Monet Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago

Cat. 13: The Beach at Sainte-Adresse, 1867

Published by: Art Institute of Chicago

 

Cat. 13

The Beach at Sainte-Adresse1
1867
Oil on canvas; 75.8 × 102.5 cm (29 13/16 × 40 5/16 in.)
Signed and dated: Claude Monet 67 (lower right, name in dark-brown paint, year in reddish-purple paint)
The Art Institute of Chicago, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection, 1933.439

Monet and Normandy

In the mid-1860s, Claude Monet returned to the coast of Normandy—a place whose picturesque sites, villages, and vantage points he knew well, having spent much of his childhood in the coastal town of Le Havre (fig. 13.1 ). The area had changed dramatically over the course of the nineteenth century, however, due in large part to the expanding rail network and the proliferation of travel guidebooks and illustrated publications. The small, rural fishing villages of the beginning of the century were rapidly transformed into seaside resorts for tourists and vacationers, altering the physical and social landscape in dramatic ways.2

Not only did the coastline and geological sites of Normandy become popular with tourists, they were also favorite subjects of many nineteenth-century artists, especially Monet, who painted the region’s natural and man-made attractions hundreds of times during his career and is considered by many to be the “greatest visual poet of Normandy.”3 Monet’s seascapes of the 1860s—the decade before he emerged as the leader of the Impressionist movement—most often feature the coasts of Le Havre (on the northern bank of the estuary of the Seine), Honfleur (on the southern bank across from Le Havre), and, as in the present picture, Sainte-Adresse, a coastal suburb just northwest of Le Havre where the artist’s aunt owned a villa. Scholars have noted that public opinion at this time was divided on the condition of Sainte-Adresse: some writers commented that “all the seductions of solitude, silence and oceanic contemplation still reign there,”4 while others complained that it had “lost most of the rustic appearance which gave it its charm.”5 In any event, Sainte-Adresse had certainly arrived in the public imagination by the mid-1860s, popularized in the writings of the French critic Alphonse Karr6 and documented by artists including painters Frédéric Bazille,7 Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot,8 and Johan Barthold Jongkind,9 as well as photographer Gustave Le Gray (fig. 13.2 and fig. 13.3).10 It is through this complex lens that one must read Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse.

Monet’s Early Paintings of Sainte-Adresse and the Coast of Normandy

The Beach at Sainte-Adresse was executed in the summer of 1867, an extraordinarily challenging time for Monet personally. Earlier in the year, upon learning that his companion, Camille Doncieux, was pregnant, Monet had moved into his aunt’s home in Sainte-Adresse. In order to shield his disapproving family from the situation, he discreetly shuttled back and forth to Paris, where he had arranged for Camille to be cared for. Despite (or perhaps because of) his complicated personal life, Monet was productive during this period: by the end of June, he wrote from Sainte-Adresse to the painter Frédéric Bazille that he had “twenty or so canvases well under way, stunning seacapes, figures, and gardens, something of everything in fact.”11 It was not the first time Monet had painted the coast of Normandy, or specifically Sainte-Adresse, however. Just two years earlier, he had made his debut at the 1865 Paris Salon with two large, ambitious seascapes of the region—the Kimbell Art Museum’s La Pointe de la Hève at Low Tide (fig. 13.4 [W52]), a picture depicting the Sainte-Adresse beach looking northward; and the Norton Simon Museum’s Mouth of the Seine at Honfleur (fig. 13.5 [W51]), which portrays Honfleur, situated at the mouth of the Seine across from Le Havre.12 These two works—largely praised by Salon critics—were painted in Monet’s studio and based on smaller oil studies on canvas that he had previously made on location.13 Notably, in the Salon compositions as well as other paintings he made around this time, the artist downplayed the ongoing resort development in Normandy. With their rather muted, gray-and-brown-infused palettes, Monet’s early seascapes predominantly depict brooding natural environments and feature Normandy’s beaches and terrain as the workplaces of its local inhabitants and fishermen.14

Monet’s seascapes from the summer of 1867, however, proved to be markedly different from those he had painted only a couple of years earlier. Beach exemplifies his evolving painting technique at this time and foreshadows some of the qualities that would later become characteristic of the Impressionist movement; indeed, the fact that Monet was represented by the painting at the second Impressionist exhibition in 1876—nearly ten years after it was executed—is a testament to this. Perhaps the most striking change apparent in Monet’s work from the summer of 1867 is that, unlike his earlier coastal landscapes, he painted Beach en plein air. Complaining of the difficulty of painting in this way, he wrote to Bazille in July: “I am losing my sight. . . . I can barely see after working for half an hour; the doctor told me that I had to stop painting out of doors.”15 The severe glare and changing weather conditions Monet experienced undoubtedly contributed to the choices of colors he used in creating these pictures. Indeed, the palette of Beach is blonder and brighter than those of his 1865 Salon seascapes. This is in large part the result of the artist’s use of a lighter and cooler palette and his incorporation of more colorful elements into the composition (see Technical Report).

The paintings Monet executed in Sainte-Adresse in the summer of 1867 also differ from his earlier depictions in terms of their subject matter, for these pictures comprise the artist’s “first sustained campaign of painting that involved tourism.”16 The viewer is immediately drawn to the visible aspects of local life in Beach—dark-sailed fishing boats drift in the water, and other beached crafts are surrounded by fishermen and their equipment. The two groups of boats frame two figures sitting on the shoreline: a man in a dark hat and suit looking out through his telescope, accompanied by a woman wearing a yellow hat with a red ribbon (fig. 13.6). The woman’s dress—perhaps the composition’s brightest element—further captures the viewer’s gaze; in this, one of the few areas of notable impasto in the painting, Monet constructed the garment out of a few strokes of almost pure lead white paint. Upon recognizing the couple—undoubtedly vacationers, given their attire—our view of the painting’s narrative changes. As aptly noted by Robert L. Herbert, “We are obliged to convert a traditional seacoast scene to one that has been invaded by modern life.”17

New Observations

The Beach at Sainte-Adresse is often considered to be a pendant to Monet’s Regatta at Sainte-Adresse (fig. 13.7 [W91]), also executed during the summer of 1867 and now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.18 Although there is no evidence that the artist wanted to exhibit or sell these paintings as a pair, Regatta was painted on a canvas very close in size to the Art Institute’s work, and both depict the same portion of the Sainte-Adresse beach and include signs—notably a new villa atop the hill at left and the presence of vacationers—of the physical and social transformations taking place at the resort destination.19 Although many scholars have noted the complementary nature of these two paintings and the fact that each picture references the coexistence of local and tourist life at Sainte-Adresse, Beach is dominated by fishermen and dark-sailed ketches, while Regatta is populated with urban tourists and white-sailed leisure yachts.20 Furthermore, the former has a slightly sketchier paint quality and depicts the water at low tide with an overcast sky; in contrast, the compositional elements of Regatta seem more finished, and it portrays a sunny day at high tide.

Recent technical analysis has revealed, however, that Monet did not always intend for local life to dominate Beach; in fact, there are a number of indications that the Art Institute’s composition was originally closer to that of the Metropolitan Museum’s painting than has been previously recognized. Infrared imaging reveals that in an earlier stage of the Art Institute’s canvas there was a group of four or five figures on the shoreline at the right side of the painting: furthest to the right were a man and woman, to their left were two men (one standing and one possibly seated), and to their left was perhaps another seated figure (fig. 13.8). Although it is difficult to determine the specific details of their clothing, it is clear that they represent a group of city-dwelling vacationers: the woman, located second from the right, wears a long dress, and three of the accompanying figures clearly sport hats, the silhouettes of which resemble those of the tourists in Regatta. Moreover, these figures face the water much the same way that the tourists depicted in the Metropolitan Museum’s picture look out onto the English Channel to watch the regatta. These well-dressed figures were clearly the prominent human element in the original composition and were painted on a scale similar to or slightly larger than the three fishermen at left, which were late additions to Beach. It is notable that traces of charcoal were identified near the heads of these fishermen, suggesting a possible underdrawing and bringing to mind Monet’s graphic works—like Cliffs and Sea, Sainte-Adresse (fig. 13.9, cat. 12)—of the same period.

Infrared imaging and [glossary:X-radiography] of Beach reveal other compositional changes as well. At an earlier stage of the composition Monet included an additional cluster of boats in the water along the right side of the canvas (fig. 13.10). Although subsequently painted out, these earlier crafts had sails that were similar in form and scale to those of the small- and medium-size leisure yachts in Regatta, although none equaled the size of the largest boat in the foreground of the Metropolitan Museum’s painting. More importantly, however, the sails on the earlier boats in Beach were white, indicating that they were pleasure boats, not dark-sailed fishing boats like those that appear in the final composition. By painting out these original white-sailed boats and replacing them with working boats, Monet changed the narrative of the painting from one that foregrounded the leisure class to one that features local life at Sainte-Adresse.

When Monet wrote to Bazille in June 1867, he described that “among my seascapes, I’m painting the regattas at Le Havre with lots of people on the beach and the ship lane covered with small sails.”21 While the Metropolitan Museum’s Regatta fits neatly into this characterization, it has always been difficult to reconcile the subject matter of Beach with Monet’s description, since the painting’s subject has little to do with regattas or the tourist population that gathered to watch them. The presence of vacationers and white-sailed boats in an earlier stage of the painting, however, suggests that Monet began the Art Institute’s picture within the framework that he outlined to Bazille and did not originally intend Beach and Regatta to vary to such a significant degree. It was only at a later stage in his painting process that Monet deliberately complicated the meaning of Beach and, more significantly, the dialogue it shares with the Metropolitan Museum’s picture.
Gloria Groom and Jill Shaw

Technical Report

Technical Summary

Monet’s Beach at Sainte-Adresse was painted on a [glossary:pre-primed] linen [glossary:canvas] close in size to a no. 40 landscape ([glossary:paysage]) standard-size canvas. There are two [glossary:ground] layers: the lower layer is a light, warm gray, while the upper layer is a warm pinkish-beige. The pinkish-beige tone remains visible at the bottom edges and corners of the painting and in small areas throughout the composition where it is exposed through breaks in the brushwork.

