Skip to Content

Cats. 1–10 Early Caricatures Cat. 11  Boy in the Country, 1857 Cat. 12  Cliffs and Sea, Sainte-Adresse, c. 1865 Cat. 13  The Beach at Sainte-Adresse, 1867 Cat. 14  On the Bank of the Seine, Bennecourt, 1868 Cat. 15  The Artist’s House at Argenteuil, 1873 Cat. 16  Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare, 1877 Cat. 17  Apples and Grapes, 1880 Cat. 18  Boats Lying at Low Tide at Fécamp, 1881 Cat. 19  Cliff Walk at Pourville, 1882 Cat. 20  Bordighera, 1884 Cat. 21  Étretat: The Beach and the Falaise d’Amont, 1885 Cats. 22–23  Étretat, 1885 Cat. 24  Rocks at Port-Goulphar, Belle-Île, 1886 Cat. 25  The Petite Creuse River, 1889 Cat. 26  Poppy Field (Giverny), 1890–91 Cats. 27–33  Stacks of Wheat, 1890/91 Cat. 34  Sandvika, Norway, 1895 Cat. 35  The Customs House at Varengeville, 1897 Cat. 36  Branch of the Seine near Giverny (Mist), 1897 Cat. 37  Water Lily Pond, 1900 Cats. 38–41  London Cats. 42–43  Vétheuil, 1901 Cat. 44  Water Lilies, 1906 Cat. 45  Venice, Palazzo Dario, 1908 Cat. 46  Irises, 1914/17 Cat. 47  Water Lily Pond, 1917/19

Top area is a pale blue and light gray expanse with no distinct horizon. Left-center foreground holds a small one-story house with a pitched roof and a single chimney; the walls look mottled gray with reddish accents around a door and two windows. Right side and foreground show patchy ground in green, brown, and purple tones bordered by a low, dark fence that curves behind the house. The house is the largest element, occupying roughly a third of the scene.

Cat. 35

The Customs House at Varengeville[1]
1897
Oil on canvas; 65.6 × 92.8 cm (25 13/16 × 36 1/2 in.)
Signed and dated: Claude Monet 97 (lower left, in orange-red paint)
Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection, 1933.1149

Normandy, Encore

This painting, depicting a Napoleonic-era structure once used by French customs officers monitoring traffic on the English Channel and, following the fall of Napoleon, by local fisherman for shelter and storage, was one of nearly fifty canvases that Claude Monet executed while on trips to Normandy in 1896 and 1897 (fig. 35.1).[2] The region had featured in many of the artist’s works from earlier decades, including The Beach at Sainte-Adresse from 1867 (cat. 13 [W92]) and Cliff Walk at Pourville from 1882 (cat. 19 [W758]), during the period in which Monet was most engaged with the portrayal of breathtaking views of Normandy’s coast, sea, and sky.[3]1

Top area shows a pale gray sky and a wide, calm sea stretching from left to center, with low, dark headlands on the distant horizon; along the top margin is printed French text reading “Varangeville – Sur les Falaises,” with small handwritten marks nearby. On the right, a tall, layered cliff with patches of grass rises above the water. In the lower center, a small light-and-dark stone house with a dark roof and a single chimney sits in tall grass near the cliff edge; the house appears much smaller than the cliff. Tones are black, white, and gray.

Fig. 35.1


Postcard view of the customs house at Varengeville, c. 1910. Reproduced from Paul Hayes Tucker, Monet in the ’90s, exh. cat. (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/Yale University Press, 1989), p. 202, fig. 87.

The decade before Monet painted The Customs House at Varengeville was a significant turning point in his personal and artistic life, leading numerous scholars to argue that the 1880s could be considered the most important of the artist’s career.[4] The death of his first wife, Camille, in 1879, left Monet a widower with two young children. Alice Hoschéde, matriarch of the family with whom the Monets had been cohabiting since 1878 and who would marry the artist in 1892 after her husband’s death, was “essential in enabling Monet to avoid … pathological mourning and creative paralysis.”[5] Furthermore, the nature of their relationship, as well as the relative financial security he began to enjoy in this period, allowed him the freedom to travel extensively in the 1880s.[6] The remote Belle-Île off the coast of Brittany in 1886 and the Creuse Valley in central France in 1889, among other locations, exposed Monet to topographical extremes, and the work he created there reveals his increased preoccupation with producing paintings in series.[7]

Monet’s travels in the 1880s occurred amid the splintering of the group of artists who made up the Impressionist core. A trip to Italy in 1881 shifted Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s attention to the techniques of the Old Masters, especially the frescoes of Raphael, and away from the movement’s preoccupation with depicting scenes of modern life.[8] By 1886, Camille Pissarro had adopted and propagated the pointillism of Georges Seurat; the demand by Pissarro that Seurat be included in the eighth (and final) Impressionist exhibition that year—where he presented his masterpiece A Sunday on La Grande Jatte—1884 (fig. 35.2)—led Monet, Renoir, and Alfred Sisley, founding members of the movement, to boycott the event. Artistically Monet responded to the challenge posed by Seurat and Neo-Impressionism by honing the Impressionist agenda. Moreover, he was motivated to stake his claim as the leader of contemporary French art, which he did by striving “to prove Impressionism’s superior capacity to exploit color, describe particular climatic conditions, use paint in novel ways, and reveal fundamental truths about art and the world.”[9] Nature was to serve as a particularly effective means for expressing this agenda.
2

Foreground shows a green lawn beside a blue river with several adults and children. On the right, two adults stand holding black umbrellas; a small brown dog and a small monkey on a leash are at their feet. On the left, two adults sit on the grass (one reclining in a red‑orange top), and nearby an adult and a child sit with a purple parasol, while a black dog stands in the center. Across the middle, groups in hats and red, pink, brown, and gray clothing gather under trees, with a child in white near the center; in the background are white sailboats on the river and buildings and trees along the far bank.

Fig. 35.2


Georges Seurat (French, 1859–1891). A Sunday on La Grande Jatte—1884, 1884–86. Oil on canvas; 207.5 × 308.1 cm (81 3/4 × 121 1/4 in.). The Art Institute of Chicago, Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection, 1926.224.

In Monet’s series paintings of the 1890s, the overall effects of light and atmosphere became one of his principal concerns. John House describes the “ever-changing enveloppe of coloured air” that accompanied his pictures, subordinating while invigorating the physical objects depicted.[10] In addition to painting multiple versions of new subjects like the facade of Rouen Cathedral, Monet began to revisit and reconsider motifs that he had painted previously.[11] The Customs House at Varengeville provides an example of both these trends.
3

Customs House in 1882 and 1897

During a painting campaign in Normandy in 1882, Monet executed four versions of the customs house located in Varengeville (fig. 35.3 [W735], fig. 35.4 [W736], fig. 35.5 [W737], and fig. 35.6 [W738]).[12] The works reveal his preoccupation with issues similar to those he addressed in the Art Institute’s Cliff Walk at Pourville (cat. 19 [W758]), painted the same year, also on the Channel coast.[13] These include his experimentation with dramatic viewpoints and the manipulation of the horizon line to emphasize the expanse of the sea—a challenge to the conventional construction of space in nineteenth-century landscape painting. Using juxtaposed planes of relatively flat patches of color to divide the canvas into distinct zones of earth, sea, and sky, Monet collapsed the traditional sense of recession into space. This strategy, in addition to the unconventional diagonal cropping of the cliff at bottom left, suggests the influence of Japanese prints.[14] But despite the rather static quality of these seascapes, Monet enlivened his surfaces—in true Impressionist style—by adding bold, flickering brushwork to animate the pictorial elements.4

Figs. 35.3–35.6

Top: a gray-blue sky with darker gray clouds meets a wide blue‑green sea at a distant horizon; a small sailboat sits near the center far away. Middle: pale green and light yellow patches ripple across the water. Bottom: a small stone cottage with a red‑orange roof and a chimney sits on a grassy, bushy cliff, positioned in the lower left; an orange‑brown path or ground area spreads to its right, with dark green shrubs along the edges. The sailboat appears tiny compared to the cottage, emphasizing the distance across the open water.

Fig. 35.3


Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926). The Customs House at Dieppe, 1882. Oil on canvas; 59 × 69.8 cm (23 1/4 × 27 1/2 in.). Sold, Christie’s, New York, May 7, 2003, lot 8. Photograph © Christie’s Images/The Bridgeman Art Library.

Top area shows a pale blue sky over a turquoise-green sea with white waves; a few small black birds fly at the upper left. Midground, slightly left of center, a small stone cottage with an orange-brown roof and two chimneys sits near the cliff edge. Foreground has dense green and brown shrubs on a slope, and the right side descends to a rocky shoreline where the water meets tan patches of beach.

Fig. 35.4


Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926). The Customs House, Morning Effect, 1882. Oil on canvas; 54 × 65.5 cm (21 1/4 × 25 3/4 in.). Sold, Sotheby’s, New York, May 11, 1999, lot 110.

At the top, a pale blue sky stretches over a wide band of blue‑green water with white streaks. In the lower left foreground, a small light-brown house with a red roof and chimney sits on an orange-brown cliff surrounded by dark green and gray-green shrubs. The sea fills most of the scene, extending to the right and into the distance, making the house appear small by comparison.

Fig. 35.5


Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926). The Customs House, Afternoon Effect, 1882. Oil on canvas; 58 × 81 cm (22 7/8 × 31 7/8 in.). Musée des Douanes, Bordeaux, MD, 986.47.1. © RMN-Grand Palais/Art Resource, NY.

At the top, a light-blue sky has scattered white clouds. Through the middle and stretching to the horizon, a green-blue sea shows bands of darker blue with white and pale-yellow patches of foam. At the bottom left, a small reddish-brown stone house with a short chimney sits among dark green bushes on a rocky slope above the water. The house is small in scale compared to the broad expanse of sea.

