputation: The Grainstacks (1890-1), The Poplars (1891), The Rouen Cathedral paintings (1892-4) and finally the Matinée sur la Seine series (1896-7).

Jussi Pylkkänen is an International Director of Christie's Impressionist and Modern Pictures Department.

Inquiries:
Jussi Pylkkänen
Tel: 44 (0)20 7389 2452
Olivier Camu
Tel: 44 (0)20 7389 2450


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