拍品专文
In 1882 Claude Monet spent two highly productive periods at Pourville on the Normandy coast, from early February to early April and then again from mid-June to early October. He was immensely delighted with the site, writing to Alice Hoschede:
The Region is immensely beautiful and I only regret that I did not come sooner, losing time at Dieppe. One couldn't be closer to the sea than I am....the waves beating at the foot of my house. (Quoted in D.Wildenstein, 1974-1991, vol I, op. cit. Letter no. 241)
Monet was particularly enamored with the sea, later writing to Alice, "You know my passion for the sea, I'm mad about it" (quoted in ibid., letter no. 730). He channeled his enthusiasm directly into painting, working on as many as eight separate canvases in one day, and producing about one hundred pictures in total during his stay. As Robert Gordon and Andrew Forge have commented, for Monet, "1882 was a year of almost superhuman activity" (R. Gordon and A. Forge, Monet, New York, 1983, p. 95)
These works were immensely successful, both with critics and collectors. Monet's dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, purchased paintings from him both in April and October of 1882, paying over 31,000 francs. The present work depicts the Pointe de l'Ailly at Pourville, a vantage which Monet painted repeatedly that year.
Robert L. Herbert writes of the painting:
The figures of The Pointe d'Ailly, Low Tide, although minuscule, give scale to the broad expanse of water and sky in this striking picture. They may be local people seeking shellfish in the shallows, but it is more likely (by analogy with other pictures) that they are vacationers, hardy ones not intimidated by the strangely lurid sky with its contrasting yellow and mauve. The sky's yellow is reflected in the water as it nears the shore, but only from close view does it flatten the space; from normal distance the water and sky tip deeply into the distance. The presence of the tiny figures does not diminish this rather awesome prospect, but they represent the social act of seeing nature in contrast to Monet's habitual creation of unpeopled canvases which let the viewer believe she is the only witness (R.L. Herbert, op. cit., pp.44-45)
The Region is immensely beautiful and I only regret that I did not come sooner, losing time at Dieppe. One couldn't be closer to the sea than I am....the waves beating at the foot of my house. (Quoted in D.Wildenstein, 1974-1991, vol I, op. cit. Letter no. 241)
Monet was particularly enamored with the sea, later writing to Alice, "You know my passion for the sea, I'm mad about it" (quoted in ibid., letter no. 730). He channeled his enthusiasm directly into painting, working on as many as eight separate canvases in one day, and producing about one hundred pictures in total during his stay. As Robert Gordon and Andrew Forge have commented, for Monet, "1882 was a year of almost superhuman activity" (R. Gordon and A. Forge, Monet, New York, 1983, p. 95)
These works were immensely successful, both with critics and collectors. Monet's dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, purchased paintings from him both in April and October of 1882, paying over 31,000 francs. The present work depicts the Pointe de l'Ailly at Pourville, a vantage which Monet painted repeatedly that year.
Robert L. Herbert writes of the painting:
The figures of The Pointe d'Ailly, Low Tide, although minuscule, give scale to the broad expanse of water and sky in this striking picture. They may be local people seeking shellfish in the shallows, but it is more likely (by analogy with other pictures) that they are vacationers, hardy ones not intimidated by the strangely lurid sky with its contrasting yellow and mauve. The sky's yellow is reflected in the water as it nears the shore, but only from close view does it flatten the space; from normal distance the water and sky tip deeply into the distance. The presence of the tiny figures does not diminish this rather awesome prospect, but they represent the social act of seeing nature in contrast to Monet's habitual creation of unpeopled canvases which let the viewer believe she is the only witness (R.L. Herbert, op. cit., pp.44-45)