Étretat: The Beach and the Falaise d'Amont

CC0 Public Domain Designation

1885

Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926)

Claude Monet painted this sun-soaked scene of the cliffs of Amont in Étretat on the northern coast of France in saturated tones of blue, orange, and pink. Étretat was a popular tourist destination, but Monet decided to travel there with his family during the town’s offseason, in the fall and winter of 1885. Instead of bustling with travelers, as it would have been during the summer months, the beach appears desolate aside from a small grouping of local fishing boats gathered at the shore.

This is one of thirty-five works that comprise the Winterbotham Collection. Click here to learn more about the collection.

Status: On View, Gallery 240
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Claude Monet
Title: Étretat: The Beach and the Falaise d'Amont
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.: 1885
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Inscribed lower right: Claude Monet
Dimensions: 69.3 × 66.1 cm (27 1/4 × 26 in.); Framed: 90.8 × 88.3 × 10.8 cm (35 3/4 × 34 3/4 × 4 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. John H. (Anne R.) Winterbotham in memory of John H. Winterbotham; Joseph Winterbotham Collection
Reference Number: 1964.204
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/20535/manifest.json

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Collectors: An Exhibition Sponsored by the Men’s Council of the Art Institute, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, [1963]), p. 5.
Art Institute of Chicago, Annual Report, 1963–64 (Art Institute of Chicago, [1964]), pp. 3, 19.
Philbrook Art Center, French and American Impressionism, Sponsored by Tulsa Collectors Group, exh. cat. (Philbrook Art Center, 1967), p. 7, cat. 7.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Exhibitions,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 69, 4 (July–Aug. 1975), p. 7.
Grace Seiberling, “The Evolution of an Impressionist,” in Paintings by Monet, ed. Susan Wise, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1975), p. 31.
Susan Wise, ed., Paintings by Monet, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1975), p. 112, cat. 58 (ill.).
Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné, vol. 2, Peintures, 1882–1886 (Bibliothèque des Arts, 1979), pp. 168; 169, cat. 1012 (ill.).
Charles F. Stuckey, ed., Monet: A Retrospective (Hugh Lauter Levin, 1985), p. 121 (ill.).
Lyn DelliQuadri, “A Living Tradition: The Winterbothams and Their Legacy,” in Art Institute of Chicago, The Joseph Winterbotham Collection: A Living Tradition (Art Institute of Chicago, 1986), p. 13.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Joseph Winterbotham Collection: A Living Tradition (Art Institute of Chicago, 1986), pp. 56 (ill.), 60.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Selected References and Index,” in “The Joseph Winterbotham Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago,” special issue, Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 20, 2 (1994), p. 192.
Lyn DelliQuadri, “A Living Tradition: The Winterbothams and Their Legacy,” in “The Joseph Winterbotham Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago,” special issue, Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 20, 2 (1994), p. 109.
Margherita Andreotti, “The Joseph Winterbotham Collection,” in “The Joseph Winterbotham Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago,” special issue, Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 20, 2 (1994), pp. 118–19 (ill.).
Robert L. Herbert, Monet on the Normandy Coast: Tourism and Painting, 1867–1886 (Yale University Press, 1994), pp. 101; 102–03, fig. 109; 104–05, fig. 114 (detail).
Sophia Shaw Pettus, “Checklist of the Joseph Winterbotham Collection, 1921–1994,” in “The Joseph Winterbotham Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago,” special issue, Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies20, 2 (1994), p. 188 (ill.).
Charles F. Stuckey, Claude Monet, 1840–1926, with the assistance of Sophia Shaw, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago/Thames & Hudson, 1995), p. 102, cat. 81 (ill.).
Peter Neill, On a Painted Ocean: Art of the Seven Seas, in collaboration with James A. Randall and Suzanne Demisch, ed. Gareth L. Steen (New York University Press, 1995), pp. 2, 3 (ill.).
Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, vol. 3, Nos. 969–1595 (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996), p. 381, cat. 1012 (ill.).
“Cat. 21: Étretat: The Beach and the Falaise d’Amont, 1885” 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), 20, 32, 69 cat. 33, 133.

Boston, Brooks Reed Gallery, Tableaux Durand-Ruel, Oct. 1916.
Cincinnati Art Museum, French Painters of the So-Called Impressionist School, Nov. 1926.
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Collectors: An Exhibition Sponsored by the Men’s Council of the Art Institute, Sept. 20–Oct. 27, 1963, no cat. no.
Tulsa, Okla., Philbrook Art Center, French and American Impressionism, Oct. 2–Nov. 26, 1967, cat. 7.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings by Monet, Mar. 15–May 11, 1975, cat. 58 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Claude Monet, 1840–1926, July 22–Nov. 26, 1995, cat. 81 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Monet and Chicago, September 5, 2020-June 14, 2021, cat. 33.

Bongniat et Cie [per Wildenstein 1996]. Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, by Aug. 1, 1912 [this and the three following per Durand-Ruel, Paris, stock book for 1913 (no. 10089, as Falaises à Etretat, 1876), as confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 5, 2010, curatorial object file]; half-share to Durand-Ruel, Paris, Aug. 1, 1912, for 3,500 francs; remaining half-share sold to Durand-Ruel, Paris, Jan. 13, 1916; sent to Durand-Ruel, New York, Feb. 1916; sold to Chester Johnson, Chicago, June 29, 1929 [per Durand-Ruel, New York, stock book for 1929 (no. 3926, as Falaises à Etretat), as confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 5, 2010, curatorial object file]. Mrs. Anne R. Winterbotham, Chicago, by 1964; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1964 (died 1970), who retained a life interest in the painting. In 1973, it became a part of the Art Institute’s Joseph Winterbotham Collection; see Lyn DelliQuadri, “A Living Tradition: The Winterbothams and Their Legacy,” in “The Joseph Winterbotham Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago,” special issue, Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 20, 2 (1994), p. 109.

Wildenstein, Claude Monet, biographie et catalogue raisonné, 1979 1012

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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.

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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.

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