Fig. 35.6


Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926). The Customs House, Rough Sea, 1882. Oil on canvas; 58 × 81 cm (22 7/8 × 31 7/8 in.). Nippon Television Network Corporation, Tokyo.

Monet returned to this location fifteen years later and painted another four pictures, compositionally very similar, of the same subject; the Art Institute’s picture is one of this latter group. When Monet arrived at Pourville, just up the coast from the customs house, in late February 1896, the paintings from his 1882 trip to Normandy were at the front of his mind (fig. 35.7). Writing to his art dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, the artist described the comfort he felt upon revisiting the sites he had previously painted: “I set myself up here several days ago, I needed to see the sea again and am enchanted to see once more so many things that I did here fifteen years ago.”[15] Monet, then in his mid-fifties, may well have felt nostalgia for the coast of Normandy, having spent his childhood in the region and having chosen sites around Sainte-Adresse as the subjects for a number of painting campaigns as a younger man (see cat. 13). Indeed, during these two trips to Normandy in February–April 1896 and January–April 1897 he returned to the exact motifs—including the customs house—that he had painted the previous decade.
5

Alt text for the image

Fig. 35.7


Map showing Paris and the region of Normandy.

The Art Institute’s Customs House at Varengeville and the three other, nearly identical, views from 1897 (fig. 35.8 [W1456], fig. 35.9 [W1457], and fig. 35.10 [W1458]) share striking similarities with those he painted in 1882.[16] In all eight paintings, the customs house is viewed from a similar angle.[17] The well-trodden path around the house suggests that the local fishermen were still using the building for shelter and storage. As Monet had during his earlier campaign, he even included the same irregularities of the land on which the structure stands.

6

Fig. 35.8–35.10

Top two-thirds is a broad expanse of pale blue and light gray. In the lower left to center, a small house with a slanted roof and one chimney sits at an angle; its walls and roof are mottled in pink, red, lavender, and tan, with two dark door-sized openings on the right side and two small rectangular windows on the left wall. Foreground and right edge show low, dense vegetation in greens, blues, and purples, with a darker, brush-like line curving along the right side behind the house. The house occupies roughly a third of the scene and is the largest distinct element.

Fig. 35.8


Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926). The Coastguards Cabin, 1897. Oil on canvas; 61.5 × 89.5 cm (24 1/4 × 35 1/4 in.). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 162.1990. Photograph © 2014 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Top area shows a pale blue-gray sky above a wide light green-blue sea, with a small dark blue sailboat near the upper right. In the left-center foreground sits a small house angled slightly to the right, with a reddish-brown roof, a red chimney, and mottled gray walls with red edging; a narrow door and a small window face the right side. Along the right and bottom edges, a low dark hedge or wall encloses patchy green and brown ground around the house, with open sea stretching beyond.

Fig. 35.9


Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926). The Coastguard House (Rose Effect), 1897. Oil on canvas; 65.8 × 92.7 cm (25 7/8 × 36 1/2 in.). Sold, Christie’s, New York, Nov. 5, 2013, lot 17. Photograph © Christie’s Images/Bridgeman Art Library.

Top left sits a small house with a sloped roof and short chimney in pale gray, blue, and lavender. To the right of the house, low bushes border a shoreline leading to a calm gray-blue body of water with faint yellow highlights. In the distance across the water, several small sailboats are faint and much smaller than the house, spaced from left to right.

Fig. 35.10


Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926). Coastguards Station in the Fog (Blue Effect), 1897. Oil on canvas; 65 × 92 cm (25 5/8 × 36 1/4 in.).

Despite the compositional similarities between these paintings, there are significant differences. Noticeably, the abundance of vegetation in the left foreground of the 1882 pictures has been eliminated in the 1897 versions. Although this likely reflects the fact that Monet executed the 1882 works at different times of the year, the removal of this screen of foliage in 1897 allows the viewer to be immersed in the scene. Monet accentuated this by zooming in on the customs house, allowing it to occupy more of the canvas, and by using canvases larger than those employed in the 1882 works.7

The 1882 customs house paintings, in addition to being smaller, also vary in size (only two are exactly the same). All four from the 1897 campaign have nearly the same dimensions; three of the four canvases are, in fact, the same standard size (no. 30 paysage) that Monet was using frequently—although not exclusively—in other series paintings, such as the Stacks of Wheat that he had produced just a few years earlier (see cats. 27–33). It is notable that Customs House at Varengeville has a warp-thread match with the Art Institute’s Stack of Wheat (Snow Effect, Overcast Day) (cat. 30 [W1281]) and another series painting, Charing Cross Bridge, London (cat. 40 [W1527]), suggesting these canvases were cut from the same bolt of fabric (Technical Report/Weave).[18]
8

Developing the Enveloppe

Perhaps the most significant difference between the canvases from 1882 and those from 1897 is the way in which Monet conceived the relationship between sea and sky and focused on evoking, above all, the enveloppe, that “tangibly, unifying atmosphere,” which harmonized his pictures and helped him to achieve what he considered “more serious qualities” in his art.[19] With the exception of The Coastguard House (Rose Effect) (fig. 35.9 [W1457]), the strong horizon line that featured in the 1882 pictures has been obscured in the 1897 pictures.[20] Furthermore, Customs House at Varengeville appears more dreamlike than his 1882 canvases, as if Monet had utilized soft brushes and blended strokes to produce a uniform, hazy cast across the entire surface of the picture. Close inspection of Customs House at Varengeville, however, reveals that this was not the case. As in his earlier pictures, Monet incorporated lively brushwork to create a textured surface throughout the canvas. The customs house itself, for example, is composed of a network of dappled brushstrokes so dense that it creates a tapestry-like effect (fig. 35.11); he also used a very active brush to build up the water and sky (fig. 35.12). Technical analysis suggests that, by and large, Monet’s palette had changed very little from his earlier pictures; what is different in this painting is that the artist has narrowed his tonal range by increasing the amount of white in his paints, thereby reducing the intensity of each color. By pulling the hues closer to each other in value, Monet was able to achieve more nuanced and subdued atmospheric effects, while still utilizing vigorous brushwork.
9

Top area has a light gray band with wavy streaks of pale pink, lavender, and white. Left side is a broad gray field dotted with small patches of pink, blue, green, and yellow. From the center, a darker diagonal streak angles toward the right, where mottled gray is mixed with clustered specks of blue, yellow, orange, and white. Along the bottom edge, the gray continues with scattered touches of pink and peach.

Fig. 35.11


Detail from Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing the network of dappled brushstrokes used to create the customs house. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

Top area is pale blue with hints of teal, showing a soft, wavy texture. Toward the center, the color blends into light blue and light gray with faint touches of pink and mint in small patches. The lower section shifts to light gray and white, keeping the same gentle texture and showing no distinct shapes or figures.

Fig. 35.12


Detail from Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing the active brushwork used to build up the water and sky. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

The art historian has commented on the sense of introspection created by this softer palette. Rather than replicating a landscape, these pictures give the impression of being “informed as much by memory as by experience,” in which the more mature Monet is “reflecting on his past as much as observing and transcribing specific lighting conditions.”[21] This nostalgia is on display in Customs House at Varengeville. Monet certainly began this painting out of doors sur la motif. At upper left there is at least one fiber—probably plant material—embedded in the paint (fig. 35.13). Monet complained of the “bloody winds” he experienced during his 1897 campaign, which likely led to this chance inclusion.[22] While direct experience of the subject matter remained a critical component of Monet’s practice, it is significant that areas of the final composition were executed wet-over-dry, which suggests that the artist did some reworking of the canvas in the studio, where Monet’s memories would trump what he actually experienced on site.10

Top center, a thin, flat strip bends to the right and then slopes down toward the left, forming a shallow channel. The central and lower areas show a rough, bumpy surface in light gray and pale purple, with a faint light‑green smear tracing the channel. Bottom right includes a black scale bar labeled 5.0 mm.
Monet 33.1149 mic 9
From left to right, pale gray-blue sky blends into light turquoise water across most of the scene. In the lower right, a large triangular form with a sloping top in gray and purple tones fills about a quarter of the view. Near the left center over the water is a tiny pale triangle, and the larger form includes small touches of pink, red, blue, and yellow.
Detail Location

Fig. 35.13

Detail from Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing a fiber (probably plant material) embedded in the paint. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

Although very few major compositional changes were made to the painting, Monet did make small adjustments to the customs house itself: he enlarged the structure by slightly extending the roof and widening the chimney. But even more significantly, he experimented with techniques that animated the painting’s surface. In small areas, Monet scraped or wiped away paint to enhance its texture and expose underlying colors (see Technical Report). Microscopic imaging also indicates that this painting was initially much more vibrant in places. Portions of the water, for example, were originally laid in with bright green, and after this paint layer dried, Monet covered it with pale-gray paint to dramatically reduce the vibrancy of the initial color (fig. 35.14; see Technical Report). Monet embraced the glimpses of this underlayer that were exposed through breaks in the gray layer, however, and he further accentuated them by adding touches of a similar green color on top. In doing so, he subtly played with the three-dimensionality of the paint and showed the care with which he created perfectly harmonized surfaces that vibrate and flicker.
11

Close-up of a rough, ridged surface with pale purple as the main color, crossed by irregular mint-green bands and small beige patches. From top to bottom, purple areas with shallow grooves transition to broader green streaks in the center and lower left, with denser lines and a thin dark strand near the right edge. A black scale marker in the bottom right reads “2.0 mm.”
Monet 33.1149 MIC 27
Top and right sides are solid black, taking up most of the frame. In the lower-left corner, a small rectangular scene shows a pale gray sky above a band of dark shrubs, with teal-blue and green ground in front. On the far left edge, a thin slice of a red structure with a light sloped top is visible. Near the right side of the small scene, a small black square outlines a spot on the sky.
Detail Location

Fig. 35.14

Photomicrograph of Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing the bright-green paint covered over with pale-gray paint. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