The beach, water, and sky, along with the central group of boats on the shore and the distant town, were built up simultaneously, with the figures added later. The dark-sailed fishing boats were included in the composition early on. Technical examination has revealed that at one point Monet included four or five figures and a group of sailboats and smaller crafts at the right side of the composition. The artist probably painted out these boats and figures before adding the group of fishermen and boats on the left. He painted these latter elements on top of the mostly finished beach, indicating that they were part of a later painting stage. Other, more minor alterations include the size and position of the three central boats on the beach, the buildings, and the contours of the fishermen.

The presence of these compositional changes, combined with the fact that much of the painting consists of [glossary:wet-over-dry] paint application, indicates that the work was executed in several sessions. The artist employed a variety of brushwork, including more sweeping strokes in the water and the [glossary:underpainting] of the sky; short, individual strokes of opaque color to build up the beach; and localized passages of thicker, more textural [glossary:wet-in-wet] paint application. Final touches included light strokes, applied with a relatively dry brush, that skip across the high points of the underlying paint texture. Areas of artist’s “retouching” in the water, along the horizon at the right, and around the fishermen were among the final elements to be added to the painting, and they seem to have been used to cover traces of the earlier composition in those areas.22

Multilayer Interactive Image Viewer

The multilayer interactive image viewer is designed to facilitate the viewer’s exploration and comparison of the technical images (fig. 13.11).23

Signature

Signed and dated: Claude Monet 67 (lower right, name in dark-brown paint,24 year in reddish-purple paint25) (fig. 13.12 and fig. 13.13).26 The signature and date were applied when the underlying paint was dry. The different colors of paint used for these two elements may indicate that they were added at different times.

Structure and Technique

Support
Canvas

Flax (commonly known as linen).27

Standard format

The original [glossary:foldover] dimensions are approximately 75 × 101 cm.28 The closest standard canvas size is no. 40 landscape (paysage) canvas, which measures 73 × 100 cm.

Weave

[glossary:Plain weave]. Average [glossary:thread count] (standard deviation): 19.7V (1.3) × 22.9H (0.7) threads/cm; the horizontal threads were determined to correspond to the [glossary:warp] and the vertical threads to the [glossary:weft].29 No weave matches were found with other Monet paintings analyzed for this project.

Canvas characteristics

There is mild [glossary:cusping] along the left and right edges, with stronger cusping along the bottom and especially along the top edge. The top edge corresponds to the unprimed outer edge of the larger piece of primed fabric from which this canvas was cut (see Ground application/texture).

Stretching

Current stretching: When the painting was lined in 1973, the original dimensions were slightly increased, leaving a border of unpainted ground visible around the edges (see Conservation History). The canvas is currently attached with copper tacks inserted mainly through the [glossary:lining] canvas, outside of the original [glossary:tacking edges].

Original stretching: There are two sets of old tack holes. The holes of one set, probably the original, are spaced approximately 5–7 cm apart, which corresponds to the cusping in the canvas. The second set probably relates to the stretching of the canvas after the earlier [glossary:aqueous lining] (see Conservation History).

Stretcher/strainer

Current stretcher: Four-membered redwood [glossary:ICA spring stretcher].

Original stretcher: The 1973 treatment report notes that the previous [glossary:stretcher] was a “6-piece stretcher with crosspiece” (see Conservation History). Since the painting was lined with an aqueous adhesive at an unknown date prior to 1957, it is uncertain whether the stretcher mentioned in the 1973 report was the original or whether it dated to the aqueous lining. But vertical [glossary:stretcher-bar cracks] near the center of the painting suggest that the original stretcher was five membered, with a vertical [glossary:crossbar] only. The original stretcher depth is unknown.

Manufacturer’s/supplier’s marks

None observed in current examination or documented in previous examinations.

Preparatory Layers
Sizing

Not determined, probably glue.30

Ground application/texture

There are two distinct ground layers (fig. 13.14). Both extend to the edges of the left, bottom, and right [glossary:tacking margins] but stop short of the top edge, where there is approximately 1 cm of unprimed canvas (fig. 13.15). This suggests that the canvas was cut from a larger piece of pre-primed fabric on the left, bottom, and right edges; the top edge probably corresponds to the edge of the larger canvas that was attached to the [glossary:priming] frame. The ground is relatively thick, measuring approximately 20–140 µm. It fills up the interstices of the canvas weave to some extent.

Color

Observing the painting microscopically, only the upper ground layer is visible. It has a warm pinkish-beige tone, which can be seen in small areas throughout the painting at breaks in the brushwork (fig. 13.16). [glossary:Cross-sectional analysis] shows another layer below the pinkish-beige one that is light gray in color (fig. 13.17).

Materials/composition

Both ground layers contain the same components: lead white, iron oxide red, bone black, silicate minerals, barium sulfate, quartz, and a calcium-based white; the relative proportions of these components vary between the two layers, however, which directly influences their color. The upper pinkish-beige layer contains a higher proportion of iron oxide red, silicate minerals, and barium sulfate, while the lower gray layer has a slightly higher proportion of bone black.31 Binder: [glossary:Oil] (estimated).

Compositional Planning/Underdrawing/Painted Sketch
Extent/character

No [glossary:underdrawing] was detected with [glossary:infrared reflectography] (IRR); however, some black particulate material was observed microscopically in a few localized areas. To the left of the heads of the left and middle fishermen, there are a few concentrated areas of black particles deposited on the high points of the primed canvas between the ground and paint layers (fig. 13.18 and fig. 13.19). At the extreme left edge, directly above the boats, are three short lines at varying angles (fig. 13.20), where the black particles appear to be on top of or incorporated into the paint layer (fig. 13.21).32

Medium/technique

Charcoal.33

Revisions

Possible underdrawing in the area of the fishermen’s heads could have formed part of an earlier outline of the beach, which appears to have been extended farther into the water in this area during painting (see Application/technique and artist’s revision). It is unclear what the marks at the left edge are related to.

Paint Layer
Application/technique and artist’s revisions

The painting was worked up in several stages, with some significant changes made to the composition, particularly on the right side, where the artist originally included a number of figures and boats. The [glossary:infrared reflectogram] (IRR) reveals that an earlier version of the composition included four, or possibly five, figures on the shoreline near the right edge. The IRR clearly shows a trio of standing figures near the bottom-right corner (fig. 13.22): a male figure on the left and a couple on the right. These figures appear to be facing the water and were painted on a scale similar to or slightly larger than the three fishermen in the foreground of the finished painting. Some of the brushwork related to these figures is visible in the [glossary:X-ray] (fig. 13.23). With the use of transmitted infrared, a fourth figure to the left of the standing group comes to light (fig. 13.24).34 This figure, seemingly a male, appears to be sitting on the beach, and to his left, a similar but more ambiguous form could indicate a seated companion. A few microscopic traces of black paint were observed at the shoreline in the area of the seated male. The black paint appears to lie on top of the greenish-blue paint from the water and underneath the gray strokes of the beach (fig. 13.25). It is possible that the traces of black paint relate to the seated figure and were simply not covered by either the water that was painted over the figures or the later strokes added to the shoreline (fig. 13.26).

Above the painted-out figures, farther out in the water, several forms indicate that the artist experimented with a variety of boats, including some large sailboats and smaller marine craft. In the X-ray, two large sails are visible near the horizon (fig. 13.27). Within the area of these large sails, three smaller sails, which seem to have been associated with smaller sailboats, are also visible. All of these forms probably contain a significant amount of lead white paint, based on their radio-opacity, especially when compared with the dark-sailed fishing boats in the final composition. At the extreme right edge, there appears to be another large sailboat. This is more difficult to discern in the X-ray, but it is evident in the infrared reflectogram (fig. 13.28). The artist also seems to have initially included some smaller boats without sails near the horizon and one slightly closer to the shore, which appears to carry two passengers. Moving left along the horizon, two more small sails are visible just to the right of the fishing boat from the final painting. On the left side of the fishing boat, among the smokestacks on the distant shore, it appears that the artist originally included a triangular flag (fig. 13.29) and, subsequently, more billowing smoke from the chimneys (fig. 13.30), which was then cursorily obscured with a few strokes of grayish paint (fig. 13.31). Passages of more-solid and slightly “mismatched” paint along the horizon seem to represent areas where the artist worked to cover over the earlier compositional elements. The small vessels were applied [glossary:wet-on-wet] over the blue-gray paint along the horizon (fig. 13.32).

Other, more minor changes include the position and size of the three central boats on the shore. In the X-ray, the front boat appears smaller and is positioned at more of an angle, while the front end of the middle boat was originally slightly shorter (fig. 13.33). The farthest boat appears to have been a later addition, since the beach underneath it is more worked up than in the area of the other two boats. Some modifications are also visible in the buildings on the left side of the composition (fig. 13.34). For example, the large building at the top of the hill was originally in a lower position. To the immediate right, the two brownish-gray buildings, as well as the large house to the right of the spire, appear to have been added at a later stage, as they were painted over the sky, in contrast to the other buildings, which were incorporated into the composition from an early stage, with the sky built up around them. A slight adjustment may also have been made to the spire. The boats and the three fishermen on the left side of the work were all painted on top of the beach, indicating that they were later additions to the painting (fig. 13.35). Brushstrokes related to the beach continue underneath the figures (fig. 13.36). Changes to the figures seem to have involved either minor shifts in position or modifications in size. This is particularly evident around the blue jacket of the left fisherman and the center figure’s left shoulder (fig. 13.37). Around the blue jacket, it is clear that the artist wiped away some of the still-wet blue paint, leaving traces in the recesses of the underlying paint of the beach (fig. 13.38). It seems that the off-white paint of the beach was still soft when the blue paint was wiped away, as the peaks of the brushmarks appear smooth and flattened in the wiped areas. The artist then applied a few strokes of grayish paint, presumably to cover these paint residues (fig. 13.39 and fig. 13.40); this was not done precisely, however, and the paint residues remain clearly visible in places. The shoreline behind the fishermen seems to have been adjusted slightly, the pale-gray paint of the beach having been extended farther into the water (fig. 13.41). The erosion-prevention structures, placed at intervals perpendicular to the distant shore, were originally longer, perhaps suggesting a change in the water level (fig. 13.42).

