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Claude Monet
(1840–1926)
The Church at Varengeville
Varengeville, Normandy, 1882
Oil on canvas
The view is across a hidden gorge to the isolated cliff-top church at Varengeville. Monet painted various subjects along the Normandy coast in the summer of 1882. His practice was to work simultaneously on up to eight canvasses, moving from one to another as the light changed. This sunset view of Varengeville is from a series of four painted in this way. The light from behind the church dissolves its form and catches the foliage in the foreground.
By 1882, Monet had largely abandoned the Impressionist practice of finishing a painting from nature; here the final touches were added in his studio. He became the most commercially successful of the original Impressionist artists.
Purchased 1938 (No. 38.7)