Jill Shaw
12

Technical Summary

Claude Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville was painted on a pre-primed, no. 30 landscape (paysage) standard-size linen canvas. A photograph of the original stretcher back shows that the stretcher size was indicated by a stenciled “30P.” The ground is off-white and consists of a single layer. A warp-thread match was detected with two other paintings from the Art Institute’s collection: Stack of Wheat (Snow Effect, Overcast Day) (cat. 30 [W1281], inv. 1933.1155) and Charing Cross Bridge (cat. 40 [W1527], inv. 1933.1150), suggesting that the fabric for these paintings came from the same bolt of material.[23] The painting was densely built up with a richly brush-marked surface. The artist appears to have locally worked back into the painting, either scraping or wiping the surface while the paint was still soft, to expose colors from the underlying layers in small areas. Flattening of the surface texture and small areas of interlayer cleavage appear to be associated with this surface treatment. To the right of the house, a fine, pointed tool was used to incise a series of vertical lines into the area of the fence. There are no major alterations to the composition, only slight adjustments along the edges of the building and the fence line. At least one fiber, possibly plant material, is embedded in the paint layer near the top left edge. This may be evidence of the execution of the work en plein air.[24]13

Multilayer Interactive Image Viewer

The multilayer interactive image viewer is designed to facilitate the viewer’s exploration and comparison of the technical images (fig. 35.15).[25]
14

Upper half shows a wide, pale blue and light gray expanse that fades toward the horizon. In the middle-left, a small stone house with a sloped gray roof and a red-brown chimney sits on patchy ground; its walls appear gray with soft red accents and two narrow windows face right. Dark, uneven fencing or shrubs run along the right edge of the ground, which is mottled green, teal, and lavender, with the house the largest element and the open blue area around it on three sides.
Natural Light
In shades of gray, the top half is a light, textured field, and the bottom contains darker forms. On the left, a small rectangular building with a pitched roof and short chimney appears in the lower half, taking up about a third of the width. On the right, a dark, sloping mass fills the lower-right corner. White corner brackets frame the edges and a vertical white strip runs near the center, with small marks along the outer borders.
X-Ray
Upper half is a light gray, hazy expanse with faint texture. Left-center foreground holds a small building with a pitched roof and a short chimney, occupying about a quarter of the frame; the roof planes angle down to the left and right. Surrounding it are mottled gray ground surfaces, with a darker rectangular recess extending to the right and a slightly darker patch along the bottom edge. No people, animals, or additional structures are visible.
Infrared Reflectogram (1.0–1.1 µm)
Top and right halves are a pale blue‑gray expanse. Left‑center foreground holds a small house with a pitched roof and one chimney, colored in muted reds, purples, and browns, with a few small dark rectangular openings; the front gable faces left and the longer side faces right. Bottom and lower right show uneven ground in dark greens, purples, and browns that becomes thinner toward the right. The house is the largest element, with the open blue‑gray area occupying most of the background.
Raking Light
A thick black band runs along the edges, with mottled medium-gray tones near the top. Center-left features a large light-gray wedge-shaped form crossed by a dark diagonal band that extends toward the right. The right side and lower half contain dense, speckled areas in medium to dark gray, with the bottom edge being the darkest.
Transmitted Infrared (1.0–1.1 µm)
Top half shows a broad expanse of blue‑green water dotted with small pink reflections. In the center-left foreground sits a small house with a pitched roof and a single chimney; its roof and walls are mottled with bright pinks against dark purples and deep greens. Along the right edge, a thin fence curves around uneven ground in dark green and purple with scattered pink patches. The house is the largest element, with the water stretching across the background.
Transmitted Light
Top and right areas show a wide expanse of blue water. Slightly left of center in the foreground, a small house with a sloped roof and a short chimney appears in dark blue and teal tones. A low, dark fence lines the area around the house, and the ground in the lower portion is patchy dark green and brown; the house is the largest element.
Ultraviolet
Alt text for the image
Natural Light
Alt text for the image
X-Ray

Fig. 35.15

Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897). The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149. Interactive image.

Signature

Signed and dated: Claude Monet 97 (lower left, in orangish-red paint[26]) (fig. 35.16). The underlying paint layers were dry when the painting was signed (fig. 35.17).
15

Top area shows a textured surface of blended pale pink, lavender, and gray with small patches of green and light blue. Across the lower half, red cursive text reads “Claude Monet 92,” running left to right near the bottom edge. The inscription is medium-sized relative to the overall view, stretching across most of the width against the mottled background.

Fig. 35.16


Detail of Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing the signature. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

Top left shows a scale bar labeled 5.0 mm. From left to right, a purple, rough surface contains two red-brown areas: on the left, a thick C-shaped patch; on the right, a taller, irregular vertical patch with small gaps. A narrow purple band runs between them, with scattered small cream spots near the center and lower middle.
Monet 33.1149 MIC 3
Top and middle areas are solid black, occupying most of the frame. Along the bottom edge, a narrow horizontal strip shows a mottled mix of pink, gray, and green with red cursive text that reads “Claude Monet 98” from left to right. A small black-outlined square frames the first letter at the far left of the strip. No people are present.
Detail Location

Fig. 35.17

Photomicrograph of the signature of Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing wet-over-dry paint application. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

Structure and Technique

Support

Canvas
Flax (commonly known as linen).[27]16

Standard format
The original dimensions were approximately 65 × 92 cm. This corresponds to a no. 30 landscape (paysage) standard-size stretcher.[28]17

Weave
Plain weave. Average thread count (standard deviation): 23.4V (0.6) × 20.5H (0.7) threads/cm; the vertical threads were determined to correspond to the warp and the horizontal threads to the weft.[29] A warp-thread match was found with Stack of Wheat (Snow Effect, Overcast Day) (cat. 30 [W1281], inv. 1933.1155) and Charing Cross Bridge (cat. 40, inv. 1933.1150).[30]18

Canvas characteristics
There is mild, relatively even cusping along the top and bottom edges and more pronounced cusping on the left and especially the right edge.19

Stretching
Current stretching: Dates to 1974 lining (see Conservation History). Copper tacks spaced 6–8 cm apart.20

Original stretching: Tack holes spaced 6–8 cm apart. The cusping appears to correspond to the placement of the original tack holes. A few additional holes that do not correspond to the cusping pattern were probably added later to reinforce the edges.21

Stretcher/strainer
Current stretcher: ICA spring stretcher. Depth: 2.8 cm.22

Original stretcher: Discarded. The pre-1974-treatment stretcher was probably the original stretcher (fig. 35.18). An examination report in the conservation file describes the stretcher as five membered with keyable mortise and tenon joints. The report gives the following dimensions: overall, 65.5 × 92.2 cm; outside depth, 2 cm; inside depth, 2.5 cm; stretcher-bar width, 7 cm; distance from canvas position, 0.5 cm; length of mortise, 7 cm.[31]
23

Rectangular canvas shown from the back, filling most of the view in gray tones, with a wooden stretcher around the edges and a vertical bar down the center. Along the top edge, torn backing paper and small tape tabs secure the corners; the center bar and right inner edge carry small paper labels and pencil markings. At the bottom edge, more torn backing paper is visible, and a long ruler sits just below the frame for scale.

Fig. 35.18


Black-and-white image (1974) of the back of Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing the previous stretcher. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

Manufacturer’s/supplier’s marks
A photograph of the pre-1974-treatment stretcher shows a stamp on the back: 30P (fig. 35.19). This probably refers to no. 30 paysage, the standard size of the stretcher.
24

Close-up of a horizontal surface in shades of gray, with a chipped, peeling band along the top edge and a darker band along the bottom. Across the center, large stenciled characters read “5 0 P.” from left to right, with the “0” formed as two dark vertical halves separated by a light gap. A small round hole sits just below the “0,” and faint cursive writing appears to the left of the “5.”

Fig. 35.19


Detail of a stamp on the back of the previous stretcher of Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) that refers to the stretcher size. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

Preparatory Layers

Sizing
Not determined (probably glue).[32]25

Ground application/texture
The ground extends to the edges of the top, bottom, and left tacking margins but stops short of the right edge, leaving approximately 1 cm of unprimed canvas (fig. 35.20). This suggests that the canvas was cut from a larger piece of fabric on three of its sides. The right edge probably corresponds to the outer edge of the larger canvas that was attached to the priming frame. The canvas was probably commercially primed. Cross-sectional analysis indicates that the ground consists of a single layer (fig. 35.21). Several tiny bubble holes were observed in the ground layer.
26

Top area shows a blurred background with gray, brown, and a small area of red. Across the middle, a horizontal band of beige fabric runs left to right with a darker brown strip beneath it, wrinkled and worn, holding a few small round copper-colored fasteners spaced along the length. The bottom section is a solid black surface.

