The Rouen Cathedral series was painted in the 1890s by French impressionist Claude Monet.
The paintings in the series each capture the façade of the cathedral at different times
of the day and year, and reflect changes in its appearance under different lighting conditions.
Date The Rouen Cathedral paintings, more than thirty
in all, were made in 1892 and 1893, then reworked in Monet’s studio in 1894.
Monet rented spaces across the street from the cathedral, where he set up temporary studios
for the purpose.
In 1895, he selected what he considered to be the twenty best paintings from the series
for display at his Paris dealer’s gallery, and of these he sold eight before the exhibition
was over.
Pissarro and Cézanne visited the exhibition and praised the series highly.
Historically, the series was well-timed.
In the early 1890s, France was seeing a revival of interest in Catholicism and the subject
was well received.
Apart from its religious significance, Rouen Cathedral–built in the Gothic style–represented
all that was best in French history and culture, being a style of architecture that was admired
and adopted by many European countries during the Middle Ages.
Painting Light When Monet painted the Rouen Cathedral series,
he had long since been impressed with the way light imparts to a subject a distinctly
different character at different times of the day and the year, and as atmospheric conditions
change.
For Monet, the effects of light on a subject became as important as the subject itself.
His Series Paintings, in which he painted many views of the same subject under different
lighting conditions, are an attempt to illustrate the importance of light in our perception
of a subject at a given time and place.
Robert Pelfrey, in Art and Mass Media, says:
By focusing on the same subject through a whole series of paintings, Monet was able
to concentrate on recording visual sensations themselves.
The subjects did not change, but the visual sensations – due to changing conditions
of light – changed constantly.
The cathedral series was not Monet's first series of paintings of a single subject, but
it was his most exhaustive.
The subject matter was a change, however, for prior to this series, Monet had painted
mostly landscapes.
The cathedral allowed him to highlight the paradox between a seemingly permanent, solid
structure and the ever-changing light which constantly plays with our perception of it.
There were calls for the state to buy the entire series and exhibit them as a whole,
but unfortunately these calls were not heeded and the series was divided.
Technique
Painting the cathedral was a challenging task, even for Monet.
Michael Howard, in his Encyclopedia of Impressionism, writes:
As always, the pictures gave him intense difficulties, which threw him into despair.
He had vivid nightmares of the cathedral in various colors – pink, blue and yellow – falling
upon him…
[Monet wrote:] ‘Things don’t advance very steadily, primarily because each day I discover
something I hadn’t seen the day before…
In the end, I am trying to do the impossible.’.
Monet found that the thing he had set out to paint–light–was, because of its ever-changing
nature and its extreme subtlety, an almost impossible thing to capture.
He was assisted, however, by his ability to capture the essence of a scene quickly, then
finish it later using a sketch combined with his memory of the scene.
For these paintings, he used thick layers of richly textured paint, expressive of the
intricate nature of the subject.
Paul Hayes Tucker, in Claude Monet: Life and Art, writes:
Monet’s sensitivity to the natural effects he observed are just one factor that make
these pictures so remarkable; the way he manipulates his medium contributes to their majesty as
well.
For the surfaces of these canvases are literally encrusted with paint that Monet built up layer
upon layer like the masonry of the façade itself.
The subtle interweaving of colors, the keen perception of the artist and the use of texture
all serve to create a series of shimmering images in light and color–masterpieces worthy
of the grandeur of their subject matter.
Gallery
References
External links Media related to Claude Monet at Wikimedia
Commons Media related to Rouen Cathedral by Monet at Wikimedia Commons
An in-depth analysis of Monet's Rouen series in theartwolf.com
Brief essay on Monet's Rouen Cathedral series from the J. Paul Getty Museum