Claude Monet
The Cliff and the Porte d’Aval, 1885
On view
33 further works by Monet
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Oil on canvas, 65 x 81 cm
Sigend and dated lower left: Claude Monet 85
Inv.-no. MB-Mon-21
Claude Monet paid repeated visits to the resort of Étretat in Normandy that was famous for its spectacular cliffs. For this painting he waited for the moment when the sun shone through the opening of the distinctive natural stone arch of the Porte d’Aval—a popular motif in contemporary prints and photographs.
IX. Jahrgang. I. Ausstellung, Manet-Monet-Ausstellung, Sammlung des französischen Opernsängers Faure, Paul Cassirer, Berlin, September 22–October 28, 1906, no. 38 (Felsen in Etretat, 1885)
Dix-sept tableaux de Cl. Monet de la collection Faure, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, March 19–31, 1906, no. 15
5e Exposition Internationale d'Art, Barcelona, April–June 1907, no. 11
Paysages par Cl. Monet et Renoir, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, May 1–June 30, 1908, no. 27
The Painting of France, since the French revolution, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, 1940/1941, no. 100 (?, The Cliff at Etretat)
French painting from David to Toulouse-Lautrec. Loans from French and American Museums and collections, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, February 6–March 26, 1941, no. 94
Impressionism: The Art of Landscape, Museum Barberini, Potsdam, January 21–May 28, 2017
Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature, Denver Art Museum, October 20, 2019–February 2, 2020
Monet: Orte, Museum Barberini, Potsdam, February 22–July 19, 2020, no. 87
Impressionism: The Hasso Plattner Collection, Museum Barberini, Potsdam, from September 5, 2020
1886, Jean-Baptiste Faure,
Paris, purchased from the artist
1907, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris
1908, Edmond Décap, Paris
ca. 1940, Maurice Barret-Décap, Paris
n.d., Kahn-Sriber, Paris
July 1, 1975, Sotheby Parke Bernet, London, lot 33
ca. 1996, Private collection, USA
January 2010, purchased from a private collection
Fern-Panil, “Petites expositions: De quelques tableaux de Manet et de Monet exposés chez Durand-Ruel,” in Le Soir (March 29, 1906)
Arsène Alexandre, “Cl. Monet: His Career and Work,” in The Studio (March 1908), 87–106, ill. p. 91
The Painting of France, since the French revolution, exh. cat. M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco 1940, no. 100 (?, The Cliff at Etretat)
French painting from David to Toulouse-Lautrec: Loans from French and American Museums and collections, exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1941, no. 94, p. 31, ill. p. 51
M. Rostand, Quelques amateurs de l'époque impressionniste, Paris (École du Louvre, PhD Diss., unpublished) 1955, p. 47
Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné, vol. 2, Lausanne 1979, p. 170, ill. p. 171
Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné, vol. 5, Lausanne 1991, p. 99, 101
Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue Raisonné. Werkverzeichnis, vol. 3, Cologne 1996, no. 1018, p. 384, ill. p. 383
Bernhard Echte and Walter Feilchenfeldt (ed.), Kunstsalon Paul Cassirer: Die Ausstellungen 1905–1908, vol. 3, Wädenswil 2013, ill. p. 260
Impressionism: The Art of Landscape, exh. cat. Museum Barberini, Potsdam 2017, no. 14, p. 59/60, ill. p. 108
Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature, exh. cat. Denver Art Museum, Denver 2019, no. 87, ill. p. 202/3
Monet: Orte, exh. cat. Museum Barberini, Potsdam 2020, no. 87, ill. p. 202
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