Fig. 35.20


Detail of the right tacking edge of Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing unprimed canvas at the edge of the original canvas. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

Top section shows an irregular, smooth white band running horizontally. Below it, two side-by-side dark brown rounded clusters with a honeycomb-like texture sit within lighter tan, wavy layers that arc over and between them; the layers transition into darker brown streaks toward the bottom. Background is dark gray, and a scale bar in the lower right reads 100 µm.
Monet 33.1149 x1422_10x_dkfld_b
Top half shows pale blue-gray sky blending into light teal water at a faint horizon. Bottom-left sits a small house with a pitched gray roof and a single red-brown chimney, its walls mottled in pinks and grays. A dark fence lines the right and back edges of a grassy slope in greens and browns, while the water fills the background; the house is the largest element.
Sample Location

Fig. 35.21

Photomicrograph of a cross section of the ground and canvas layers of Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897). Original magnification: 100×. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

Color
The ground is off-white, with some dark particles visible under magnification (fig. 35.22).
27

Top area shows a thin band of light green and pale purple patches, with a “2.0 mm” scale marker in the upper right. Across the center, an off-white to beige surface is dotted with many tiny dark brown spots and a few short, fine cracks. Along the bottom edge runs a darker brown to nearly black horizontal band.
Monet 33.1149 MIC 1
A large black area fills most of the frame. In the bottom-left corner, a rectangular section shows patches of teal, purple, pink, and gray, with darker narrow vertical shapes near its right edge; this section takes up roughly the lower-left quarter. A small hollow black square sits to the right of this colored rectangle, positioned about halfway up its edge.
Detail Location

Fig. 35.22

Photomicrograph of the right edge of Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing the ground layer. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

Materials/composition
Analysis indicates that the ground contains lead white and calcium carbonate (chalk) with traces of iron oxide, alumina, silica, and various silicates.[33] Binder: Oil (estimated).28

Compositional Planning/Underdrawing/Painted Sketch

Extent/character
No underdrawing was observed with infrared reflectography (IRR) or microscopic examination.29

Paint layer

Application/technique and artist’s revisions
The painting has a richly brush-marked surface that was built up using a network of superimposed strokes of thick, textural paint and low impasto (fig. 35.23). Where visible through breaks in the upper brushwork, the earliest paint layers, used to lay in the general undertone of the house and garden, consist of light shades of dull pinkish-brown and gray (fig. 35.24, fig. 35.25). These initial paint layers were thinly applied and where they are exposed at the surface, the texture of the canvas weave remains prominent (fig. 35.26). The sky and especially the water, on the other hand, were more densely built up, as evidenced by the relative radio-opacity of these areas in the X-ray (fig. 35.27). The density of the paint in these areas makes it more difficult to see how the sky and the water were laid in. The upper layers of the water consist of thick wet-in-wet applications of paint (fig. 35.28). The sky was built up in shades of pale blue and gray. Much of the surface texture comes from underlying strokes that were allowed to surface dry before being painted over. This includes several short, diagonal dabs of the brush where the paint was pulled up in low peaks, creating a distinct pattern in the left half of the sky (fig. 35.29).[34]
30

Figs. 35.23–35.26

Top left shows a small rectangular chimney rising from a steep, triangular roof. From left to right, the roof fills most of the left half in muted pink, brown, and purple tones, and the right half is an open gray-blue sky. Along the bottom edge, a dark, uneven band runs across with short vertical shapes.

Fig. 35.23


Raking-light detail of Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing the texture of the brushwork. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

Top third is light gray with faint mint and white swirls. Across the middle, a wide band of muted grays with patches of lavender and brown includes thin vertical marks of dark gray and magenta. The lower area is teal and turquoise mixed with gray and small touches of green. Along the far left edge, a narrow vertical strip of pink and red is visible.

Fig. 35.24


Detail of the garden in Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing a thin brown underlayer. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149. 

Top area shows a textured surface in light gray and lavender with small coral-red patches clustered near the upper left, and a thin greenish streak near the upper right. Moving downward, the middle region blends pale gray, lilac, and muted green in small, irregular patches. The lower area continues in soft grays with pale pink and light blue patches and a few curved, uneven shapes. The entire frame is filled with this color-mottled surface, with no distinct objects.

Fig. 35.25


Detail of the house in Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing a thin gray underlayer. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

Top area shows pale gray with lavender, crossed by diagonal dark gray and purple streaks that angle down toward the right. Left side has soft patches of pink, lavender, and teal that blend into each other. Center-right contains a dense cluster of slanted marks in dark green, purple, and gray with small touches of white, continuing toward the lower right where the colors deepen. A narrow light beige strip runs along the far right edge.

Fig. 35.26


Photomicrograph of the garden in Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing a thin pinkish-brown underlayer. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

Across the top and at all four corners, bright white L-shaped brackets are visible, and a narrow white strip runs vertically near the center. Left to right, a small, dark building with a pitched roof and a short chimney occupies the left half, filling about one third of the frame. To its right, a broad sloping mound and a textured background extend to the right edge and upper area, with tones shifting from dark gray around the building to lighter gray and white toward the right and top.
X-Ray
Top portion shows a pale blue and light gray expanse of water and sky with a soft, hazy horizon. Center-left is a small cottage with textured gray walls, a sloped gray roof, and a red-brown chimney; the wall facing right has small reddish windows and a door. Bottom and right areas have patchy, sloping ground in greens, teals, browns, and purples, bordered by a low dark fence or scrub near the edge above the water; the cottage occupies roughly a third of the view while the water fills most of the background.
Natural Light
Alt text for the image
X-Ray
Alt text for the image
Natural Light

Fig. 35.27

X-ray and natural-light images of Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing the density of the brushwork in the sky and the water. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149. Interactive image.

Top area shows a soft mix of light blue and mint with a gentle, wavy texture. Moving downward, colors shift toward pale gray and white with faint hints of lavender and teal, keeping the same rippled surface. No distinct objects or figures are present; the scene is an even field of color and texture across the entire space.

Fig. 35.28


Detail of the water in Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing the relatively thick brushwork. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149. 

Top to bottom, a grayscale scene shows a small house with a pitched roof and short chimney occupying the lower-left and center-left area. A bright vertical bar runs down the center, and bright L-shaped bars sit near all four corners along the edges. The right half and upper areas are filled with mottled gray tones, with a darker rounded slope in the lower right. The house is medium-sized relative to the frame, taking up roughly one-third to one-half of the width.
X-Ray
At the top, a broad pale blue and light gray expanse of water and sky blends together without a clear horizon. Below it, left of center, a small cottage fills much of the left half of the scene, with mottled gray walls, a low sloped gray roof, and a short red chimney; narrow red vertical shapes line the right wall. The right side and foreground show uneven ground in greens, browns, and purples, bordered by a low, dark fence that curves along the edge toward the water.
Natural Light
Alt text for the image
X-Ray
Alt text for the image
Natural Light

Fig. 35.29

X-ray and natural-light details of Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing the texture of the brushwork in the sky and the water. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149. Interactive image. 

In several localized areas throughout the water, it appears that the artist scraped the upper paint surface, exposing small areas of underlying colors. This can be seen in the area underneath the fence on the left side of the house, where some of the deep-gray underlayer is visible at the surface (fig. 35.30). Associated interlayer cleavage—where tiny islands of paint have separated from the paint layer underneath—suggests that the lower paint layer was at least surface dry when the pale-green paint was applied on top, resulting in poor adhesion between the layers (fig. 35.31). The cleavage seems to have occurred while Monet was still working on the painting, since subsequent brushstrokes, which were applied wet-over-dry and appear to be original, can be seen to pass over the losses (fig. 35.32).[35] In the water and in the pale-gray areas closest to the foreground, bright-green paint is exposed from underneath (fig. 35.33). The bright green was mostly covered by the thick, pale gray strokes worked on top and then revealed in small areas through scraping. Similar scraping and flattening of the texture of the soft paint layers was also observed in the stonework of the house. No tool marks were evident in these areas, making it difficult to know precisely how Monet achieved this effect; however, in the area of the fence directly right of the house (fig. 35.34), a fine, pointed implement was used to incise a series of parallel, vertical lines through the wet paint layers of the water (fig. 35.35). The strokes of purple paint in this area were later drawn lightly across the dry surface, mostly skipping over the troughs of the vertical incisions (fig. 35.36).
31

Upper section shows pale mint and white in broad curved bands. Along the left edge is a narrow beige strip, with the adjacent area mottled gray and rust-red; the middle is mostly gray with brown streaks and a few small dark spots. The right side shifts to light purple and pink, and the lower area has larger patches of teal and turquoise mixed with gray-green, with a visibly raised, uneven surface throughout.

Fig. 35.30


Detail of the garden in Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing areas where the artist may have scraped the upper paint layers. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

From top left to bottom right, a mostly white surface is broken by irregular pale purple patches and scattered brown spots and streaks. The largest purple areas are near the center, with smaller pieces toward the upper right and lower left, while brown speckling is denser along the right side and lower edge. Fine, faint lines cross diagonally over several areas. A black scale bar labeled 2.0 mm sits in the lower right for size reference.
Monet 33.1149 MIC 24
Top left shows a pale blue sky fading toward light gray. From the center right downward, a large structure with a steep sloped roof dominates; its wall is mottled in muted grays, purples, and reddish browns, with a small blue‑gray rectangular window near the lower middle. Bottom left has a dark patch of green and brown plants along the edge. The structure takes up most of the view, while the sky occupies the upper left portion.
Detail Location

Fig. 35.31

Photomicrograph of the garden in Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing a darker underlayer exposed at the surface. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

Top and left areas show pale blue-white regions with many thin brown streaks and scattered speckles. Near the center sits an irregular, roughly oval patch in gray to purple tones with lighter spots around its edges, surrounded by the same blue-white field with brown streaks. Fine, hairline lines run diagonally across the surface, and a black scale bar labeled 1.0 mm appears in the bottom right.
Monet 33.1149 MIC 25
Top half is a broad expanse of pale blue and gray with soft, uneven patches of color. In the lower right, a large sloped triangular form occupies about a third of the frame, colored in mottled grays and purples with small specks of red, blue, and yellow; its ridge runs diagonally upward toward the center. Near the bottom-left corner, a tiny dark square sits close to the edge.
Detail Location

Fig. 35.32

Photomicrograph of the garden in Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing the buildup of the brushwork. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

Rough, pale purple surface with irregular light green patches and streaks. Top area is mostly pale purple with small pits and scattered dark specks; the center has broader green patches bordered by raised purple areas; the bottom mixes green and purple with additional small pits. A thin dark line appears near the left side, and a faint vertical crack is visible toward the right. A black bar at the bottom right is labeled 2.0 mm, indicating the scale.
Monet 33.1149 MIC 26
Most of the frame is black, with a small landscape scene in the bottom-left corner. Within that scene, a pale gray-blue sky fills the upper area, and a small black square sits slightly right of center. Below the sky, a dark band of gray and purple shrubs runs horizontally, and at the far left edge a structure with a bluish roof and reddish wall stands above green‑teal ground.
Detail Location

Fig. 35.33

Photomicrograph of the water in Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing a bright-green underlayer. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

Top third is pale gray-white with faint hints of mint and light blue. The middle section forms a wide gray band with scattered lavender and brown areas, plus a cluster of short dark red and magenta vertical marks on the right; a vertical pink strip runs along the far left edge. The bottom third blends turquoise and teal with light tan and peach, stretching horizontally across the width.

