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Though he was born in Paris, Monet (1840-1926) grew up in Le Havre, where he was first introduced to landscape painting by Boudin in the mid 1850s. Deeply attracted to the Normandy coast, he returned there repeatedly, especially during the 1880s, working at Dieppe, Pourville, Etretat and Varengeville. This is one of three canvases of the 13th century church at Varengeville, seen from the opposite slope of the Gorge des Moutiers, that he completed in the summer of 1882. Whereas the other two pictures portray the church at sunset and under an overcast sky, this depicts it in a contre-jour effect, with the light coming from behind. Swathed in mist, the ancient church dissolves into the undulating contours of the surrounding cliff. Its silhouette is continued in the foreground by the tufted forms of two trees, the irregular trunks of which mirror the meandering outlines of the cliff. As the sun strikes the foreground foliage it sets it ablaze with flickering strokes of colour, some of which are discharged into the surrounding air, where they form a pinkish haze that enwreathes the church in mist, linking foreground with distance. The striking and asymmetrical composition owes much to Monet’s study of Japanese prints.

Category: Painting

Institute: The Barber Institute of Fine Arts

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