The Customs House at Varengeville

1897

Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926)

Claude Monet painted the customs house at Varengeville, on the Normandy coast of France, four times in 1882 and four more times in 1897. On each occasion he chose a similar vantage looking down on the small structure, which appears to grow out of the cliffside. The dimensions of this version are nearly identical to those of the other three canvases from the second visit. Here, Monet increased the amount of white in his paints to capture more nuanced atmospheric effects. He also experimented with techniques to animate the surface, at times scraping down or wiping away the still-soft paint to expose underlying colors. In the water, for example, breaks in the pale-gray paint reveal a bright green beneath, which the artist accentuated with additional touches of a similar green on top.

Status: On View, Gallery 243
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Claude Monet
Title: The Customs House at Varengeville
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1897
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Inscribed lower left: Claude Monet 97
Dimensions: 65.6 × 92.8 cm (25 13/16 × 36 1/2 in.); Framed: 83.5 × 110.2 × 5.7 cm (32 7/8 × 43 3/8 × 2 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
Reference Number: 1933.1149
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/16542/manifest.json

Possibly Galerie Georges Petit, Exposition Claude Monet, exh. cat. (Georges Petit, 1898), p. 5, cat. 27 or cat. 28.
Achille Segard, Collection Maurice Masson, exh. cat. (Bernheim-Jeune, 1911), introduction.
Bernheim-Jeune, Collection Maurice Masson, exh. cat. (Bernheim-Jeune, 1911), p. 17, cat. 23.
Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Catalogue des tableaux par Berton (Armand), Boudin, Delvolvé-Carrière (Lisbeth), Carrière, Clary, Corot, Degas, Dulac, Harpignies, Jongkind, Laurent (Ernest), Lebourg, Le Sidaner, Lépine, Martin (H.), Monet, Montenard, Monticelli, Pissarro, Renoir, Ribot, Rops, Simons (P.), Sisley, Toulouse-Lautrec, Vignon, Ziem et des Sculptures par Boucher (Alfred), Desbois, Rodin: Oeuvres importantes de Monet et Sisley appartenant à M. Maurice Masson (Hôtel Drouot, June 22, 1911), p. 27, lot 23.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Art Institute of Chicago, 1925), p. 162, cat. 2134.
M. C., “Monets in the Art Institute,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 19, 2 (Feb. 1925), p. 20.
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. 296.
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), p. 37, cat. 215.
Oscar Reuterswärd, Monet: En konstnärshistorik (Bonniers, 1948), p. 284.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Catalogue,” Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly 51, 2 (Apr. 1, 1957), p. 33.
Columbia Museum of Art, Impressionism: An Exhibition Commemorative of the Tenth Anniversary of the Columbia Museum of Art … Symbolic of Its Introduction of New Ideas into the World of Today, exh. cat. (Columbia Museum of Art, 1960), p. [13], cat. 20 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), p. 321.
Steven Z. Levine, “Monet’s Cabane du Douanier,” Fogg Art Museum Annual Report, 1971–1972 (President and Fellows of Harvard College on behalf of Harvard Art Museum, 1972), pp. 32; 40, fig. 6; 41.
Grace Seiberling, “The Evolution of an Impressionist,” in Paintings by Monet, ed. Susan Wise, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1975), p. 35.
Susan Wise, ed., Paintings by Monet, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1975), p. 154, cat. 97 (ill.).
Joel Isaacson, Claude Monet, Observation and Reflection (Phaidon/Dutton, 1978), pp. 9; 40; 42; 43; 164, pl. 119; 226, no. 119.
Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné, vol. 3, Peintures, 1887–1898 (Bibliothèque des Arts, 1979), pp. 75; 204; 205, cat. 1455 (ill.).
Charles F. Stuckey, ed., Monet: A Retrospective (Hugh Lauter Levin, 1985), p. 299 (ill.).Paul Hayes Tucker, Monet in the ’90s, exh. cat. (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/Yale University Press, 1989), pp. 190; 193; 198; 203; 205; 207, pl. 76; 211; 299, cat. 69.
Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Catalogue raisonné, vol. 5, Supplément aux peintures; Dessins: Pastels; Index (Wildenstein Institute, 1991), p. 51, cat. 1455.
Andrew Forge, Monet, Artists in Focus (Art Institute of Chicago, 1995), pp. 52–53; 65; 93, pl. 22; 108.
Daniel Wildenstein, Monet, or The Triumph of Impressionism, cat. rais., vol. 1 (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996), p. 316, cat. 1455.
Simonella Condemi and Andrew Forge, Claude Monet: La poesia della luce; Sette capolavori dell’Art Institute di Chicago a Palazzo Pitti, exh. cat. (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, Soprintendenza per i Beni Artistici e Storici di Firenze Pistoia e Prato/Giunti, 1999), pp. 38–39 (ill.), 40–41 (detail).
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. 112.
“Cat. 35: The Customs House at Varengeville, 1897” in Monet Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, ed. Gloria Groom and Jill Shaw (Art Institute of Chicago, 2014), https://publications.artic.edu/monet/reader/paintingsanddrawings/section/135470.
Gloria Groom, et. al. Monet and Chicago, exh. Cat. (Chicago: Art Institute, 2020), 108 cat 65, 133 under cat 38, 139.