Most areas of the painting seem to consist of two or three [glossary:pigments], usually mixed with lead white. Gray and darker-brown areas tend to have more complex pigment mixtures that incorporate earth pigments and black. The warm pinkish-beige tone of the upper ground layer is evident at the corners and edges of the painting, which are less finished than the rest of the composition (fig. 13.43). It also remains visible in small areas through open brushwork—for example, in the distant beach (fig. 13.44). The tone of the exposed ground appears to shift slightly depending on the colors applied adjacent to it. In general, the paint was built up in opaque strokes, with low-relief brushmarks visible across the surface (fig. 13.45). The painting includes both wet-over-dry (fig. 13.46) and localized areas of wet-in-wet paint application (fig. 13.47), but with little actual blending of colors on the canvas. There are some areas of thicker, more textural paint application—for example, in the white strokes of the seated couple (fig. 13.48). The middle fisherman was executed with thick, fluid paint, the strokes of which melded together (fig. 13.49). Several final strokes were applied with a light touch that skipped across the surface of the underlying paint texture. This can be seen in the white and green strokes of the water on the right side, where the artist may have applied these final touches as a way of breaking up the solidity of the paint in places where earlier compositional features were covered (fig. 13.50).

Painting tools

Brushes, including 1–2 cm wide, flat ferrule (based on width and shape of brushstrokes).

Palette

Analysis indicates the presence of the following pigments: lead white, bone black, iron oxide reddish brown (burnt sienna), iron oxide red, iron oxide yellow, chrome yellow, cobalt blue, viridian, emerald green, vermilion, and red lake.35

Binding media

Oil (estimated).36

Surface Finish
Varnish layer/media

The painting has an even, relatively matte synthetic [glossary:varnish], which was applied in 1973, after removal of a [glossary:natural-resin varnish] (see Conservation History). Residues of yellowed natural resin are visible in the recesses of the paint texture (particularly under ultraviolet light). It is uncertain when the natural-resin varnish was applied.

Conservation History

The earliest examination report in the conservation file, which dates to 1957, indicates that the painting was already lined at that time. This is probably the aqueous lining referred to in the 1973 report. The painting is described as having an extremely discolored varnish layer and heavy surface grime.37 An unsigned note attached to this report indicates that the painting was cleaned in 1957.38

In 1973 discolored surface films and [glossary:overpaint] around the edges of the painting and over the wide-aperture [glossary:drying cracks] in the foreground boats and left-hand figure were removed. The aqueous lining was removed, and the canvas was wax-resin lined. The painting was restretched on a redwood ICA spring stretcher. An isolating varnish of polyvinyl acetate (PVA) AYAA was applied. [glossary:Inpainting] was carried out, and the final varnish, consisting of a layer of methacrylate resin L-46 and a layer of AYAA, was applied.39

Condition Summary

The work is in good condition overall. The canvas is wax-resin lined and is flat and stretched taut on the stretcher. The original tacking margins are present, but the edges have deteriorated and may have been trimmed in places; there are losses in the fabric at the bottom corners. The paint layer is in excellent condition, with only a few tiny paint losses. There is some slight flattening of thicker areas of paint, probably resulting from the lining. Localized abrasion and ground and paint loss are present around all of the original foldovers. There is a general network of light cracks over the paint surface. Stretcher-bar cracks are most visible in the area of the original vertical crossbar and the right stretcher bar. There are localized areas of drying cracks in some of the foreground figures and boats. There are a few small spots of retouching in the sky related to disruptions in the paint, which appear to be impressions made when the paint was still soft. [glossary:Retouching] has been applied to almost the entire perimeter of the painting, over losses at the original foldovers. Residues of discolored natural-resin varnish are visible throughout the paint surface. There are numerous localized areas of wax residue from the lining adhesive scattered throughout the surface of the painting. Fibers from the [glossary:facing] paper and/or cotton swabs are visible microscopically over the surface, as are several tiny accretions. The work has an even, relatively matte [glossary:synthetic varnish] layer.

Frame

Current frame (1999): The frame is not original to the painting. It is an English (Arnold Wiggins & Sons, London, 1999), Louis XVI Revival, gilt, scotia frame with egg-and-dart ornament, a stepped and beaded frieze, and a beveled sight. The wood is jelutong with compo ornament. The construction is mitered and nailed. The finish is water gilding over red-orange bole on gesso. The egg-and-dart ornament, the fillet, and the inner cove are burnished; the scotia side and the face and sight fillet and bevel are unburnished. The toning is with casein and oil (estimated). The molding, from perimeter to interior, is ribbon-and-reel compo outer molding; scotia side; stepped fillet; egg-and-dart compo molding; scotia; fillet with beaded compo ornament; cove; fillet; and beveled sight molding (fig. 13.51).40

Previous frame (installed after Nov. 1, 1933, until 1999): The work was previously housed in an American (New York), 1960/70 reproduction of a French Régence style frame. It was carved basswood with a water-gilt, distressed décapé finish (fig. 13.52).41

Previous frame (installed by Apr. 6, 1932): The painting was previously housed in a late-nineteenth–early-twentieth-century reproduction of a Louis XVI ogee frame, gilded with cast plaster ornament (fig. 13.53 and fig. 13.54).42
Kimberley Muir

Provenance

Sold by the artist to Durand-Ruel, Paris, Feb. 28, 1873, for 400 francs.43

Probably sold by Durand-Ruel, Paris, to Jean-Baptiste Faure, Paris, by 1876.44

Sold by Jean-Baptiste Faure, Paris, to Durand-Ruel, Paris, Jan. 9, 1893, for 7,000 francs.45

Sold by Durand-Ruel, Paris, to Henri Véver, Paris, Jan. 17, 1893, for 8,000 francs.46

Sold at the Henri Véver, Paris, sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, Feb. 1–2, 1897, lot 79, to Boulley, as the agent for Georges Kohn, Paris, for 9,000 francs.47

Sold by Georges Kohn, Paris, jointly to Durand-Ruel, Paris, and Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, June 11, 1920, for 40,000 francs.48

Sold by Durand-Ruel, New York, to Mrs. Lewis Larned (Annie Swan) Coburn, Chicago, Feb. 8, 1923.49

Bequeathed by Mrs. Lewis Larned (Annie Swan) Coburn (died 1932), Chicago, to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.

Exhibition History

Possibly London, Durand-Ruel, Eighth Exhibition of the Society of French Artists, spring 1874, cat. 142, as Ste Adresse near Havre.50

Paris, 11, rue Le Peletier, 2e exposition de peinture [second Impressionist exhibition], Apr. 1876, cat. 151, as La Plage à Sainte-Adresse. Appartient à M. Faure.

Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, Claude Monet—A. Rodin, June 21–Sept. 21, 1889, cat. 5, as Sainte-Adresse. 1867.51

Art Institute of Chicago, Exhibition of the Mrs. L. L. Coburn Collection: Modern Paintings and Watercolors, Apr. 6–Oct. 9, 1932, cat. 19 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, “A Century of Progress”: Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, May 23–Nov. 1, 1933, cat. 292 (fig. 13.55).52

City Art Museum of St. Louis, Paintings by French Impressionists (1860–1880), Apr. 17–May 16, 1934, no cat.53

Art Institute of Chicago, “A Century of Progress”: Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture for 1934, June 1–Oct. 31, 1934, cat. 210.54

Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art, French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, Nov. 1934, cat. 8 (paintings).55

Kansas City, Mo., William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, French Impressionist Landscape Painting, Nov. 29–Dec. 30, 1936, cat. 23 (cover ill.).56

Art Institute of Chicago, Masterpiece of the Month, June 30–July 31, 1945, no cat.57

Kunsthaus Zürich, Claude Monet: 1840–1926, May 10–June 15, 1952, cat. 11 (ill.); Paris, Galerie Beaux-Arts, June 19–July 17, 1952, cat. 8 (ill.); The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, July 24–Sept. 22, 1952, cat. 9 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, The Paintings of Claude Monet, Apr. 1–June 15, 1957, no cat. no.58

City Art Museum of St. Louis, Claude Monet: A Loan Exhibition, Sept. 25–Oct. 22, 1957, cat. 4 (ill.); Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Nov. 1–Dec. 1, 1957.

San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Painters by the Sea, July 1–30, 1961, no cat.; Santa Barbara (Calif.) Museum of Art, Aug. 8–Sept. 3, 1961.59

Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings by Monet, Mar. 15–May 11, 1975, cat. 10 (ill.).

Northampton, Mass., Smith College Museum of Art, Jongkind and the Pre-Impressionists: Painters of the Ecole Saint-Siméon, Oct. 15–Dec. 5, 1976, cat. 90 (ill.); Williamstown, Mass., Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Dec. 17, 1976–Feb. 13, 1977.

Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Hommage à Claude Monet (1840–1926), Feb. 8–May 5, 1980, cat. 16 bis (ill.).

Albi, Musée Toulouse-Lautrec, Trésors impressionnistes du Musée de Chicago, June 27–Aug. 31, 1980, cat. 9 (ill.).

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, A Day in the Country: Impressionism and the French Landscape, June 28–Sept. 16, 1984, cat. 6 (ill.); Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 23, 1984–Jan. 6, 1985; Paris, Galeries Nationales d’Exposition du Grand Palais, as L’impressionnisme et le paysage français, Feb. 4–Apr. 22, 1985.

Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, The New Painting: Impressionism, 1874–1886, Jan. 17–Apr. 6, 1986, cat. 31 (ill.); Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco/M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, Apr. 19–July 6, 1986.

Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), State Hermitage Museum, Ot Delakrua do Matissa: Shedevry frantsuzskoi zhivopisi XIX–nachala XX veka, iz Muzeia Metropoliten v N’iu-Iorke i Khudozhestvennogo Instituta v Chikago [From Delacroix to Matisse: Masterpieces of French Painting of the Nineteenth to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Art Institute of Chicago], Mar. 15–May 16, 1988, cat. 27 (ill.); Moscow, Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, May 30–July 30, 1988.60

Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Impressionnisme: Les origines, 1859–1869, Apr. 19–Aug. 8, 1994, cat. 136 (ill.); New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, as Origins of Impressionism, Sept. 27, 1994–Jan. 8, 1995.

Art Institute of Chicago, Claude Monet, 1840–1926, July 22–Nov. 26, 1995, cat. 12 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, Manet and the Sea, Oct. 20, 2003–Jan. 19, 2004, cat. 97 (ill.); Philadelphia Museum of Art, Feb. 15–May 30, 2004; Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, June 18–Sept. 26, 2004.

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Monet in Normandy, June 17–Sept. 17, 2006, cat. 5 (ill.); Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, Oct. 15, 2006–Jan. 14, 2007; Cleveland Museum of Art, Feb. 18–May 20, 2007 (Cleveland only).

London, Royal Academy of Arts, Impressionists by the Sea, July 7–Sept. 30, 2007, cat. 32 (ill.); Washington, D.C., Phillips Collection, Oct. 20, 2007–Jan. 13, 2008; Hartford, Conn., Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Feb. 9–May 11, 2008.

Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Claude Monet, 1840–1926, Sept. 22, 2010–Jan. 24, 2011, cat. 16 (ill.).

Selected References

Possibly “Notice of the Exhibition of the Society of French Artists, New Bond Street,” Times, Apr. 27, 1874. Reprinted in Kate Flint, ed., Impressionists in England: The Critical Reception (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984), p. 35.61

Possibly Durand-Ruel, London, Eighth Exhibition of the Society of French Artists, exh. cat. (Durand-Ruel, 1874), p. 11, cat. 142.62

Marius Chaumelin, “Actualités: L’exposition des intransigeants,” La gazette des étrangers, Apr. 8, 1876, pp. 1–2. Reprinted in Ruth Berson, ed., The New Painting: Impressionism, 1874–1886, Documentation, vol. 1, Reviews (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco/University of Washington Press, 1996), p. 67.

Emile Blémont, “Les impressionnistes,” Le rappel, Apr. 9, 1876, pp. 2–3. Reprinted in Ruth Berson, ed., The New Painting: Impressionism, 1874–1886, Documentation, vol. 1, Reviews (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco/University of Washington Press, 1996), p. 63.

Arthur Baignières, “Exposition de peinture par un groupe d’artistes, rue Le Peletier, II,” L’écho universel, Apr. 13, 1876, p. 3. Reprinted in Ruth Berson, ed., The New Painting: Impressionism, 1874–1886, Documentation, vol. 1, Reviews (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco/University of Washington Press, 1996), p. 55.63

Pierre Dax, “Chronique,” L’artiste, May 1, 1876, p. 348. Reprinted in Ruth Berson, ed., The New Painting: Impressionism, 1874–1886, Documentation, vol. 1, Reviews (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco/University of Washington Press, 1996), p. 70.64

Catalogue de la 2e exposition de peinture, exh. cat. (Alcan-Lévy, 1876), p. 15, cat. 151.

Galerie Georges Petit, Claude Monet; A. Rodin, exh. cat. (Imp. de l’Art, 1889), p. 27, cat. 5. Reprinted in Theodore Reff, ed., Miscellaneous Group Exhibitions, Modern Art in Paris 34 (Garland, 1981), n.pag.

Gustave Geffroy, “Claude Monet,” L’art et les artistes 2, 11 (Nov. 1920), p. 64 (ill.).

Gustave Geffroy, Claude Monet: Sa vie, son temps, son oeuvre (G. Crès, 1922), pp. opp. 40 (ill.), 59, 62, 71, 118, 262.65

Camille Mauclair, Claude Monet (F. Rieder, 1924), p. 36, pl. 6. Translated by J. Lewis May as Claude Monet (Dodd, Mead, 1924), p. 42, pl. 6.

Xenia Lathom, Claude Monet (Philip Allan, 1931), p. 47, pl. 6.

Eleanor Jewett, “Noted Private Art Collection on Exhibition,” Chicago Daily Tribune, Apr. 6, 1932, p. 19 (ill.).

“Masterpieces of the French Impressionists from the Collection of Mrs. L. L. Coburn Being Exhibited for the First Time at the Art Institute of Chicago,” Fine Arts 19, 1 (June 1932), p. 22 (ill.).

Daniel Catton Rich, “The Bequest of Mrs. L. L. Coburn,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 26, 6 (Nov. 1932), pp. 66, 67 (ill.), 68.

“Annie S. Coburn Estate Is Given $888,982 Value,” Chicago Daily Tribune, Nov. 19, 1932, p. 16.

Art Institute of Chicago, Exhibition of the Mrs. L. L. Coburn Collection: Modern Paintings and Watercolors, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1932), pp. 18, no. 19; 47, no. 19.

Daniel Catton Rich, “The Mrs. L. L. Coburn Collection,” in Art Institute of Chicago, Exhibition of the Mrs. L. L. Coburn Collection: Modern Paintings and Watercolors, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1932), p. 7.

Art Institute of Chicago, Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago: Report for the Year Nineteen Hundred Thirty-Two 27, 3 (Mar. 1933), p. 24 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, Catalogue of “A Century of Progress”: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture; Lent from American Collections, ed. Daniel Catton Rich, 3rd ed., exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1933), p. 43, cat. 292.

Roger Brielle, “Le visage de la France vu par nos artistes: III. La Normandie,” L’art et les artistes 28, 143 (Jan. 1934), p. 129 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, Catalogue of “A Century of Progress”: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, 1934, ed. Daniel Catton Rich, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1934), pp. 36–37, cat. 210.

Toledo Museum of Art, Catalogue: French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, exh. cat. (Toledo Museum of Art, 1934), n.pag., cat. 8 (paintings).

Art Institute of Chicago, A Brief Illustrated Guide to the Collections (Art Institute of Chicago, 1935), p. 28.66

William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, “Exhibition of French Impressionist Landscape Paintings,” William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Atkins Museum of Fine Arts News Flashes 3, 2 (Dec. 1, 1936), p. 2.

William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum, Exhibition: French Impressionist Landscape Painting, exh. cat. (William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum, 1936), cover (ill.); p. 6, cat. 23.

Lionello Venturi, Les archives de l’impressionnisme: Lettres de Renoir, Monet, Pissarro, Sisley et autres; Mémoires de Paul Durand-Ruel; Documents, vol. 2 (Durand-Ruel, 1939), p. 257.

Art Institute of Chicago, “List of Exhibitions,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 39, 4 (Apr.–May 1945), p. 64.

John Rewald, The History of Impressionism (Museum of Modern Art/Simon & Schuster, 1946), p. 137 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, An Illustrated Guide to the Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 1948), p. 34.

Oscar Reuterswärd, Monet: En konstnärshistorik (Bonniers, 1948), p. 281.67

Art Institute of Chicago, “Notes,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 34, 1 (Feb. 1949), p. 15.

Kenneth Clark, Landscape into Art (John Murray, 1949), pp. xiii; 88, pl. 81.68

Daniel Catton Rich, “Midwest Art Capital,” Town and Country 105 (Mar. 1951), p. 75 (ill.).

Kunsthaus Zürich, Claude Monet: 1840–1926, with a foreword by Georges Besson and René Wehrli, exh. cat. (Kunsthaus Zürich, 1952), pl. 4; p. 19, cat. 11.

Haags Gemeentemuseum, Claude Monet, with an introduction by George Besson, exh. cat. (Gemeentemuseum, 1952), cat. 9 (ill.).

Meyer Schapiro, Paul Cezanne (Abrams, 1952), pp. 11 (ill.), 12.

Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet, exh. cat. (Galerie Beaux-Arts, 1952), pp. 14, cat. 8 (ill.); 59.

Art Institute of Chicago, An Illustrated Guide to the Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 1956), p. 34.

Art Institute of Chicago, “Homage to Claude Monet,” Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly 51, 2 (Apr. 1, 1957), pp. 22 (ill.), 24.

Art Institute of Chicago, “Chronology,” Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly 51, 2 (Apr. 1, 1957), p. 28.

Art Institute of Chicago, “Catalogue,” Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly 51, 2 (Apr. 1, 1957), p. 33

Art Institute of Chicago, “Exhibitions,” Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly 51, 2 (Apr. 1, 1957), p. 36.

Claude Monet: A Loan Exhibition, exh. cat. (Minneapolis Society of the Fine Arts, 1957), p. 45, cat. 4 (ill.).

William C. Seitz, “Claude Monet’s View of Nature,” in Claude Monet: A Loan Exhibition, exh. cat. (Minneapolis Society of the Fine Arts, 1957), pp. 16, 21, 24.

Denis Rouart, Claude Monet, trans. James Emmons (Skira, 1958), p. 38 (ill.).

William C. Seitz, Claude Monet (Abrams, 1960), pp. 74, 75 (ill.).

Arthur Millier, “Summer Relief: ‘Painters by the Sea,’” Los Angeles Times, Aug. 27, 1961, p. N18 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), pp. 278 (ill.), 318.69

Frederick A. Sweet, “Great Chicago Collectors,” Apollo 84, 55 (Sept. 1966), pp. 201, fig. 32; 202–03.

Joel Isaacson, “The Early Paintings of Claude Monet” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1967), pp. xii, 183–84, 185.70

Edward Barry, “The Institute That Art Built,” Chicago Tribune, Mar. 2, 1969, p. 84.