Fig. 35.34


Detail of the garden in Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing vertical scrape marks. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

Top area shows a light purple surface with several off-white vertical bands and shallow grooves. Moving downward, lavender and violet streaks cross the surface, with uneven pale ridges and small oval pits; tiny red, blue, and brown specks are scattered throughout, and a few thin dark strands run diagonally. Near the bottom edge, the same textures continue, and at the lower right a black scale bar labeled 2.0 mm provides size reference.
Monet 33.1149 MIC 21
A large black area fills the top and right sides of the frame. In the lower-left quadrant, a small scene shows the sloped roof of a building with one short chimney near the upper-left of this scene; the roof is mottled gray with hints of pink and orange. Behind the roof, a broad light blue expanse meets a pale gray sky, with the blue and gray taking up most of the inset scene while the building occupies the bottom-left corner.
Detail Location

Fig. 35.35

Photomicrograph of the garden in Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing scrape marks. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

Top area is pale lavender with fine horizontal ridges and a thin dark vertical mark near the upper left. From left to center, a darker violet band slopes upward, crossed by pale vertical streaks over purple and blue swirls, with a small red dash near the center. Bottom and right edges show mottled lilac, blue, and tan patches with curved ridges; at the lower right, a black scale bar is labeled 5.0 mm.
Monet 33.1149 MIC 20
Upper left shows a pale blue‑gray expanse that shifts to light turquoise toward the center. Lower left contains the sloped roof of a building in mottled red, brown, and gray, with a short red chimney near the ridge. The building’s corner runs along the bottom edge with muted red and green tones, and the chimney appears small compared with the broad roof. The scene occupies the lower-left quadrant of the frame, while the rest of the image is solid black.
Detail Location

Fig. 35.36

Photomicrograph of the garden in Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing a brushstroke applied over a scraped area. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

No major alterations were made to the composition. Some small adjustments were made to the edges of the house and the landscape as the painting was built up. For example, the dimensions of the house appear to have initially been slightly smaller (fig. 35.37). This can be seen along the front left and back right diagonal slopes of the roof, where the water was painted in underneath the edges of the roof; the roof was then extended in both places over the water when that paint was already dry (fig. 35.38). The overhanging eave on the far left side of the building was originally longer. The artist then touched out the very end of it using a pale-green paint, which has a slightly different tone than the adjacent water (fig. 35.39, fig. 35.40). The chimney was also expanded around the edges by adding strokes of paint over the already-dry pale-green strokes from the water (fig. 35.41). The upper edge of the diagonal part of the fence and border of foliage on the right side was also modified slightly (fig. 35.42). The purplish-gray strokes of grass that extend over the water near the back-right corner of the garden were added later when the paint of the water was dry (fig. 35.43), unlike the grass along the adjacent horizontal portion of the fence, which was applied wet-in-wet with the water (fig. 35.44).
32

In shades of gray, a small building with a pitched roof and a short chimney sits in the lower-left quadrant, with its nearer wall and roof most visible. To the right, a low sloping mound fills the lower-right area, and a rough, streaked background extends across the upper half. A thin vertical bar runs down the center, and L-shaped bracket-like elements sit near all four corners along the edges.
X-Ray
Top half shows a pale blue and gray expanse of water and sky blending together. In the middle left, a small house with a pitched gray roof and a single chimney sits on a sloping, grassy bluff; its walls appear mottled gray with reddish vertical bands, and it faces toward the right. A low dark fence or hedge curves along the edge of the bluff, and the foreground is a patchwork of greens, purples, and browns; the house is the largest element, with shrubs and boundary lines appearing smaller around it.
Natural Light
Alt text for the image
X-Ray
Alt text for the image
Natural Light

Fig. 35.37

X-ray and natural-light details of Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing adjustments made to the edges of the house. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149. Interactive image.

At the top, a pale blue area meets a dark gray ridge running left to right. Below it, a large wedge-shaped gray form fills most of the center, dotted with small patches of pink, purple, blue, and a few yellow spots. On the left is a smooth light blue field, while on the right dense wavy areas in pink, lavender, gray, and white spread downward and outward, making the central gray form the largest element.

Fig. 35.38


Detail of the house in Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing that the brushstrokes at the edge of the roof were applied over the water. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

Top-left area shows pale mint and white with shallow, curved ridges, transitioning toward the center into light gray with soft lavender and blue patches. The right half is dominated by darker gray-violet with scattered small blue and pink spots. Near the lower-left edge, a small brownish patch sits amid the mint tones, while the lower-right corner shifts to deeper purple-gray.

Fig. 35.39


Detail of the house in Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing an adjustment made to the composition. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

Top left shows a pale gray-white area with fine, shallow ridges, while the top right has a mottled patch of purple and brown. The center and lower areas are mostly light gray-white with swirled textures and scattered light purple spots; a tiny dark dot sits near center-right. Bottom right contains a black scale bar labeled 5.0 mm.
Monet 33.1149 MIC 23
From left to right, a pale gray and light blue background covers the upper and middle left area. In the lower-left quadrant, a large triangular sloped form in mottled gray, purple, pink, and hints of green rises from the bottom edge toward the center. Near the bottom-left corner, a small light gray patch is enclosed by a thin black rectangle, and the entire right side of the overall frame is solid black.
Detail Location

Fig. 35.40

Photomicrograph of the house in Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing an adjustment made to the composition. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

Top third and right side are pale blue. Center-right contains a large, irregular block-like mass in pink, gray, and olive-green, with a smaller rounded bump near its upper left edge. Bottom left shows a band of mixed pink, lavender, and white that blends into the base of the central form. The central mass occupies most of the space, leaving thin blue areas around it.

Fig. 35.41


Detail of the chimney in Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing a change made to the composition. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149. 

Across the top, mottled light gray fills the background; a bright vertical band runs from top to bottom near the center, and pale L‑shaped brackets sit near all four corners. In the left half, a large dark gray building with a sloped roof and a short chimney occupies the foreground, taking roughly a third of the frame. In the right half, a broad, rounded mound in medium‑to‑dark gray rises toward the right edge against lighter gray ground, while a darker band of ground stretches along the bottom. Only shades of gray (black to white) are present.
X-Ray
Top half shows a pale blue and gray expanse where water and sky blend together. In the center-left foreground, a small cottage with a pitched roof and short chimney sits on mottled gray walls with reddish edges and two narrow red‑trimmed openings along its side; it is the largest element, filling about a third of the scene. A low, dark hedge curves along the right edge, and uneven ground in green, brown, and lavender tones fills the lower area, sloping toward the water.
Natural Light
Alt text for the image
X-Ray
Alt text for the image
Natural Light

Fig. 35.42

X-ray and natural-light details of Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing adjustments made to the composition. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149. Interactive image.

Top third is pale gray with faint swirls of light green and touches of yellow. Left side and center contain darker gray and purple areas with diagonal streaks of maroon, violet, and charcoal, plus small spots of teal and blue near the left edge. Bottom and right edges shift back to lighter grays with soft patches of lavender, peach, and pink, which are lighter in tone than the darker center-left.

Fig. 35.43


Detail of the garden in Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing wet-over-dry paint application. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149. 

Top area is mostly light gray and white with faint pale green streaks. The middle forms a wide horizontal band of gray mixed with lavender and soft purple, dotted with small dark brown spots and clusters of thin red-violet lines that angle upward. The lower area shifts to turquoise, teal, and light green with touches of pink and tan, and a narrow vertical strip of pink runs along the far left edge.

Fig. 35.44


Detail of the garden in Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing wet-in-wet paint application. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

There is at least one fiber, possibly plant material, embedded in the paint layer at the upper-left edge (fig. 35.45). This was incorporated while the artist was working on the painting, as it is partially covered by original paint.[36] A few short black fibers were also observed around the signature (fig. 35.46), possibly from material having been pressed against the paint surface when it was still wet. A light, intermittent impression or disturbance in the wet paint is visible along the top edge. It is approximately 48 cm long and centered at approximately 2.5 cm from the top edge (fig. 35.47). A similar impression was also observed along the bottom edge, in roughly the same centered position. Subsequent brushwork passes over the areas of disturbed paint, indicating that they occurred at some point during the execution of the work. The marks could have been caused by an easel cleat or transport case. Some flattened paint around the edges of the composition appears to be the result of framing while the paint was still soft.
33

A rough, pale gray surface with slight purple tones fills the frame. From the lower left toward the center, a thin shallow groove runs upward, then turns sharply to the right near the top; faint green streaks follow parts of this line. The surrounding area is bumpy and uneven with small lumps and pits. A black scale bar labeled 5.0 mm appears in the lower right corner.
Monet 33.1149 mic 9
Top left shows a wide area of pale gray and light blue, with a thin light beige vertical strip at the far-left edge. Near the upper-left quarter, a small black-outlined square encloses a tiny light gray triangular shape. The lower-left corner contains a large gray‑purple triangular form that takes up about a third of the left section. The entire right side, roughly three-quarters of the frame, is solid black.
Detail Location

Fig. 35.45

Detail of the upper left edge of Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing a plant fiber embedded in the paint layer. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

Top right shows a black scale bar labeled 2.0 mm. From top to bottom and left to right, a rough, mottled surface in pale pink, beige, and light gray fills the frame, marked with small pits and specks. Along the left side, irregular bright orange patches with jagged edges spread vertically. Thin, curved dark strands and scattered darker spots appear across the surface, with a slightly lighter, smoother streak near the upper right edge.
Monet 33.1149 MIC 8
A large black area fills most of the frame, with a narrow band along the bottom showing a textured surface in muted pink, gray, and pale green. Across this bottom band, red-orange cursive text reads “Claude Monet,” followed by two numerals. At the far right, a small black square outlines the final numeral. The text spans most of the width of the lower band, which is much smaller than the black area above.
Detail Location

Fig. 35.46

Photomicrograph of the signature of Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing black fibers embedded in the paint layer. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

Top edge shows a narrow horizontal band of beige with small, grid-like bumps. Below it, a much larger area of very light blue and white extends downward, marked by shallow ridges and crisscrossing lines. The upper band is thin compared to the broad lower section, and both areas appear rough and uneven.

