Monet and his cathedrals

During the springs of 1892 and 1893, Claude Monet decided to follow up on the Millstones and Poplars series, devoting a new series of canvases to the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Rouen. This is his most ambitious project with a set of twenty-eight canvases taking the western facade of the Notre-Dame Cathedral as his model. Monet attempted to capture the instantaneous by observing the same model under the effect of various lighting and at different times of the day. Claude Monet in Rouen painted up to 14 versions at a time, switching from one painting to another according to the variations in light according to the times. The first paintings of the Cathedral were painted in February 1892 and depict the Albanian court. These are the only paintings done outdoors.

He then moved to the Cathedral square where he worked on the western facade from three different vantage points. In particular, he settled on the second floor of the Bureau des Finances, a lingerie store in Monet’s time, it is now the tourist information office of Rouen Tourism. It is from this building, where the view of the stone lace of the Cathedral is incomparable, that the artist painted his most luminous and colorful Cathedrals. He himself speaks of red and golden patterns.