Charles C. Cunningham and Satoshi Takahashi, Shikago Bijutsukan [Art Institute of Chicago], Museums of the World 32 (Kodansha, 1970), p. 55, cat. 41 (ill.); 160–61.

John Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago (Abrams, 1970), pp. 80 (ill.), 81.71

Anthea Callen, “Jean-Baptiste Faure, 1830–1914: A Study of a Patron and Collector of the Impressionists and Their Contemporaries with a Catalogue of His Collection” (M.A. thesis, University of Leicester, 1971), pp. 28; 325–26, cat. 437.72

Gerald Needham, “The Paintings of Claude Monet, 1859–1878” (Ph.D. diss., Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 1971), pp. 88–89; 154–57; fig. 42.

Denis Rouart, “Apparences et reflets,” in Denis Rouart and Jean-Dominique Rey, Monet, nymphéas, ou Les miroirs du temps, with a cat. rais. by Robert Maillard (Hazan, 1972), p. 40.73

Kermit Swiler Champa, Studies in Early Impressionism (Yale University Press, 1973), pp. 19; 20, fig. 26.

Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné, vol. 1, Peintures, 1840–1881 (Bibliothèque des Arts, 1974), pp. 38; 162; 163, cat. 92 (ill.).

M. Therese Southgate, “About the Cover,” JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association 232, 4 (Apr. 28, 1975), cover (ill.); p. 340 (ill.).

M. Therese Southgate, “About the Cover,” JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association 233, 3 (July 21, 1975), p. 259.

Horst Keller, Die Kunst der französischen Impressionisten (Herder, 1975), pp. 54; 128–29, pl. 80; 269.

Mike Samuels and Nancy Samuels, Seeing with the Mind’s Eye: The History, Techniques, and Uses of Visualization (Random House, 1975), p. 70 (ill.).

Grace Seiberling, “The Evolution of an Impressionist,” in Paintings by Monet, ed. Susan Wise, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1975), p. 30.

Susan Wise, ed., Paintings by Monet, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1975), p. 64, cat. 10 (ill.).

Charles C. Cunningham, Susan D. Peters, and Kathleen Zimmerer, Jongkind and the Pre-Impressionists: Painters of the Ecole Saint-Siméon, exh. cat. (Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1977), pp. 23; 134, cat. 90 (ill.); 135.

Art Institute of Chicago, 100 Masterpieces (Art Institute of Chicago, 1978), pp. 22; 90–91, fig. 48.

Luigina Rossi Bortolatto, L’opera completa di Claude Monet, 1870–1889, Classici dell’arte 63 (Rizzoli, 1972), pp. 89, cat. 19 (ill.); 90.

Roger Terry Dunn, “The Monet-Rodin Exhibition at the Galerie Georges Petit in 1889” (Ph.D. diss., Northwestern University, 1978), pp. 78, 246.

Gaëtan Picon, The Birth of Modern Painting (Skira, 1978), pp. 62–63 (ill.), 118.

J. Patrice Marandel, The Art Institute of Chicago: Favorite Impressionist Paintings (Crown, 1979), pp. 52–53 (ill.).

J. Patrice Marandel, “New Installation of Earlier Paintings,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 73, 1 (Jan.–Feb. 1979), p. 15 (ill.).

Brian Petrie, Claude Monet: The First of the Impressionists (Phaidon, 1979), pp. 31–32, pl. 26; 33.

Hélène Adhémar, Anne Distel, and Sylvie Gache, Hommage à Claude Monet (1840–1926), exh. cat. (Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1980), pp. 80; 82, cat. 16 bis (ill.).

Diane Kelder, The Great Book of French Impressionism (Abbeville, 1980), pp. 182 (ill.), 437.

Musée Toulouse-Lautrec and Art Institute of Chicago, Trésors impressionnistes du Musée de Chicago, exh. cat. (Musée Toulouse-Lautrec, 1980), pp. 31, no. 9 (ill.); 67.

Andrea P. A. Belloli, ed., A Day in the Country: Impressionism and the French Landscape, exh. cat. (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984), p. 364.

Sylvie Gache-Patin, “Private and Public Gardens,” in A Day in the Country: Impressionism and the French Landscape, ed. Andrea P. A. Belloli, exh. cat. (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984), p. 217.

Sylvie Gache-Patin and Scott Schaefer, “Impressionism and the Sea,” in A Day in the Country: Impressionism and the French Landscape, ed. Andrea P. A. Belloli, exh. cat. (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984), p. 276.

Scott Schaefer, “The French Landscape Sensibility,” in A Day in the Country: Impressionism and the French Landscape, ed. Andrea P. A. Belloli, exh. cat. (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984), pp. 58; 62; 66; 69, no. 6 (ill.).

Scott Schaefer, “L’évasion loin de Paris,” in Réunion des Musées Nationaux, L’impressionnisme et le paysage français, exh. cat. (Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1985), p. 342.

Scott Schaefer, “The Retreat from Paris,” in A Day in the Country: Impressionism and the French Landscape, ed. Andrea P. A. Belloli, exh. cat. (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984), p. 312.

Sylvie Gache-Patin, “Jardins privés et jardins publics,” in Réunion des Musées Nationaux, L’impressionnisme et le paysage français, exh. cat. (Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1985), p. 222.

Sylvie Gache-Patin and Scott Schaefer, “La mer,” in Réunion des Musées Nationaux, L’impressionnisme et le paysage français, exh. cat. (Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1985), p. 295.

Scott Schaefer, “Le paysage dans la peinture française au cours des années 1860,” in Réunion des Musées Nationaux, L’impressionnisme et le paysage français, exh. cat. (Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1985), pp. 46; 48; 54–55, no. 6 (ill.).

Richard Shiff, Cézanne and the End of Impressionism: A Study of the Theory, Technique, and Critical Evaluation of Modern Art (University of Chicago Press, 1984), pp. 108; 110–11, fig. 21; 116.

John House, “Monet and the Genesis of His Series,” in Auckland City Art Gallery, Claude Monet: Painter of Light, exh. cat. (Auckland City Art Gallery/NZI, 1985), pp. 12; 13, fig. 3.

Hollis Clayson, “A Failed Attempt,” in The New Painting: Impressionism, 1874–1886, ed. Charles S. Moffett, exh. cat. (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1986), p. 147.

Charles S. Moffett, ed., The New Painting: Impressionism, 1874–1886, exh. cat. (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1986), pp. 162; 163; 180, cat. 31 (ill.).

Richard R. Brettell, French Impressionists (Art Institute of Chicago/Abrams, 1987), pp. 10 (detail), 11, 12 (ill.), 118.

Douglas Skeggs, River of Light: Monet’s Impressions of the Seine (Victor Gollancz, 1987), pp. 37, 39 (ill.).

Robert L. Herbert, Impressionism: Art, Leisure, and Parisian Society (Yale University Press, 1988), pp. 264–65, pl. 267 (detail); 265; 284; 289, pl. 295; 290; 292; 296.

Ministry of Culture; State Hermitage Museum; Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and Art Institute of Chicago, Ot Delakrua do Matissa: Shedevry frantsuzskoi zhivopisi XIX–nachala XX veka, iz Muzeia Metropoliten v N’iu-Iorke i Khudozhestvennogo Instituta v Chikago [From Delacroix to Matisse: Masterpieces of French Painting of the Nineteenth to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Art Institute of Chicago], trans. from English by Iu. A. Kleiner and A. A. Zhukov, exh. cat. (Avrora, 1988), pp. 76–77, cat. 27 (ill.).

Francesco Arcangeli, Monet (Nuova Alfa, 1989), pp. 29–30; 82, fig. 8.

Michael Howard, Monet (Brompton, 1989), p. 50 (ill.).

Richard Kendall, ed., Monet by Himself: Paintings, Drawings, Pastels, Letters, trans. Bridget Strevens Romer (Macdonald Orbis, 1989), pp. 43 (ill.), 317.

Musée Rodin, Claude Monet; Auguste Rodin: Centenaire de l’exposition de 1889, exh. cat. (Musée Rodin, 1989), pp. 53, 74 (ill.).

Jacques Vilain, “Les débuts (1840–1870),” in Musée Rodin, Claude Monet; Auguste Rodin: Centenaire de l’exposition de 1889, exh. cat. (Musée Rodin, 1989), p. 111.

Alvin Martin and Judi Freeman, “The Distant Cousins in Normandy: Braque, Dufy, and Friesz,” in Judi Freeman, The Fauve Landscape, exh. cat. (Los Angeles County Museum of Art/Abbeville, 1990), p. 226, pl. 237.

Denis Rouart, Monet (Nathan, 1990), p. 23 (ill.).

Karin Sagner-Düchting, Claude Monet, 1840–1926: Ein Fest für die Augen (Benedikt Taschen, 1990), pp. 36–37 (ill.), 38. Translated by Karen Williams as Claude Monet, 1840–1926: A Feast for the Eyes (Taschen, 2004), pp. 36–37 (ill.), 38.

John Russell Taylor, Impressionist Dreams: The Artists and the World They Painted (Barrie & Jenkins, 1990), p. 59 (ill.).

Stanley David Gedzelman, “Weather Forecasts in Art,” Leonardo 24, 4 (1991), pp. 446; 447, fig. 6.

Stanley David Gedzelman, “The Sky in Art,” Weatherwise 44, 6 (Dec. 1991/Jan. 1992), pp. 10 (ill), 11, 12.

Norma Broude, Impressionism: A Feminist Reading (Rizzoli, 1991), pp. 24; 93, pl. 13.

Charles S. Moffett, “Sainte-Adresse,” in National Gallery of Art, Art for the Nation: Gifts in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, exh. cat. (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1991), p. 154.

Hermann Bauer, Hubert Burda, and Christa Maar, eds., “Impressionismus: Spurensuche für die Jahrhundertwende,” special issue, Pan 1 (1992), p. 4 (ill.).