Fig. 35.47


Detail of the top edge of Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing an impression made in the soft paint. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149. 

Painting tools
Brushes including 0.5, 0.7, 1.0, and 1.5 cm width, flat ferrule (based on width and shape of brushstrokes). Several brush hairs are embedded in the paint layer.34

Palette
Analysis indicates the presence of the following pigments: lead white, cadmium yellow, chrome yellow, vermilion, red lake, emerald green, viridian, cobalt blue, ultramarine blue, and cobalt violet.[37] PLM analysis also indicates the possible presence of bone black. The presence of a bright orangish-pink fluorescence under UV suggests that the artist used red lake throughout the building and the landscape.[38] There are large white agglomerates in some of the paint mixtures.35

Binding media
Oil (estimated).[39]36

Surface Finish

Varnish layer/media
The painting was cleaned in 2010 and left unvarnished (see Conservation History). The painting has a soft, variable surface depending on the qualities of the paint application.37

Conservation History

In 1960, the back of the painting was vacuumed and the stretcher keys were fixed with masking tape. Metal strip molding was attached around the edges, and a fiberboard backing was applied. The paint surface was cleaned with a wax emulsion.[40]38

In 1974, the varnish was removed. The canvas was wax-resin lined and restretched onto an ICA spring stretcher. A layer of polyvinyl acetate (PVA) AYAA was applied. Minimal inpainting was carried out. A layer of methacrylate resin L-46 was applied, followed by a final layer of AYAA.[41]39

In 2010, the synthetic varnish layers were removed and the painting was left unvarnished.[42]40

Condition Summary

The painting is in good condition overall. It is wax-resin lined and stretched taut and in plane on an ICA spring stretcher. The dimensions are slightly larger than those of the original stretcher, resulting in the incorporation of unpainted ground around the edges of the composition. There is minor wear and abrasion of the ground layer on the tacking margins and some light abrasion of paint near the original foldovers. There are some light scratches and impressions in the paint layer in the upper left corner, as well as several embedded brush hairs and plant fibers, all of which occurred while the paint was still wet or soft. Translucent protrusions were observed microscopically throughout the paint surface (fig. 35.48). There are a few small, isolated areas of paint loss and interlayer cleavage in the sky. These areas are secure. In other areas of the painting, interlayer cleavage appears to be related to scraping or rubbing of the paint surface as part of the artist’s working method (see Application/Technique). Mechanical cracking is minimal and very fine. There are light stretcher-bar cracks in the area of the original vertical stretcher members and crossbar. Localized drying cracks were observed in some of the yellow brushstrokes, which may be related to the pigments used (fig. 35.49). The painting is currently unvarnished.
41

Top left, a black scale bar labeled 1.0 mm sits above a rough, uneven surface. From top to bottom, the surface is mostly purple and pink with scattered greenish patches and tiny blue-black specks, crossed by irregular cracks. Small tan to brown pits and creases are distributed across the area, most under a millimeter wide.
Monet 33.1149 MIC 13

Fig. 35.48

Photomicrograph of the grass in Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing translucent protrusions in the paint layer. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

Top left shows a black horizontal scale bar labeled 5.0 mm. Moving left to right across the center, a ridged, uneven surface appears in muted blue and teal with scattered tan and light brown areas. Two small, bright yellow patches with fine cracking are near the left-center and right-center, while pale pink and lavender tones sit at the lower left. All features are small relative to the 5 mm bar, and the colored areas blend irregularly without distinct shapes.
Monet 33.1149 MIC 11
Most of the frame is black, with a small rectangular scene in the lower left. In that scene, the top area is a pale gray sky; along the right side runs a dark gray-violet band that curves inward, while the far left shows a vertical area of reddish‑orange with lighter stripes. The lower half is ground rendered in patchy pink, purple, teal, and green, with small darker marks scattered across it.
Detail Location

Fig. 35.49

Detail of the grass in Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) showing microcracking in the yellow paint. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149. 

Kimberley Muir
42

Frame

Current frame (installed in 1995): The frame is not original to the painting. It is an American, mid-twentieth-century, wedge-profile, molding frame with beaded outer edge and white cove sight edge and an independent linen-faced liner with a gilded sight. The frame is both water and oil gilded over red bole on gesso; the sight cove is exposed gesso. The gilding is heavily toned with a gray overwash and gray and dark flecking. The basswood molding is mitered and nailed. The molding, from perimeter to interior, is flat sides with a beveled return; fillet with centered cast beading; hollow; wedge face; fillet; cove; and an independent linen-covered fillet liner with cove sight (fig. 35.50).[43]
43

Pale blue-gray water fills the upper half, merging with a similarly pale sky near the horizon. Near the center-left sits a small stone cottage with a sloped gray roof and a short chimney; its walls are gray with red tones, and the right side shows a reddish door and window openings. The lower area is a patch of green, purple, and brown ground that slopes to the right, bordered by a dark, twiggy fence or hedge along the right edge.

Fig. 35.50


Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) in its current frame. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.1149.

Previous frame (original to the picture and removed in 1995; currently the frame is on Monet, Stack of Wheat [Snow Effect, Overcast Day] cat. 30): This frame was original to the painting. It is a French (Parisian), late-nineteenth-century, Durand-Ruel Régence Revival, ogee frame with cast foliate and center cartouches and fillet liner. The frame is both water and oil gilded. Red-brown bole was used on the perimeter, cast foliate ornament on the face and sight molding, and the liner. Red bole was used for the scotia sides. The gilding was applied directly to the plaster on the ogee face in the crosshatched areas between the ornament. The quadrillage face has been rubbed to bring out the white of the plaster. The frame has an overall bronze tone with casein or gouache raw umber and gray washes. The frame has a glued pine substrate with a cast plaster face. At a later date the original back of the frame was planed flat, removing all construction history and provenance. A back frame was then glued to the back. All back and interior surfaces have been overpainted. The molding, from perimeter to interior, is fillet with stylized cast dovetail-pierced egg-and-flower molding; scotia side; ogee face with a cast quadrillage bed and center and corner foliate and floral cartouches with cabochon centers on a double-lined diamond bed with punched centers; fillet; sanded front frieze; fillet; ogee with stylized leaf-tip-and-shell sight molding; and independent fillet liner with cove sight (fig. 35.51).[44]
44

Gallery room with a high, light wall displays five framed pictures in a row, with a long, dark rectangular surface centered in the foreground. From left to right: a medium picture with a small building on sloped ground, a small dark-toned picture, a larger central picture showing two seated figures, a small square picture, and a medium picture with a building on a hill; all hang at the same height. At the far right, an open doorway labeled 42 leads to another room where an additional framed picture hangs on the right wall; the scene appears in black, white, and gray tones.

Fig. 35.51


Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) in a previous frame, installed in “A Century of Progress”: Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, Art Institute of Chicago, May 23–Nov. 1, 1933. Institutional Archives, Art Institute of Chicago.

Kirk Vuillemot
45

Sold by the artist to Galerie Allard et Noel, Feb. 1899, for 6,000 francs.[45]46

Acquired by Maurice Masson, Paris, by Feb. 27, 1911.[46]47

Sold at the Maurice Masson, Paris, sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 22, 1911, lot 23, to Durand-Ruel, Paris, for 9,020 francs.[47]48

Sold by Durand-Ruel, Paris, to Durand-Ruel, New York, July 21, 1913 or Aug. 6, 1913.[48]49

Sold by Durand-Ruel, New York, to Martin A. Ryerson, Chicago, Feb. 10, 1914 for $7,500.[49]50

Bequeathed by Martin A. Ryerson (died 1932), Chicago, to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.
51

Possibly Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, Exposition Claude Monet, June 1898, cat. 27 or 28, as Poste de Douaniers, à Varengeville, 1897.[50]52

Possibly Paris, Bernheim-Jeune, Exposition Monet, 1906.[51]53

Paris, Bernheim-Jeune, Collection Maurice Masson, Feb. 27–Mar. 15, 1911, cat. 23, as La cabane du douanier.54

Chicago, Stratford Hotel, Tableaux Durand-Ruel, late Jan.–early Feb. 1914.[52]55

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.[53] (fig. 35.52)
56

Gallery room in black and white with a light gray wall and dark gray floor. From left to right along the wall hang five framed artworks of varying sizes, with the largest centered and smaller pieces flanking it. At the far right, a doorway labeled 42 opens to another room where one more framed artwork is visible on the right wall. A low, dark rectangular surface sits in the foreground center.

Fig. 35.52


Installation of Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) in “A Century of Progress”: Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, Art Institute of Chicago, May 23–Nov. 1, 1933. Institutional Archives, Art Institute of Chicago.

Art Institute of Chicago, “A Century of Progress”: Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture for 1934, June 1–Oct. 31, 1934, cat. 215.[54]57

University of Chicago, Lexington Hall, Nov. 17–Dec. 17, 1952, no cat.[55]58

Art Institute of Chicago, The Paintings of Claude Monet, Apr. 1–June 15, 1957, no cat. no.[56]59

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.).60

Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings by Monet, Mar. 15–May 11, 1975, cat. 97 (ill.). (fig. 35.53)
61

A museum wall displays three framed landscapes, left to right: a small house beside a short fence on a sloped, grassy shore under a pale sky; tall, slender trees beside reflective water with green grass and a light sky; and a rocky coastline meeting blue water. Frames are gold-colored with decorative edges, with the center piece slightly larger than the ones on either side. The wall is brown, and small black labels between the works show the numbers 89 and 96, with lights casting soft shadows below the frames.

