Claude Monet - The Rock Needle and the Porte d'Aval 1885

The Rock Needle and the Porte d'Aval 1885
The Rock Needle and the Porte d'Aval
1885 65x81cm oil/canvas
The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA

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From The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA:
Between October and December 1885, Monet made nearly fifty paintings of the Normandy coast. This work shows the Porte d’Aval, a naturally formed arch, and a freestanding needle-like rock that attracted tourists and artists alike to the town of Étretat. Monet painted this view of the cliffs from an unusual location, accessible only by boat or via a precipitous path. The writer Guy de Maupassant described how the artist “watched the sun and the shadows, capturing in a few brushstrokes a falling ray of light or a passing cloud.”
- See more at: http://www.clarkart.edu/Collection/1522#sthash.kG5QZeLU.dpuf