MONET, Claude
(b. 1840, Paris, d. 1926, Giverny)

The Cliffs at Étretat

1885
Oil on canvas, 65 x 81 cm
The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown

Between October and December 1885, Monet made nearly fifty paintings of the Normandy coast. This work shows the Porte d'Aval, a naturally formed arch, and a freestanding needle-like rock that attracted tourists and artists alike to the town of Étretat. Monet painted this view of the cliffs from an unusual location, accessible only by boat or via a precipitous path. The writer Guy de Maupassant described how the artist "watched the sun and the shadows, capturing in a few brushstrokes a falling ray of light or a passing cloud."




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