Fig. 35.53


Installation of Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) in Paintings by Monet, Art Institute of Chicago, Mar. 15–May 11, 1975. Institutional Archives, Art Institute of Chicago.

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Monet in the ’90s: The Series Paintings, Feb. 7–Apr. 29, 1990, cat. 69 (ill.); Art Institute of Chicago, May 19–Aug. 12, 1990; London, Royal Academy of Arts, Sept. 7–Dec. 9, 1990. (fig. 35.54)
62

Large gallery room with pale gray-blue walls and a light brown herringbone wood floor. In the foreground, a low dark brown bench sits centered, and a low white rail lines the perimeter. Left wall shows a row of smaller, gold-colored framed artworks; the back wall has three medium pieces; the right wall holds several taller pieces, each with small white labels beside them. Overhead, a rectangular skylight with a grid of panes appears pale blue; no people are present.

Fig. 35.54


Installation of Monet’s The Customs House at Varengeville (1897) in Monet in the ’90s: The Series Paintings, Art Institute of Chicago, May 19–Aug. 12, 1990. Institutional Archives, Art Institute of Chicago.

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.).
63

Possibly Galerie Georges Petit, Exposition Claude Monet, exh. cat. (Georges Petit, 1898), p. 5, cat. 27 or cat. 28.[57]64

Achille Segard, Collection Maurice Masson, exh. cat. (Bernheim-Jeune, 1911), introduction.65

Bernheim-Jeune, Collection Maurice Masson, exh. cat. (Bernheim-Jeune, 1911), p. 17, cat. 23.66

Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Art Institute of Chicago, 1925), p. 162, cat. 2134.[58]67

M. C., “Monets in the Art Institute,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 19, 2 (Feb. 1925), p. 20.68

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. 296.69

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. 215.70

Oscar Reuterswärd, Monet: En konstnärshistorik (Bonniers, 1948), p. 284.71

Art Institute of Chicago, “Catalogue,” Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly 51, 2 (Apr. 1, 1957), p. 33.72

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.).73

Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), p. 321.[59]74

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; 41.75

Grace Seiberling, “The Evolution of an Impressionist,” in Paintings by Monet, ed. Susan Wise, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1975), p. 35.76

Susan Wise, ed., Paintings by Monet, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1975), p. 154, cat. 97 (ill.).77

Joel Isaacson, Claude Monet, Observation and Reflection (Phaidon/Dutton, 1978), pp. 9; 40; 42; 43; 164, pl. 119; 226, no. 119.78

Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné, vol. 3, Peintures, 1887–1898 (Bibliothèque des Arts, 1979), pp. 75; 204; 205, cat. 1455 (ill.).79

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. 69.80

Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Catalogue raisonné, vol. 5, Supplément aux peintures; Dessins: Pastels; Index (Wildenstein Institute, 1991), p. 51, cat. 1455.81

Andrew Forge, Monet, Artists in Focus (Art Institute of Chicago, 1995), pp. 52–53; 65; 93, pl. 22; 108.82

Daniel Wildenstein, Monet, or The Triumph of Impressionism, cat. rais., vol. 1 (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996), p. 316, cat. 1455.83

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).84

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. 
85

Documentation from the Durand-Ruel Archives

Inventory Number
Stock Durand-Ruel Paris 9648, Durand-Ruel, Paris, stock book for 1901–1386

Photograph
Stock Durand-Ruel Paris 9648/photo no. 7040[60]87

Inventory Number
Stock Durand-Ruel New York 3668[61]88

Other Documents

Label (fig. 35.55)[62]
89

Rectangular light blue-green paper label centered on a black background, filling most of the frame. Top line, left to right: “Monet n° 9648”; second line across the middle: “La cabane des douaniers”; lower right: “1897.” The handwriting is in dark black ink, and the paper shows slightly darkened edges with a small spot and tiny puncture near the middle right.

Fig. 35.55


Label (fig. 35.56)[63]
90

Rectangular pink label with a scalloped top edge and a black background, showing four lines of black handwriting on dotted guide lines. Top line reads “Monet” at left and “No. 3668” at right. Middle lines read “La cabane” and “de douaniers.” Bottom line reads “1897 meules.”

Fig. 35.56


Inscription (fig. 35.57)[64]
91

Across the frame, a light gray horizontal band fills most of the view, bordered by thinner, darker gray bands at the top and bottom. Centered in the middle area, dark gray handwritten numbers read 7040, with two short lines drawn underneath. The numerals take up about half the width and a small portion of the height, set against a slightly textured gray surface.

Fig. 35.57


Receipt92

Purchase receipt, Feb. 10, 191493

Labels and Inscriptions

Undated

Label
Location: backing board
Method: printed label with typewritten script
Content: THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO / artist Claude Monet / Custom House at Garegeville[sic] / title / oil on fabric / 1933.1149 / medium / credit / acc. # (fig. 35.58)
94

A rectangular off-white card with black text shows a museum label. Across the top center reads “THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO.” Below, a left column lists “artist,” “title,” “medium,” “credit,” and “acc. #,” with typewritten entries to the right: “Claude Monet,” a line below reading “Custom House at Garegeville,” “oil on fabric” beside “title,” and “1933.1149” beside “medium.” The lines for “credit” and “acc. #” have no entries.

Fig. 35.58


Label
Location: stretcher
Method: printed label with handwritten script and green-ink inventory stamp
Content: THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO / CHICAGO ILLINOIS 60603, U.S.A. / To Monet, Claude / The Custom House at Varengeville / 1933.1149
Stamp: Inventory—1980–1981 (fig. 35.59)
95

At the top, large black printed text reads “THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO” with “CHICAGO ILLINOIS 60603, U.S.A.” beneath it. Below a thin double line, handwritten blue text reads “To Monet, Claude,” “The Custom House at Varengeville,” and “1933.1149,” with a small circular hole near the right side of the writing. At the upper right, a light blue‑green stamp says “Inventory – 1980 – 1981.” The off‑white rectangular label runs horizontally across the frame against a brown background.

Fig. 35.59


Number
Location: stretcher
Method: handwritten
Content: 1933.1149 (fig. 35.60)
96

At the top, a narrow strip of beige canvas runs horizontally with a stitched edge. Below it, on a brown wooden surface, dark characters read “/1933.1149” across the middle. In the lower-right area, a diagonal wooden piece meets the main wood at a corner joint, with wood grain visible throughout.

Fig. 35.60


Pre-1980

Label
Location: pre-1974-treatment stretcher (discarded); preserved in conservation file
Method: printed label with handwritten script
Content: Monet No 3668 / La cabane / de douaniers / 1897 / mssss (fig. 35.56)
97

Label
Location: pre-1974-treatment stretcher (discarded); preserved in conservation file
Method: handwritten script
Content: Monet nº 9648 / La cabane des douaniers / 1897 (fig. 35.61)
98

Top line reads “Monet n° 9648” in black cursive on a light teal rectangular background set against black. Across the middle, the text reads “La cabane des douaniers.” At the bottom right is “1897,” with a small brown spot slightly below the center.

Fig. 35.61


Label
Location: pre-1974-treatment stretcher (discarded); preserved in conservation file
Method: printed with handwritten script and ink stamp on lined paper with handwritten text
Content: Masson / 5981 (fig. 35.62)
99

At the top, a short line of dark brown handwriting sits near the upper edge of a small rectangular tan object with perforated edges. Centered in the middle, large blue numerals read 5981, with a thin horizontal line running across the width at the height of the digits. Along the left side, a vertical red stripe is visible, and the object is shown against a black background.

Fig. 35.62


Stamp
Location: pre-1974-treatment stretcher (discarded); 1974 photograph in conservation file
Method: ink stamp
Content: 30P (fig. 35.63)
100

Top section shows a light gray, chipped layer with small cracks running horizontally. Below it, a medium-gray wooden board spans the width with large black stenciled characters “5 0 P.”; a small round hole sits between the 0 and the P. To the left of the 5, faint dark-gray cursive writing is visible but not readable. A narrow, dark band runs along the bottom edge, resembling fabric.

Fig. 35.63


Number
Location: pre-1974-treatment stretcher (discarded); 1974 photograph in conservation file
Method: handwritten
Content: 7040 (fig. 35.64)
101

Top edge shows a narrow dark gray horizontal band; below it, a wide lighter gray textured area fills most of the frame. Across the center, the handwritten number “7040” appears in dark gray, large and spaced evenly. Two darker underlines sit beneath the digits—one short and faint, and a longer line below it that extends farther to the right—followed by another narrow dark gray band along the bottom.

Fig. 35.64


Number
Location: pre-1974-treatment stretcher (discarded); 1974 photograph in conservation file
Method: handwritten
Content: [6522?] (fig. 35.65)
102

Top to bottom: a narrow dark gray strip runs along the upper edge. Below it, a wide medium-gray band with fine horizontal lines fills most of the space; near the center-right are a few faint curved dark arcs, and near the center-left are small pale patches. Along the bottom, a thin light line separates the main area from another narrow dark gray strip.

Fig. 35.65


Inscription
Location: pre-1974-treatment stretcher (discarded); 1974 photograph in conservation file
Method: handwritten
Content: No 19 (fig. 35.66)
103

Top to bottom: a dark gray horizontal strip runs across the top, with a lighter, rough-edged band just below it. In the middle, a darker rectangular area shows faint handwritten marks, including a looping character on the left and the number 19 on the right. Near the lower center, a small vertical piece of light gray tape sits on the seam, and the bottom area shows medium-gray rectangular sections with varied textures.