Sophie Fourny-Dargère, Monet, Profils de l’art (Chêne, 1992), pp. 148, fig. 13; 156.

Sylvie Patin, Monet: “Un oeil . . . mais, bon Dieu, quel oeil!” (Gallimard/Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1991), pp. 12–13 (detail). Translated by Anthony Roberts as Monet: The Ultimate Impressionist (Abrams, 1993), pp. 12–13 (detail).

Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Catalogue raisonné, vol. 5, Supplément aux peintures: Dessins; Pastels; Index (Wildenstein Institute, 1991), p. 23, cat. 92.

Virginia Spate, Claude Monet: Life and Work (Rizzoli, 1992), pp. 46–47, ill. 43, 48, 115, 117, 154.

Art Institute of Chicago, Treasures of 19th- and 20th-Century Painting: The Art Institute of Chicago, with an introduction by James N. Wood (Art Institute of Chicago/Abbeville, 1993), p. 50 (ill.).

Robert L. Herbert, Monet on the Normandy Coast: Tourism and Painting, 1867–1886 (Yale University Press, 1994), pp. ii (detail); 10; 11; 12, fig. 13.

Henri Lallemand, Monet: Impressions of Light (Todtri, 1994), pp. 23, 39 (ill.).

Steven Z. Levine, Monet, Narcissus, and Self-Reflection: The Modernist Myth of the Self (University of Chicago Press, 1994), pp. 30; 33, fig. 28; 93; 116.

Henri Loyrette and Gary Tinterow, Impressionnisme: Les origines, 1859–1869, exh. cat. (Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1994), pp. 296; 322; 430, fig. 88 (cat. 136).

Nancy Nunhead, Claude Monet (Barnes & Noble/Brompton, 1994), p. 34 (ill.).

Denis Thomas, Monet on Location (Regency House, 1994), pp. 2–3 (detail), 10–11 (ill.), 12.

Gary Tinterow, “Le paysage réaliste,” in Henri Loyrette and Gary Tinterow, Impressionnisme: Les origines, 1859–1869, exh. cat. (Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1994), pp. 66; 67, fig. 88 (cat. 136), translated as Gary Tinterow, “The Realist Landscape,” in Gary Tinterow and Henri Loyrette, Origins of Impressionism, exh. cat. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York/Abrams, 1994), pp. 66; 67, fig. 88 (cat. 136).

Gary Tinterow and Henri Loyrette, Origins of Impressionism, exh. cat. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York/Abrams, 1994), pp. 296; 322; 432, fig. 88 (cat. 136); 433.

Grace Seiberling, “Monet’s Hauling a Boat, Honfleur,” Porticus: Journal of the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester 17–19 (1994–96), pp. 42; 43, fig. 4.

Andrew Forge, Monet, Artists in Focus (Art Institute of Chicago, 1995), pp. 9–10; 12–13; 28–29; 73, pl. 2; 106.

John House, “Framing the Landscape,” in John House, with contributions from Ann Dumas, Jane Mayo Roos, and James F. McMillan, Landscapes of France: Impressionism and Its Rivals, exh. cat. (Hayward Gallery, 1995), pp. 12; 15, fig. 1.74

Charles F. Stuckey, with the assistance of Sophia Shaw, Claude Monet, 1840–1926, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago/Thames & Hudson, 1995), pp. 34, cat. 12 (ill.); 201; 218.

John Russell Taylor, Claude Monet: Impressions of France from Le Havre to Giverny (Collins & Brown, 1995), pp. 22–23 (detail).

Paul Hayes Tucker, Claude Monet: Life and Art (Yale University Press, 1995), pp. 26–27, pl. 36.

Ruth Berson, ed., The New Painting: Impressionism, 1874–1886, Documentation, vol. 1, Reviews (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco/University of Washington Press, 1996), pp. 50, 55, 63, 67, 70.

Ruth Berson, ed., The New Painting: Impressionism, 1874–1886, Documentation, vol. 2, Exhibited Works (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco/University of Washington Press, 1996), pp. 40, cat. II–151; 57 (ill.); 289.

John House, “The View from Le Havre: Painters and the Seine Estuary,” in Boudin to Dufy: Impressionist and Other Masters from the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Le Havre, exh. cat. (Scolar Press/Hove Museum and Art Gallery/Southampton City Art Gallery, 1996), p. 20, fig. 8.

Daniel Wildenstein, Monet, or The Triumph of Impressionism, cat. rais., vol. 1 (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996), p. 68.

Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, vol. 2, Nos. 1–968 (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996), p. 49, cat. 92 (ill.).

Anne-Marie Bergeret-Gourbin, Monet: La Normandie (Herscher, 1997), p. 22 (ill.).

Meyer Schapiro, Impressionism: Reflections and Perceptions (Braziller, 1997), pp. 69–70, fig. 20.

M. Therese Southgate, The Art of JAMA: One Hundred Covers and Essays from the Journal of the American Medical Association (Mosby, 1997), p. 8 (ill.).

Dianne W. Pitman, “Overlapping Frames,” in Monet and Bazille: A Collaboration, ed. David A. Brenneman, exh. cat. (High Museum of Art/Abrams, 1998), pp. 53; 55, fig. 26.

Phaedra Siebert, chronology in Monet and Bazille: A Collaboration, ed. David A. Brenneman, exh. cat. (High Museum of Art/Abrams, 1998), p. 99.

Art Institute of Chicago, Master Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago, selected by James N. Wood (Art Institute of Chicago/Hudson Hills, 1999), p. 50 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism in the Art Institute of Chicago, selected by James N. Wood (Art Institute of Chicago/Hudson Hills, 2000), p. 32 (ill.).

Belinda Thomson, Impressionism: Origins, Practice, Reception (Thames & Hudson, 2000), pp. 99, ill. 92; 266.

Karl F. Nordstrom and Nancy L. Jackson, “Using Paintings for Problem-Solving and Teaching Physical Geography: Examples from a Course in Coastal Management,” Journal of Geography 100, 5 (Sept.–Oct. 2001), pp. 143; 144, fig. 3; 145; 146.

Maria Teresa Benedetti, Monet: I luoghi (Giunti, 2001), p. 6 (ill.).

Norio Shimada and Keiko Sakagami, Kurōdo Mone meigashū: Hikari to kaze no kiseki [Claude Monet: 1881–1926] (Nihon Bijutsu Kyōiku Sentā, 2001), vol. 1, p. 37, no. 16 (ill.); vol. 2, p. 184.

Richard R. Brettell, From Monet to Van Gogh: A History of Impressionism, vol. 1 (Teaching Co., 2002), pp. 61, 63, 71.

María Escribano, Juan Pérez de Ayala, and Óscar Alonso Molina, La marina (Carroggio, 2002), pp. 75, 76 (ill.).

Sylvie Patin, L’impressionnisme (Bibliothèque des Arts, 2002), p. 27.

John House, “The Viewer on the Beach,” in Soil and Stone: Impressionism, Urbanism, Environment, ed. Frances Fowle and Richard Thomson (Ashgate, 2003), pp. 8; 9, fig. 1.2.

John Leighton, “Claude Monet,” in Juliet Wilson-Bareau and David Degener, Manet and the Sea, exh. cat. (Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2003), pp. 203–04.

Juliet Wilson-Bareau and David Degener, Manet and the Sea, exh. cat. (Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2003), pp. 215, pl. 97; 258.

John Leighton, Edouard Manet: Impressions of the Sea (Van Gogh Museum, 2004), pp. 47; 50, fig. 44.

Norio Shimada, Inshoha bijutsukan [The history of Impressionism] (Shogakukan, 2004), p. 76 (ill.).

Vanessa Gavioli, ed., Monet, Art Classics (Rizzoli, 2005), pp. 72–73 (ill.), 180 (ill.).75

Roberto Tassi, “Monet’s Studio,” in Monet, ed. Vanessa Gavioli, Art Classics (Rizzoli, 2005), pp. 10–11 (detail).

Richard R. Brettell and Stephen F. Eisenman, Nineteenth-Century Art in the Norton Simon Museum, vol. 1 (Norton Simon Art Foundation/Yale University Press, 2006), p. 137, fig. 33a.

Heather Lemonedes, Lynn Federle Orr, and David Steel, Monet in Normandy, exh. cat. (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco/North Carolina Museum of Art/Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006), pp. 58; 61, cat. 5 (ill.); 108; 183; 189.

Norio Shimada, Claude Monet, Great Masters of Western Art 1 (Shogakukan, 2006), p. 33 (ill.).

Joseph Baillio and Cora Michael, “Highlights of the Exhibition,” in Wildenstein and Co., Claude Monet (1840–1926): A Tribute to Daniel Wildenstein and Katia Granoff, exh. cat. (Wildenstein, 2007), pp. 185, 214.

John House, “Representing the Beach: The View from Paris,” in John House and David M. Hopkin, Impressionists by the Sea, exh. cat. (Royal Academy of Arts/Thames & Hudson/Abrams, 2007), p. 23.

John House and David M. Hopkin, Impressionists by the Sea, exh. cat. (Royal Academy of Arts, London/Thames & Hudson/Abrams, 2007), pp. 2–4 (detail); 75; 76, cat. 32 (ill.); 125; 128; 130, cat. 32 (ill.); 131; 132.

Gary Tinterow, “Regatta at Sainte-Adresse,” in Masterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York/Yale University Press, 2007), p. 136.

Paul Hayes Tucker, “Some Notes on Monet’s Practice,” in Wildenstein and Co., Claude Monet (1840–1926): A Tribute to Daniel Wildenstein and Katia Granoff, exh. cat. (Wildenstein, 2007), pp. 73, fig. 8; 74.

Eric M. Zafran, “Monet in America,” in Wildenstein and Co., Claude Monet (1840–1926): A Tribute to Daniel Wildenstein and Katia Granoff, exh. cat. (Wildenstein, 2007), p. 127.

