 |
| Léon Monet by Claude Monet 1874 Private Collection |
Surprisingly, Claude Monet did only 1 portrait of his elder brother Léon. This is it! Léon didn't put it on show and it has only now been revealed to the general public at the Luxembourg (Senate) exhibition. Perhaps Léon found it too candid? Léon directed a factory on the outskirts of Rouen. He produced chemical dyes which were used to print fabric. Jean Monet, Claude's eldest son, worked there; he found uncle Léon rather authoritative. Quarrels apparently occurred between the two brothers over Jean and also later when Léon married his 30-year younger housekeeper. Claude did not approve! The two brothers became distanced. A poignant letter from Claude Monet to his brother's widow, explains Claude's reasons for not attending Léon's funeral, while expressing his deep sorrow and his regret at not having made things up with his brother.
 |
| Alfred Sisley Route de Louveciennes. Effet de Neige (Louveciennes road. Snow effect) 1874 |
The exhibition has just closed (July 2023), but I am keen to record some of the delightful works, many from the early days of Impressionism, like the Sisley above. Now in Potsdam, this painting was acquired for a small price at the disastrous sale of 1875 by Durand-Ruel, who was to become one of the chief dealers in Impressionist art. The light, fresh colours in this snowy scene are admirably captured by Sisley.
 |
| Claude Monet: Navires en Réparation (Boats in Harbour) 1873 |
Monet's boat scene, with its squiggly green water and sketchy figures of men in blue repairing the middle boat, is the epitome of the Impressionist style. Léon bought the painting at the 1875 sale for a mere 190 francs. It now lives in Edinburgh's National Gallery, to which it was bequeathed by Lord Amulree. It was around this time that Monet painted his famous "Impression Sunrise" which gave the name to the movement and which is to be found in the Marmottan Museum in Paris.
 |
Camille Pissarro: Environs de Rouen (Outskirts of Rouen) 1883 Private Collection
|
Léon bought a couple of country scenes painted by Pissarro in 1883. The artist loved the barges on the Seine, the smoking factory chimneys and the steeples of Rouen. The above scene is an exquisite little work and may be compared with Claude Monet's (much larger) view of Rouen which is usually to be found in the Rouen Beaux Arts Museum:
 |
| Claude Monet: Vue Générale de Rouen (General view of Rouen) 1892 |
Five years after Pissarro painted sites in Rouen, Monet depicted the town from afar, then zoomed in on the cathedral:
 |
| Claude Monet La Cathédrale de Rouen. Le Portail et la tour St-Romain. Plein Soleil (Rouen Cathedral. The Portal and the St-Romain tower. Full sunlight) 1894 |
The Musée d'Orsay has contributed one of its 5 Rouen cathedrals to the exhibition, in which Monet produces several completely different paintings depending on the lighting conditions. The Musée Marmottan loaned Renoir's 2 portraits of Monet and his first wife Camille which he gave to them on their 3rd wedding anniversary:
 |
| Auguste Renoir: Portrait of Claude Monet 1873 |
Monet is smoking a pipe and reading his newspaper, while Camille, his wife, smilingly glances over her shoulder:
 |
| Auguste Renoir: Portrait of Camille Monet 1873 |
Another family portrait, this time by Monet, shows Blanche Hoschedé, the daughter of his second wife Alice by her first husband Ernest Hoschedé:
 |
| Blanche Hoschedé by Claude Monet 1880 |
This was the girl who later married Jean Monet, Claude's eldest son, and accompanied the master in his old age, after the deaths of her mother and Jean.
Although without the genius of Monet, Blanche was herself an accomplished painter. Several of her works are on show:
 |
| Blanche Hoschedé-Monet: Les Petites-Dalles 1885-90 Anaïs Mary Collection |
Not all the works in the show were owned by Léon Monet, but he was certainly a staunch supporter of Impressionist painters and also of the Rouen school of painters. He played a part in introducing Monet and friends to the Industrialists of Rouen. Léon bought 2 of his younger brother's sketchbooks, which are on display here. He also defended his brother Claude's drawing ability against the critics, by advising them to take a look at some of Monet's teenage drawings.
Six of Claude Monet's caricatures, done when a schoolboy in Le Havre, are included in the exhibition.
Not only did he caricature his schoolmasters, but the English tourists who were frequent visitors to Normandy:
 |
| Claude Monet: Anglais à Moustache (Englishman with Moustache) ca 1857
Private Collection |
|
An early painting, once owned by Léon, of their father Adolphe in a garden, contains the essence of Monet's art- simply putting the colour sensations he observes down on his canvas:
 |
| Claude Monet: Adolphe Monet lisant dans un jardin (Adolphe Monet reading in a garden 1867 |
Private Collection
A panoramic seascape by Berthe Morisot has the lightness of touch of Impressionism:
 |
Berthe Morisot: Sur la plage, Les Petites-Dalles 1873
Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts |
Gustave Manet, the painter's brother, acquired it for a mere 80 francs at the 1875 Impressionist sale.
Narcisse Guilbert is a representative of the Rouen school which Léon Monet promoted and supported. His view of Etretat was bought by Léon Monet, probably at an exhibition of Rouen artists in 1908:
 |
| Narcisse Guilbert:Etretat, Porte d'Amont (Etretat, Upstream arch) ca 1907 Private Collection
|
|
Monet had discovered Etretat in 1864. One of his early, darker, works was owned by Léon:
 |
| Claude Monet: Etretat 1864 Musée Les Franciscaines, Deauville |
Claude was to come back to Etretat over the years and paint around 90 views of its chalk cliffs.
The Exhibition features examples of printed fabric from the 1890s, such as those produced by Léon Monet's factory near Rouen:
The strong influence of Japanese colour prints is illustrated by several examples of wood cuts:
 |
| Utagawa Kunisada ll Une Soirée au Clair de Lune dans le Quartier des Théâtres (A Moonlit evening in the theatre district) ca 1864 Wood engraving on crepe paper |
From the fabric colours of Léon's factory, it is just one step to Monet's bright evocations of the flowers at Giverny, both using synthetic colours. Monet is bold and almost abstract:
 |
| Claude Monet: Bassin aux Nymphéas (Waterlily pool) 1918-19 Musée Marmottan |
As art critic Paul Lorquet wrote of the painter, in a book to be found in Claude Monet's library at Giverny - "Les Maîtres d'aujourd'hui. La peinture française contemporaine" (Present day masters. French contemporary painters):
"Il fait de l'art avec de la chimie" - "He produces art with chemistry."
Exhibition at Musée du Luxembourg from 15th March to 16th July 2023.
****************
Comments
Post a Comment