1883 -1886 · Étretat, chalk arches and series avant la lettre

In Étretat, Monet faces gates, needles, beaches and big seas by repeating the same cliffs until he makes light the real subject.

Claude Monet knew Étretat from the winter of 1868 - 1869, but he returned there regularly between 1883 and 1886 and devoted around fifty paintings to the site. The cliffs of the Pays de Caux immediately have natural architecture recognizable: Porte d'Amont, Porte d'Aval, Aiguille and Manneporte cut out the chalk on the sea. Before Monet, Courbet had already painted their power. Monet, however, chose to multiply the points of view, the times and the states of the time. He goes down to the beach, frames from the pebbles or looks for difficult positions at the foot of the walls. The Big Sea in Étretat reduces the landscape to the clash of waves, rock and sky. Boats pulled on the beach introduce the work of fishermen and a human measure. The Porte d'Aval forms an arch sometimes dark, sometimes crossed by light; the Needle appears alone or framed by the opening. In 1885, Monet painted the immense Manneporte vault visible only in a few compositions. He then met Guy de Maupassant, who also placed Étretat at the heart of several stories. Painting and literature share a taste for a spectacular landscape but always linked to real climate and coastal conditions. Returning to the same motif, Monet does not seek a definitive view. Each painting records a particular relationship between light, tide and matter. This method directly announces them Grindstones, Cathedrals and London series. The "Claude Monet Étretat" selection notably compares Grosse mer à Étretat and Fishing boats, Étretat. Its reading favors space.

In Étretat, the cliff seems immutable; Monet proves that a cloud, a tide or an hour is enough to completely recreate it.