Art Institute of Chicago, The Essential Guide (Art Institute of Chicago, 2009), p. 213 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, Master Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago, selected by James Cuno (Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2009), p. 50 (ill.).

Susie Hodge, Monet: His Life and Works in 500 Images (Lorenz, 2009), p. 109.

Joseph Baillio, “Monet à Sainte-Adresse en 1867,” in Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Claude Monet, 1840–1926, exh. cat. (Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Musée d’Orsay, 2010), pp. 49, 54.

Pascal Bonafoux, Monet, peintre de l’eau (Chêne/Hachette, 2010), pp. 38 (ill.), 172.

Mary Mathews Gedo, Monet and His Muse: Camille Monet in the Artist’s Life (University of Chicago Press, 2010), pp. 70, fig. 4.4; 82.

Gloria Groom and Douglas Druick, with the assistance of Dorota Chudzicka and Jill Shaw, The Age of French Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Art Institute of Chicago, rev. and expanded ed. (Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2010; repr. 2012), p. 52, cat. 16 (ill.).

John House, “Social Reality versus the Thrall of Convention: The French Nineteenth Century Landscape,” in From Corot to Monet: The Ecology of Impressionism, ed. Stephen F. Eisenman, exh. cat. (Skira/Rizzoli, 2010), p. 37.

John House, “Le sujet chez Monet,” in Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Claude Monet, 1840–1926, exh. cat. (Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Musée d’Orsay, 2010), pp. 21, 27.

Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Claude Monet, 1840–1926, exh. cat. (Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Musée d’Orsay, 2010), pp. 110, cat. 16 (ill.).

Michael F. Zimmerman, “Radical Alienation—Radical Involvement: A Brief History of Subjectivity and Landscape up to Impressionism,” in From Corot to Monet: The Ecology of Impressionism, ed. Stephen F. Eisenman, exh. cat. (Skira/Rizzoli, 2010), pp. 114; 115, fig. 7.

Simon Kelly, “Regatta at Sainte-Adresse,” in Simon Kelly and April M. Watson with Maura Coughlin and Neil McWilliam, Impressionist France: Visions of Nation from Le Gray to Monet, exh. cat. (Saint Louis Art Museum/Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2013), pp. 276; 277, fig. 78.

April M. Watson, “Brig upon the Water,” in Simon Kelly and April M. Watson with Maura Coughlin and Neil McWilliam, Impressionist France: Visions of Nation from Le Gray to Monet, exh. cat. (Saint Louis Art Museum/Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2013), p. 270.

Other Documentation

Documentation from the Durand-Ruel Archives

Durand-Ruel, Paris, no. 2585 (à deux reprises: en 1873 et en 1893) et 11701

Stock Durand-Ruel Paris 2585, “Marine, temps gris,” Livre de stock Paris 1868–73

Stock Durand-Ruel Paris 11701, “Sainte-Adresse, 1867,&rdquo Livre de stock Paris 1921. (Ce tableau a été acheté à deux reprises par Durand-Ruel.)76

Photo Durand-Ruel Paris 9125, “Sainte-Adresse (1867),” 12 juin 192077

Dépôt (et non stock) Durand-Ruel New York livre de 1904, dépôt no. 8044

“Sainte-Adresse, 1867,” Livre de dépôt New York 1894–1925, dépôt no8044. (Est mentionnée la vente à A. S. Coburn le 8 février 1923.)78

Labels and Inscriptions

Undated

Label
Location: [glossary:backing board]
Method: printed label with typewritten script
Content: THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO / artist Claude Monet / title Beach at Sainte Adresse. 1867 / medium oil on canvas / credit M/M L.L. Coburn Memorial Collection / acct. # 1933.439 (fig. 13.56)

Label
Location: stretcher
Method: printed label with typewritten script and green-ink stamp
Content: THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO / Chicago, Illinois 60603 / ARTIST Monet, Claude / TITLE The Beach at Sainte-Adresse / MEDIUM oil on canvas / DATE 1867 SIZE / COLLECTION Mr. and Mrs. Lewis L. Coburn / [. . .] Collection 33.439
Ink stamp: Inventory—1980–1981 (fig. 13.57)

Number
Location: stretcher
Method: handwritten script
Content: 1933.439 (fig. 13.58)

Number
Location: stretcher
Method: handwritten script
Content: 1933.439 (fig. 13.59)

Inscription
Location: stretcher
Method: handwritten script
Content: MONET BEACH AT SAINTE AdRESS 1933.439 (fig. 13.60)

Inscription
Location: lining canvas
Method: handwritten script
Content: MONET (fig. 13.61)

Pre-1980

Label
Location: previous Masonite-type backing board; discarded, transcription in conservation file
Method: unknown
Content: Sterling and Francine Clark Inst., “Jongkind and the Pre-Impressionists,” Dec. 17, 1976–Feb. 13, 1977 (Temporary regis. no. 474/76) (fig. 13.62)

Label
Location: stretcher
Method: printed label
Content: I. C. A. SPRING STRETCHERS / OBERLIN, OHIO 44074 (fig. 13.63)

Post-1980

Stamp
Location: stretcher
Method: green-ink stamp
Content: Inventory—1980–1981 (fig. 13.64)

Label
Location: previous Masonite-type backing board; discarded, transcription in conservation file
Method: unknown
Content: Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris, “Homage à Monet,” Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, 8 Fevrier à 5 Mai 1980 (fig. 13.65)

Label
Location: backing board
Method: printed label with handwritten script
Content: Réunion des musées nationaux Paris / La plage de Sainte-Adresse / Titre de l’oeuvre: / Propriétaire: Art Institute of Chicago / No du Catalogue: 136 (fig. 13.66)79

Label
Location: backing board
Method: printed label
Content: 136 / Claude Monet / La Plage de Saint-Adresse (The Beach at Sainte-Adresse) / Oil on canvas / The Art Institute of Chicago, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis L. Coburn / Memorial Collection / ORIGINS OF IMPRESSIONISM / The Metropolitan Museum of Art / September 27, 1994–January 8, 1995 (fig. 13.67)

Label
Location: backing board
Method: printed label
Content: The Art Institute of Chicago / “Claude Monet: 1840–1926” / July 14, 1995–November 26, 1995 / Catalog: 12 / The Beach at Sainte-Adresse / La Plage de Sainte-Adresse / The Art Institute of Chicago, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis / Larned Coburn Memorial Collection (1933.439) (fig. 13.68)

Label
Location: frame
Method: printed label
Content: Arnold Wiggins & Sons / Limited / 4 Bury Street / St. James’s / London SW1 / Picture Frame Makers / Carvers and Gilders
Left: BY APPOINTMENT / TO H. M. QUEEN ELIZABETH II / PICTURE FRAME MAKERS
Right: BY APPOINTMENT / TO H. M. QUEEN ELIZABETH / THE QUEEN MOTHER / PICTURE FRAME MAKERS (fig. 13.69)80

Label
Location: backing board
Method: printed label with handwritten script
Content: THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO / Manet and the Sea / The Art Institute of Chicago: 10/20/03–1/4/04 / Philadelphia Museum of Art: 2/15–5/30/04 / Van Gogh Museum: 6/18–9/26/04 / AIC / PMA / VGM / Cat. #: 97 / Claude Monet, French; 1840–1926 / THE BEACH AT SAINT-ADRESSE, 1867 / oil on canvas / 75 x 102 x cm., (29 1/2 x 40 3/4 in.) / The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA/CRATE No 81 (fig. 13.70)

Label
Location: backing board
Method: printed label
Content: THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART / 11150 East Boulevard / Cleveland, Ohio 44106-1797 / Monet in Normandy / (6/17/2006–5/28/2007) / Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926) / The Beach at Sainte-Adresse, 1867 / Oil on canvas / 1867 / The Art Institute of Chicago, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned / Coburn Memorial Collection, 1933.439 / CAT#: 05 / 1933.439 (fig. 13.71)

Label
Location: backing board
Method: printed label
Content: Royal Academy of Arts, London / Impressionists by the Sea / 3 July 2007 to 30 September 2007 / Claude Monet Key No. 37 Cat. No. 32 / The Beach at Sainte-Adresse / The Art Institute of Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn / Memorial Collection, 1933.439 (fig. 13.72)

Label
Location: backing board
Method: printed label
Content: rmn / Claude Monet 1840–1926 / Galeries nationales, Grand Palais / 22/09/2010–24/01/2011 / 10 / Chicago / The Art Institute of Chicago / La Plage de Sainte-Adresse / The Beach at Sainte-Adresse / inv. 1933.439 / huile sur toile (fig. 13.73)

Examination and Analysis Techniques

X-radiography

Westinghouse X-ray unit, scanned on Epson Expressions 10000XL flatbed scanner.

Infrared Reflectography

Surface Optics modified near-infrared [glossary:hyperspectral] camera (collects 4 nm spectral band images from 960 to 1730 nm); Fujifilm S5 Pro with X-Nite1000B/2 mm filter (1.0–1.1 µm); Inframetrics Infracam (1.5–1.73 µm filter).

Transmitted Infrared

Fujifilm S5 Pro with X-Nite1000B/2 mm filter (1.0–1.1 µm).

Visible Light

Natural-light, raking-light, and transmitted-light overalls and macrophotography: Fujifilm S5 Pro with X-NiteCC1 filter.

Ultraviolet Light

Fujifilm S5 Pro with X-NiteCC1 filter and Kodak Wratten 2E filter.

High-Resolution Visible Light (and Ultraviolet)

Sinar P3 camera with Sinarback eVolution 75 H (B+W 486 UV/IR cut MRC filter).

Microscopy and Photomicrographs

Sample and [glossary:cross-sectional analysis] using a Zeiss Axioplan2 research microscope equipped with reflected light/[glossary:UV fluorescence] and a Zeiss AxioCam MRc5 digital camera. Types of illumination used: [glossary:darkfield], differential interference contrast ([glossary:DIC]), and UV. In situ photomicrographs with a Wild Heerbrugg M7A StereoZoom microscope fitted with an Olympus DP71 microscope digital camera.

