À propos de l’œuvre
La Cathédrale de Rouen, le Portail et la Tour Saint-Romain, Effet du matin, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · 1893 · Musée d'Orsay RF 2001 · W1346
Rouen Cathedral, white harmony W1346hand painted reproduction
Under the morning light, the portal and the Saint-Romain tower emerge from a harmony of gray, pale blue and ivory. The facade is not framed frontally: the tower rises to the left, the portal sinks to the right, and some dark shapes at street level give the scale of the monument.
Look at the work
A white harmony where the Gothic facade is built by degrees
The Saint-Romain tower occupies the left half and appears almost cut by the upper edge. On the right, the large portal forms a dark cavity. This asymmetry distinguishes the canvas from the views centered on the western facade and gives the monument a more urban presence.
Blues and grays cool the shadow areas, while touches of cream and pink capture the light on the projections. At the bottom left, a small construction and a few silhouettes anchor the cathedral in the street without looking away from the luminous material.
W1346 combines the mass of the tower and the emptiness of the portal in a light so clear that the stone seems to breathe.
Composition, touch and light
What Monet builds behind the impression of snapshot
Three precise elements allow us to understand this composition and the essential difficulties of faithful reproduction.
A work dated 1893
The Musée d'Orsay dates the painting to 1893 and notes a blue signature bearing "Claude Monet 94". It measures 106.5 × 73.2 cm and is registered under the RF 2001 inventory.
The legacy of Count Isaac de Camondo
Isaac de Camondo acquired the work directly from Monet in September 1894. His legacy was accepted by the State in 1911; after the Louvre and the Jeu de Paume, the painting was assigned to the Musée d'Orsay in 1986.
One of the Cathedrals exhibited in 1895
This version appears at the exhibition of twenty Cathedrals organized at Durand-Ruel in May 1895. The bringing together of the paintings showed how stable architecture changes under each light condition.
Reference image
Read this specific version
Only one image is used: the complete view of W1346, preserved as a real WebP of 1,454 × 2,200 px, without artificial enlargement.
Tower on the left, portal on the right
The composition is based on two unequal masses. The tower must maintain its slenderness, while the portal remains a dark and deep opening, without artificially refocusing the facade.
Blue gray, ivory, mauve and pale pink
White harmony is made of colors, not pure white. Warm passages appear on reliefs; blues and mauves maintain the morning shadow and fog.
An architecture recomposed in small touches
Statues, arches and pinnacles are suggested by the density of material. Reproduction must make the monument appear in hindsight while leaving the brush marks visible up close.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
The Musée d'Orsay keeps this 1893 painting under the RF 2001 inventory; the catalog raisonné gives it the Wildenstein number 1346.
The Portal and the Saint-Romain Tower
Also called White Harmony, this oil on canvas measures 106.5 × 73.2 cm. The composition shows the Saint-Romain tower on the left and the portal in the shadows on the right.
Musée d'Orsay, RF 2001
Acquired from Monet by Isaac de Camondo in September 1894, the painting entered the national collections through its legacy of 1911 and joined the Musée d'Orsay in 1986.
Wildenstein 1346
Number 1346 precisely distinguishes this version from the many neighboring Cathedrals. It was exhibited at Durand-Ruel in 1895 under number 18.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- The exact version from the Musée d'Orsay, RF 2001 and Wildenstein 1346
- The original vertical format of 106.5 × 73.2 cm
- The asymmetry between the Saint-Romain tower and the dark portal
- White harmony built with blues, mauves and pinks
Work sheet
| Title | Rouen Cathedral, white harmony W1346 |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | 1893 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 106.5 × 73.2 cm |
| Orientation | Vertical |
| Conservation | Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France |
| Inventory | RF 2001 · Wildenstein 1346 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
This light cathedral gives height to an entrance, a library or an office. Its blue grays and ivories match oak, walnut, weathered metal and warm white walls.