Possibly Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, Exposition Claude Monet, June 1898, cat. 27 or 28, as Poste de Douaniers, à Varengeville, 1897.
Possibly Paris, Bernheim-Jeune, Exposition Monet, 1906.
Paris, Bernheim-Jeune, Collection Maurice Masson, Feb. 27–Mar. 15, 1911, cat. 23, as La cabane du douanier.
Chicago, Stratford Hotel, Tableaux Durand-Ruel, late Jan.–early Feb. 1914.
Art Institute of Chicago, “A Century of Progress”: Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture; Lent from American Collections, May 23–Nov. 1, 1933, cat. 296.
Art Institute of Chicago, “A Century of Progress”: Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture for 1934, June 1–Oct. 31, 1934, cat. 215.
University of Chicago, Lexington Hall, Nov. 17–Dec. 17, 1952, no cat.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Paintings of Claude Monet, Apr. 1–June 15, 1957, no cat. no.
Columbia. S.C., Museum of Art, Impressionism: An Exhibition Commemorative of the Tenth Anniversary of the Columbia Museum of Art … Symbolic of Its Introduction of New Ideas into the World of Today, Apr. 3–May 8, 1960, cat. 20 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings by Monet, Mar. 15–May 11, 1975, cat. 97 (ill.).
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Monet in the ’90s: The Series Paintings, February 7–April 29, 1990, cat. 69 (ill.); Art Institute of Chicago, May 19–August 12, 1990; London, Royal Academy of Arts, September 7–December 9, 1990.
Florence, Sala Bianca di Palazzo Pitti, Claude Monet: La poesia della luce; Sette capolavori dell’Art Institute di Chicago a Palazzo Pitti, June 2–Aug. 29, 1999, no cat. no. (ill.).
St. Petersburg, FL, Museum of Fine Arts, Monet to Marisse: On the French Coast, February 7–May 31, 2015.
San Antonio, TX, Monet, May 26, 2019-January 1, 2020.
Art Institute of Chicago, Monet and Chicago, September 5, 2020-June 14, 2021, cat. 65.

The artist (d. 1926); sold to Galerie Allard et Noel, Feb. 1899, for 6,000 francs [per Monet’s livre de comptes, ventes janvier–juillet 1899, photocopy of this page in curatorial object file]. Maurice Masson, Paris, by Feb. 27, 1911 [per Bernheim-Jeune, exh. cat., 1911]; sold at the Maurice Masson, Paris, sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 22, 1911, lot 23, to Durand-Ruel, Paris, for 9,020 francs [per Hôtel Drouot, sale cat., June 22, 1911; see also Durand-Ruel, Paris, stock book for 1901–13 (no. 9648, as La cabane du douanier), as confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 5, 2013, curatorial object file]; sold to Durand-Ruel, New York, July 21, 1913 or Aug. 6, 1913 [The Paris and New York Durand-Ruel stock books record different dates for the sale: The Paris stock book for 1901–13 (no. 9648, as La cabane du douanier) states: “Sold to DR New York on 21 July 1913.” The New York stock book for 1904–24 (no. 3668, as La cabane de douaniers) states: “Purchased by DR New York on 6 August 1913 as La cabane de douaniers.” As confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 5, 2013, curatorial object file]; sold to Martin A. Ryerson (d. 1932), Chicago, Feb. 10, 1914 for $7,500 [per Durand-Ruel, New York, stock book for 1904–24 (no. 3668, as La cabane de douaniers), as confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 5, 2013; see also purchase receipt on Durand-Ruel letterhead, dated February 10, 1914, detailing that this painting (no. 3668, Monet, La cabane de douaniers, 1897) was acquired by M. A. Ryerson, in addition to two other paintings (no. 3646, Monet, Waterloo Bridge, London, 1903) (cat. 39 [W1586]); and no. 3768, Monet, Les nymphéas, paysage d’eau, 1906 (cat. 44 [W1683]) for $20,000, photocopy in curatorial object file]; bequeathed to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.

Wildenstein, Claude Monet, biographie et catalogue raisonné, 1979 1455

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