X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy (XRF)

Several spots on the painting were analyzed in situ with a Bruker/Keymaster TRACeR III-V with rhodium tube.

Polarized Light Microscopy (PLM)

Zeiss Universal research microscope.

Scanning Electron Microscopy/Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (SEM/EDX)

[glossary:Cross sections] were analyzed after carbon coating with a Hitachi S-3400N-II VP-SEM with an Oxford EDS and a Hitachi solid-state [glossary:BSE] detector. Analysis was performed at the Northwestern University Atomic and Nanoscale Characterization Experimental (NUANCE) Center, Electron Probe Instrumentation Center (EPIC) facility.

Automated Thread Counting

Thread count and weave information were determined by Thread Count Automation Project software.81

Image Registration

Overlay images registered using a novel image-based algorithm developed by Damon M. Conover (GW), Dr. John K. Delaney (GW, NGA), and Murray H. Loew (GW) of the George Washington University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.82

Image Inventory

The image inventory compiles records of all known images of the artwork on file in the Conservation Department, the Imaging Department, and the Department of Medieval to Modern European Painting and Sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago (fig. 13.74).

cat. 13  The Beach at Sainte-Adresse, 1867.

fig. 13.1

Map featuring Paris and the region of Normandy.

fig. 13.2

Gustave Le Gray (French, 1820–1884). The Beach at Sainte-Adresse, from the album Vistas del mar, 1856/57. Albumen print from wet collodion on glass negative; 31.3 × 38.5 cm (12 5/16 × 15 3/16 in.). The Art Institute of Chicago, Hugh Edwards Fund, 1971.577.15.

fig. 13.3

Gustave Le Gray (French, 1820–1884). The Beach at Sainte-Adresse, with the Dumont Baths, from the album Vistas del mar, 1856/57. Albumen print from wet collodion on glass negative; 31.7 × 41 cm (12 1/2 × 16 1/8). The Art Institute of Chicago, Hugh Edwards Fund, 1971.577.8.

fig. 13.4

Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926). La Pointe de la Hève at Low Tide, 1865. Oil on canvas; 90.2 × 150.5 cm (35 1/2 × 59 1/4 in.). Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, AP 1968.07.

fig. 13.5

Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926). Mouth of the Seine at Honfleur, 1865. Oil on canvas; 89.5 × 150.5 cm (35 1/4 × 59 1/4 in.). The Norton Simon Foundation, F.1973.33.2.P. Image courtesy of The Norton Simon Foundation.

fig. 13.6

Detail of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867). The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.7

Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926). Regatta at Sainte-Adresse, 1867. Oil on canvas; 75.2 × 101.6 cm (29 5/8 × 40 in.). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, bequest of William Church Osborn, 1951 (51.30.4). Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource, NY.

fig. 13.9

Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926). Cliffs and Sea, Sainte-Adresse, 1865. Black chalk on off-white laid paper; 206 × 314 mm (8 1/8 × 12 3/8 in.). The Art Institute of Chicago, Clarence Buckingham Collection, 1987.56.

fig. 13.10

X-ray and infrared reflectogram (Surface Optics, 1646 nm) details of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867). The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439. Interactive image.

fig. 13.11

Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867). The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439. Interactive image.

fig. 13.12

Detail of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing the signature and date. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.13

Detail of the signature in Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing the different colors of paint used for it and the date. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.14

Photomicrograph of a cross section of the ground and canvas layers from the bottom tacking edge of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867). Original magnification: 200×. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.15

Detail of the top tacking edge of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing the unprimed fabric at the canvas edge. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.16

Detail of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing the exposed pinkish-beige ground layer under the signature. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.17

Photomicrograph of a cross section of the ground layers of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing a light-gray layer (bottom) and a pinkish-beige layer (top). Original magnification: 200×. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.18

Detail of fishermen in Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing the locations of possible underdrawing material. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.19

Photomicrograph of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing possible underdrawing between the ground and paint layers. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.21

Photomicrograph of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing charcoal particles on top of the paint layer. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.22

Infrared reflectogram (Surface Optics, 1646 nm) detail of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing figures from an earlier composition. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.23

X-ray detail of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing brushwork related to figures in an earlier composition. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.25

Photomicrograph of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing traces of black paint possibly related to a figure in an earlier composition. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.26

Photomicrograph of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing black paint traces from an earlier composition. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.27

X-ray and natural-light details of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing boats in an earlier composition. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439. Interactive image.

fig. 13.28

Infrared reflectogram (Surface Optics, 1646 nm) detail of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing boats in an earlier composition. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.29

Transmitted-infrared (Fuji, 1.0–1.1 µm) detail of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing sailboats and a flag in an earlier composition. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.30

Infrared reflectogram (Surface Optics, 1646 nm) detail of smokestacks in Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867). The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.31

Detail of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing traces of a flag and smoke from an earlier painting stage. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.32

Detail of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing where the artist added vessels over wet paint. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.33

X-ray and natural-light details of three boats on the beach in Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing changes made by the artist. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439. Interactive image.

fig. 13.34

X-ray and natural-light details of buildings in Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing changes made by the artist. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439. Interactive image.

fig. 13.35

X-ray detail of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing fishermen and boats painted over the beach. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439. Interactive image.

fig. 13.36

Detail of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing brushstrokes from the beach continuing underneath the figures. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.37

Detail of the fishermen in Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing minor adjustments made by the artist around the edges of the figures. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.38

Photomicrograph of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing where the artist wiped away wet blue paint. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.39

Photomicrograph of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing blue paint visible through the final touches added at the edge of the fisherman’s jacket. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.40

Detail of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing blue paint visible through the final touches added at the edge of the figure’s jacket. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.41

X-ray and natural-light details of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing a possible change to the shoreline behind the fishermen. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439. Interactive image.

fig. 13.42

Infrared reflectogram (Surface Optics, 1646 nm) and natural-light details of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing changes made to the erosion-prevention structures on the distant shore. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439. Interactive image.

fig. 13.43

Detail of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing areas of exposed pinkish-beige ground. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.44

Detail of the distant beach in Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing areas of exposed pinkish-beige ground. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.45

Detail of the fishermen’s baskets in Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing the texture of the brushwork. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.46

Detail of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing the wet-over-dry application of paint in the sky. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.47

Detail of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing the wet-in-wet application of paint. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.48

Detail of the seated couple in Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing the artist’s use of thick white paint. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.49

Detail of the middle fisherman in Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing the application of thick, fluid paint. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.50

Detail of the water in Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing brushstrokes that skip across the surface of the underlying paint texture. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.51

Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) in its current frame. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.52

Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) in a previous frame (installed after Nov. 1, 1933). The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.53

Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) in a previous frame, on display in Mrs. Lewis Larned (Annie Swan) Coburn’s Blackstone Hotel apartment. Institutional Archives, Art Institute of Chicago.

fig. 13.54

Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) in a previous frame, installed in “A Century of Progress”: Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, Art Institute of Chicago, May 23–Nov. 1, 1933. Institutional Archives, Art Institute of Chicago.

fig. 13.55

Installation of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) in “A Century of Progress”: Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, Art Institute of Chicago, May 23–Nov. 1, 1933. Institutional Archives, Art Institute of Chicago.

fig. 13.56
fig. 13.57
fig. 13.58
fig. 13.60
fig. 13.61
fig. 13.63
fig. 13.64
fig. 13.66
fig. 13.67
fig. 13.68
fig. 13.69
fig. 13.70
fig. 13.71
fig. 13.72
fig. 13.73
fig. 13.59
Image Inventory:
Loc/Neg #FormatPurposeDateLighting, Notes
C11263B/W 1935 
ConsB/W printBefore treatmentMay 4, 1973IR, overall
ConsB/W print + negBefore treatmentMay 4, 1973UV, overall
ConsB/W print + negBefore treatmentMay 4, 1973Normal, overall
ConsColor slideBefore treatmentMay 1973Normal, overall
C38872B/WAfter treatmentc. 1973Normal
E10572Color 1986Normal
E10573Color 1986Normal, detail, center
G32178DigitalOSCI2009Normal, overall
G32179DigitalOSCI2009Normal, frame only
G32180DigitalOSCI2009Normal, framed (composite of G32178 and G32179)
G37157DigitalOSCI2011Normal, overall
G37158DigitalOSCI2011Normal, frame only
G32159DigitalOSCI2011Normal, framed (composite of G37157 and G37158)
G37160DigitalOSCI2011UV, overall
G37161DigitalOSCI2011Normal, detail, signature
G37162DigitalOSCI2011Normal, detail, upper-left corner
G37163DigitalOSCI2011Normal, detail, upper-right corner
G37164DigitalOSCI2011Normal, detail, lower-left corner
G37165DigitalOSCI2011Normal, detail, lower-right corner
G37166DigitalOSCI2011Normal, detail, townscape
G37167DigitalOSCI2011Normal, detail, water at right
G37168DigitalOSCI2011Normal, detail, center boats on beach
G37169DigitalOSCI2011Normal, detail, baskets
G37170DigitalOSCI2011Normal, detail, fishermen
G37171DigitalOSCI2011Normal, detail, far beach
G37172DigitalOSCI2011Normal, detail, seated couple
G37173DigitalOSCI2011Normal, detail, fishing boats
G37174DigitalOSCI2011Normal, detail, lower-left corner

 

fig. 13.74
fig. 13.20

Detail of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) showing charcoal lines over the white paint near the edge. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.

fig. 13.62
fig. 13.65
fig. 13.8

Infrared reflectogram (Surface Optics, 1646 nm) and transmitted-infrared (Fuji, 1.0–1.1 µm) details of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867). The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439. Interactive image.

fig. 13.24

Transmitted-infrared (Fuji, 1.0–1.1 µm) detail of Monet’s The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867). The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.439.