Rocks at Port-Goulphar, Belle-Île

CC0 Public Domain Designation

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

1886

Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926)

Belle-Île, a small island off the southern shore of Brittany, was known for its dramatic cliffs, rock formations, and grottoes. As he often did, Claude Monet misjudged the time he would need to explore and capture the beauty of the place, which he variously called “lugubrious,” “terrifying,” and “very beautiful.” He came for two weeks and stayed for more than two months. This canvas is one of a group depicting the frieze of rock formations known as Port-Goulphar.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Claude Monet
Title: Rocks at Port-Goulphar, Belle-Île
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.: 1886
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Inscribed lower right: Claude Monet 86
Dimensions: 66 × 81.8 cm (26 × 32 3/16 in.); Framed: 83.9 × 100.4 × 9.9 cm (33 × 39 1/2 × 3 7/8 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Chauncey B. Borland
Reference Number: 1964.210
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/20545/manifest.json

Copley Society, Loan Collection of Paintings by Claude Monet and Eleven Sculptures by August Rodin, exh. cat. (Copley Society, 1905), p. 24, cat. 75.
Raymond Régamey, “La formation de Claude Monet,” Gazette des beaux-arts 5, 15 (Feb. 1927), p. 77 (ill.).
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]), pp. 3; 17, pl. 6.
Art Institute of Chicago, Annual Report, 1963–64 (Art Institute of Chicago, [1964]), p. 19.
Art Institute of Chicago, Masterpieces from Private Collections in Chicago, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, [1969]), n. pag.
Grace Seiberling, “The Evolution of an Impressionist,” in Paintings by Monet, ed. Susan Wise, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1975), pp. 30, 32.
Susan Wise, ed., Paintings by Monet, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1975), p. 128, cat. 71 (ill.).
Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné, vol. 2, Peintures, 1882–1886 (Bibliothèque des Arts, 1979), pp. 200; 201, cat. 1095.
Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné, vol. 3, Peintures, 1887–1898 (Bibliothèque des Arts, 1979), p. 269, letters 1172 and 1173.
Denise Delouche, “Monet et Belle-Ile en 1886,” Bulletin des amis du Musée de Rennes 4 (1980), pp. 48, fig. 34; 54, n. 28.
Charles F. Stuckey, ed., Monet: A Retrospective (Hugh Lauter Levin, 1985), p. 214, pl. 86.
Art Institute of Chicago, Treasures of 19th- and 20th-Century Painting: The Art Institute of Chicago, with an introduction by James N. Wood (Art Institute of Chicago/Abbeville, 1993), p. 103 (ill.).
Denise Delouche, Monet à Belle-Ile (Chasse-Marée/ArMen, 1992), pp. 51, 53, 54–55 (ill.).
Andrew Forge, Monet, Artists in Focus (Art Institute of Chicago, 1995), pp. 37–39; 83, pl. 12, 107.
Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, vol. 3, Nos. 969–1595 (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996), pp. 415, cat. 1095 (ill.); 416.
Sotheby’s, New York, Impressionist and Modern Art, Part I, sale cat. (Sotheby’s, Nov. 16, 1998), p. 52, fig. 2.
Vivian Russell, Monet’s Landscapes (Frances Lincoln, 2000), pp. 66 (ill.), 160.
Gloria Groom and Douglas Druick, with the assistance of Dorota Chudzicka and Jill Shaw, The Impressionists: Master Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago/Kimbell Art Museum, 2008), pp. 81; 109, cat. 49 (ill.). Simultaneously published as Gloria Groom and Douglas Druick, with the assistance of Dorota Chudzicka and Jill Shaw, The Age of Impressionism at the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2008), pp. 81; 109, cat. 49 (ill.).
Félicie de Maupeou, “Monet peint par ses livres,” in Claire Maingon and Félicie de Maupeou, La bibliothèque de Monet, under the direction of Ségolène Le Men, exh. cat. (Citadelles & Mazenod, 2013), pp. 46-47 (ill.).
“Cat. 24: Rocks at Port-Goulphar, Belle-Île, 1886” 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.
Sarah Lees, “Monet: Places and Process” in Monet/Kelly (Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachuesetts, 2014) pg.17, cat. 1 (ill.).
Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature, exh. cat. (Denver Art Museum/Prestel, 2019), pp. 61-62.
Gloria Groom, et. al. Monet and Chicago, exh. Cat. (Chicago: Art Institute, 2020), 28, 32, 78 (detail ill.), 79 cat. 41, 135.
Andrè Dombrowski, Monet’s Minutes: Impressionism and the Industrialization of Time (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2023), 202, 203 fig. 121, 204 fig. 122, 205.

Musée de Ghent, 36e exposition des beaux-arts, Sept. 1–Oct. 28, 1895, no cat. no.
Boston, Copley Society, Loan Collection of Paintings by Claude Monet and Eleven Sculptures by Auguste Rodin, Mar. 1905, cat. 75, as Belle-Isle. 1886. Lent by Mrs. John Jay Borland.
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. (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Masterpieces from Private Collections in Chicago, July 12–Aug. 31, 1969, no cat. no.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings by Monet, Mar. 15–May 11, 1975, cat. 71 (ill.).
Fort Worth, Tex., Kimbell Art Museum, The Impressionists: Master Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago, June 29–Nov. 2, 2008, cat. 49 (ill.).
Williamstown, MA, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Monet/Kelly, November 23, 2014–February 14, 2015, cat. 1 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Monet and Chicago, September 5, 2020-June 14, 2021, cat. 41.

The artist (d. 1926); sold to Durand-Ruel, Paris, Dec. 21, 1892, for 4,500 francs [this and the following per Durand-Ruel, Paris, stock book for 1891–1901 (no. 2542), 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, Dec. 19, 1895 or Jan. 4, 1896 [see previous and New York stock book for 1894–1905 (no. 1515, as Belle Isle), both 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; The Paris and New York Durand-Ruel stock books record different dates for the sale]; sold to Mrs. Harriet Borland (née Blair, d. 1933), Chicago, Mar. 6, 1897, for $2,000 [per Durand-Ruel, New York, stock book for 1894–1905 (no. 1515), 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]; by to her son Chauncey Blair Borland, Chicago, 1933; given by Mr. and Mrs. Chauncey B. Borland, Chicago, to the Art Institute of Chicago, beginning in 1964 [The painting was given to the Art Institute of Chicago in undivided fractional interests beginning in 1964. The Art Institute received the final fractional interest for one hundred percent ownership in 1973.]

Wildenstein, Claude Monet, cat rais. 1996 1095

Wildenstein, Claude Monet, biographie et catalogue raisonné, 1979 1059

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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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