Rouen Cathedral, the Portal, Morning Effect

What you are looking at

Monet looks at the cathedral from an angle. On the left a broad, square tower climbs out of the top of the canvas; on the right the west façade, with its pierced gables and pinnacles, rises against the sky in a lacy silhouette. The sun is behind and to the side of the building, low in the morning sky, so we see the stone mostly in shade: a shimmering mesh of blue, lavender and white strokes. The sky that frames it is a warm, chalky pale yellow, and the tower's upper stories catch that yellow too, as if lit through gauze.

At lower left, below the tower, the roofs of the houses on the square appear as a low, dark blue band, and in front of them a few small pale shapes suggest figures or market stalls in the shadow. In the façade, the great rose window is a darker blue hollow, and the little clock dial below it holds a single orange point.

The signature and date, Claude Monet 94, are at lower left.

Rouen, 1893–94

In February 1893 Claude Monet returned to Rouen and, besides his earlier rooms facing the portal, rented space above a novelty shop at 81 rue du Grand-Pont, at the southwest corner of the cathedral square. From there he saw the façade obliquely, with the tall north tower on the left, a view the catalogue raisonné titles as the portal and Tour d'Albane (the tower is often identified as the Tour Saint-Romain). According to the Getty Museum, he began eleven canvases from those rooms. Back at Giverny he reworked the series through 1894. See the Rouen Cathedral series.

How it was painted

At 107 by 74 centimeters, the canvas belongs to the slightly larger format Monet used for several of the angled views. The paint is laid on in dense, crusted layers, the sky especially, where thick, dry yellow strokes are dragged over a darker ground so that flecks of gray and violet show through. The façade is built from vertical touches of blue and white, which give the stone a flickering, almost liquid surface. The palette pairs complementary colors, yellow and violet-blue, so the shadowed building and the bright sky intensify each other.

How this version differs

The same view exists at several moments of the morning. The MFA Boston's Façade and Tour d'Albane (Morning Effect) is earlier and bluer, with a cream and pink sky. The Musée d'Orsay's Morning Effect (Harmonie blanche) is paler, the shadow lifted to white. The private Rouen Cathedral, Fog buries the same composition in mist. The Beyeler canvas has the warmest sky of the group, a strong lemon yellow that sets off the blue façade more sharply than any of the others.

Looking closely

The yellow of the sky is laid on very thickly, in dry strokes that leave the surface rough, so the sky has as much texture as the stone. At lower left, below the tower, small pale shapes in the shadow suggest figures or market stalls in the square, one of the few hints of daily life in the series.

Ownership and where to see it

Catalogued as Wildenstein 1347, the painting belongs to the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen, outside Basel (inventory 82.2), the museum built by Renzo Piano to house the collection of the dealer Ernst Beyeler and his wife, Hildy. The Beyeler also owns late water lily canvases, so it is one of the best places in Switzerland to see Monet. Check the museum's program, as the collection rotates. See our guide to where to see Monet's paintings.