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Lot Essay
Prompted by his desire to escape the difficulties of his personal life and to "gain strength from the sea air," Monet returned to the Normandy coast in February 1896, where he had previously visited in the 1880s. Monet chose to concentrate his efforts on the view of the coastline as it swept westward from Pourville. These views of Pourville, the Val Saint-Nicholas at Dieppe and the gorge and headlands of the Petit Ailly at Varengeville, constitute three series that Monet combined under the title Falaises when he exhibited twenty-four of the works at the Galerie Georges Petit in 1898. Paul Hayes Tucker commented on these series paintings, "They are some of the least known paintings that he completed during the 1890s. They are also some of the most unusual and the most personal. At once hedonistic and introspective, they assert fundamental values that Monet held dear while they challenge notions that contemporary critics had claimed were central to his enterprise and to landscape painting at the end of the century" (in exh. cat., Monet in the '90s, The Series Paintings, Boston, 1990, p. 191).
Monet's paintings of the Normandy coast were the first series of works he completed after the exhibition of his Rouen Cathedral series in 1895. Invigorated by the fresh sea air and inspired by the dramatic cliffs of Dieppe, Monet continued to capture the ephemeral effects of light and atmosphere and how they transform an entire landscape. Tucker also notes, "What is striking about these pictures is their rather extraordinary palettes of pinks, soft oranges, sea greens, pale violets and light blues - pastel shades that he had not employed as consistently in earlier work. The same fanciful, almost unreal color is evident...in all of the other paintings that Monet began during this Normandy campaign in 1896" (ibid, p. 198).
Monet's paintings of the Normandy coast were the first series of works he completed after the exhibition of his Rouen Cathedral series in 1895. Invigorated by the fresh sea air and inspired by the dramatic cliffs of Dieppe, Monet continued to capture the ephemeral effects of light and atmosphere and how they transform an entire landscape. Tucker also notes, "What is striking about these pictures is their rather extraordinary palettes of pinks, soft oranges, sea greens, pale violets and light blues - pastel shades that he had not employed as consistently in earlier work. The same fanciful, almost unreal color is evident...in all of the other paintings that Monet began during this Normandy campaign in 1896" (ibid, p. 198).