Fig. 35.66


Inscription
Location: pre-1974-treatment stretcher (discarded); 1974 photograph in conservation file
Method: handwritten
Content: Exposition Monet 15 rue [Richepanse?] 1906[?] [Possibly Paris, Bernheim-Jeune, Exposition Monet, 1906.[65](fig. 35.67)
104

Across the top edge, a light gray torn strip runs left to right with several small fasteners visible. Beneath it, a long horizontal slat spans the width; near the center-left, large dark gray stenciled characters read “30 P,” and faint cursive writing in lighter gray stretches across the slat. At the lower right, a light strip of tape wraps over the edge, and a darker gray band forms a narrow border along the bottom.

Fig. 35.67


Inscription
Location: pre-1974-treatment stretcher (discarded); 1974 photograph in conservation file
Method: handwritten
Content: 5981 (fig. 35.68)
105

Top edge shows a narrow dark gray band, with a horizontally lined medium‑gray area beneath it. Across the middle, five small rectangular patches in light to medium gray run left to right and are roughly equal in size: the first has faint handwritten marks, the second is plain, the third contains a smaller white label reading “5981” with faint handwriting above, the fourth is plain with a tiny round hole, and the fifth shows a slanted scribble. Along the bottom is a light‑gray torn strip with darker smudges and chips, and the lower edge is uneven.

Fig. 35.68


Inscription
Location: pre-1974-treatment stretcher (discarded); 1974 photograph in conservation file
Method: handwritten
Content: M [paper tape in area may be obscuring more of inscription] (fig. 35.69)
106

Top to bottom, a mid- to dark-gray square with faint horizontal bands sits centered in a lighter gray background. A thick, dark curved mark starts near the lower center of the square and sweeps diagonally toward the upper right. A shorter curved stroke branches off toward the left side of the square. The surrounding area is a lighter gray, forming a clear border around the square.

Fig. 35.69


Inscription
Location: pre-1974-treatment stretcher (discarded); 1974 photograph in conservation file
Method: handwritten
Content: [Box 1?] (fig. 35.70)
107

Top section shows a narrow horizontal band with two light gray rectangular strips, one small angled piece near the upper left and a larger vertical piece near the center. In the middle, a broad light-gray area contains dark gray to black handwritten marks that resemble “Mat” followed by a tall vertical line and small marks toward the right; the writing is large and spans much of the width. Along the bottom, darker gray horizontal bands stack above a measuring ruler with fine tick marks across the lower edge.

Fig. 35.70


Number
Location: pre-1974-treatment stretcher (discarded); 1974 photograph in conservation file
Method: handwritten
Content: 33.1149 (fig. 35.71)
108

Top edge shows a frayed strip and rough, peeling surface in light to medium gray, with the black number “53.1749” faintly visible near the upper left. On the left side, a vertical slat with a visible grain pattern and cracks is bordered by torn paper, and a small thin metal fastener sits near the lower left. From the center to the bottom right, irregular torn paper in pale gray reveals darker grain patterns, and a short piece of pale tape is placed above a rectangular opening.

Fig. 35.71


Label
Location: stretcher
Method: printed
Content: I. C. A. SPRING STRETCHERS / OBERLIN, OHIO 44074[66] (fig. 35.72)
109

Rectangular silver plaque with black text on a brown wooden background. From top to bottom, the first line reads “I. C. A. SPRING STRETCHERS,” and the line beneath reads “OBERLIN, OHIO 44074.” The plaque is horizontal and reflective, with faint, blurry highlights along the right side.

Fig. 35.72


Post-1980

Label[67]
Location: backing board
Method: printed label (printed text in parentheses) with typewritten script
Content: (Museum of Fine Arts / Boston, MA 02115) / W. 1455 V-CH / Art I., Chicago (fig. 35.73)
110

Small beige label with rounded corners, printed in blue and black. Top left has a small blue dot next to blue text: “Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA 02115.” Below, two blue horizontal lines with matching left dots divide black text: “W. 1455” on the left and “V-CH” on the right, then “Art I., Chicago” on the line below. A final blue line runs along the bottom edge.

Fig. 35.73


Label
Location: backing board
Method: printed label
Content: MONET IN THE ’90s: / THE SERIES PAINTINGS / Museum of Fine Arts, Boston / Feb 7–Apr 29, 1990 / Art Institute of Chicago / May 19–Aug 12, 1990 / Royal Academy, London / Sep 7–Dec 9, 1990 / CAT# : 69 W: 1455 / TITLE: Customs House at Varengeville / LENDER: The Art Institute of Chicago (fig. 35.74)
111

Beige rectangular paper label with rounded corners, marked by a few light brown spots, fills the frame; dark gray text is left-aligned in several lines. From top to bottom, it reads: “MONET IN THE ’90s: THE SERIES PAINTINGS,” followed by venues and dates—“Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Feb 7 – Apr 29, 1990,” “Art Institute of Chicago, May 19 – Aug 12, 1990,” and “Royal Academy, London, Sep 7 – Dec 9, 1990.” The bottom lines state: “CAT#: 69 W: 1455,” “TITLE: Customs House at Varengeville,” and “LENDER: The Art Institute of Chicago.”

Fig. 35.74


Examination and Analysis Techniques

X-radiography

Westinghouse X-ray unit, scanned on Epson Expressions 10000XL flatbed scanner. Scans digitally composited by Robert G. Erdmann, University of Arizona.112

Infrared Reflectography

Fujifilm S5 Pro with X-Nite 1000B/2 mm filter (1.0–1.1 µm); and Inframetrics Infracam with 1.5–1.73 µm filter.113

Transmitted Infrared

Fujifilm S5 Pro with X-Nite 1000B/2 mm filter (1.0–1.1 µm).114

Visible Light

Normal-light, raking-light, and transmitted-light overalls and macrophotography: Fujifilm S5 Pro with X-NiteCC1 filter.115

Ultraviolet

Fujifilm S5 Pro with X-NiteCC1 filter and Kodak Wratten 2E filter.116

High-Resolution Visible Light (and Ultraviolet)

Sinar P3 camera with Sinarback eVolution 75 H (B+W 486 UV/IR cut MRC filter).117

Microscopy and Photomicrographs

Sample and cross-sectional analysis using a Zeiss Axioplan2 research microscope equipped with reflected light/UV fluorescence and a Zeiss AxioCam MRc5 digital camera. Types of illumination used: darkfield, differential interference contrast (DIC), and UV. In situ photomicrographs with a Wild Heerbrugg M7A StereoZoom microscope fitted with an Olympus DP71 microscope digital camera.118

X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy

Several spots on the painting were analyzed in situ with a Bruker/Keymaster TRACeR III-V with rhodium tube.119

Polarized Light Microscopy

Zeiss Universal research microscope.120

Scanning Electron Microscopy/Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy

Cross sections analyzed after carbon coating with a Hitachi S-3400N-II VP-SEM with an Oxford EDS and a Hitachi solid-state BSE detector. Analysis was performed at the Northwestern University Atomic and Nanoscale Characterization Experimental Center (NUANCE), Electron Probe Instrumentation Center (EPIC) facility.121

Automated Thread Counting

Thread count and weave information were determined by Thread Count Automation Project software.[68]122

Image Registration Software

Overlay images registered using a novel image-based algorithm developed by Damon M. Conover (GW), John K. Delaney (GW, NGA), and Murray H. Loew (GW) of the George Washington University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.[69]123

Image Inventory

The image inventory compiles records of all known images of the artwork on file in the Conservation Department, the Imaging Department, and the Department of Medieval to Modern European Painting and Sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago (fig. 35.75).
124

Fig. 35.75
Location/Negative # Format Purpose Date Lighting, Notes
G34820 Digital   Unknown Normal, overall
C12530 B&W negative   1934 Normal, overall
C39798 B&W negative Posttreatment 1974 Normal, overall
C39836 B&W negative Posttreatment 1974  
Conservation 8 × 10 B&W negative Pretreatment June 17, 1974 Normal, overall
Conservation 8 × 10 B&W negative Pretreatment June 17, 1974 Normal, verso
Conservation 8 × 10 B&W negative Pretreatment June 17, 1974 Ultraviolet, overall
Conservation 4 × 5 B&W negative Pretreatment June 17, 1974 Infrared, overall
Conservation 35 mm color slide Pretreatment July 1974 Normal, overall
E9097     1986 Normal, overall
E17841   Pretreatment 1989 Normal, overall
E17792   Pretreatment 1989 Normal, detail: house
E17793   Pretreatment 1989 Normal, detail: sea
Conservation Digital OSCI Apr. 26, 2010 X-ray films scanned/digitally composited, overall
Conservation Digital OSCI Oct. 4 and Nov. 23, 2010 Detail images and scans of verso, labels (18 total)
Conservation Digital OSCI Nov. 30, 2010 Photomicrographs of surface (27 total)
Conservation Digital OSCI Dec. 2, 2010 Normal, overall
Conservation Digital OSCI Dec. 2, 2010 Infrared (Fuji, 1000B/2 mm filter), overall 
Conservation Digital OSCI Dec. 2, 2010 Raking light, overall (2 total)
Conservation Digital OSCI Dec. 2, 2010 Ultraviolet, overall
Conservation Digital OSCI Dec. 2, 2010 Macro details (14 total)
Conservation Digital  OSCI Dec. 13, 2010 Transmitted light, overall (3 total)
Conservation Digital  OSCI Dec. 13, 2010 Transmitted infrared (Fuji, 1000B/2 mm filter), overall (3 total)
G35958 Digital Midtreatment Jan. 11, 2011 Normal, overall
G36009 Digital Posttreatment Jan. 11, 2011 Normal, overall
G39355 Digital OSCI Feb. 6, 2012 Ultraviolet, overall
G39354 Digital OSCI Feb. 7, 2012 Normal, overall; composite of G39530–G39549
G39530–G39549 Digital OSCI Feb. 7, 2012 Sections (20 total)
G39356 Digital OSCI Feb. 8, 2012 Normal, frame only

Notes

  1. The Customs House at Varengeville (W1455) corresponds to Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, vol. 3, Nos. 969–1595 (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996), cat. 1455. The Art Institute currently uses the title that was given to the painting when it was first exhibited in June 1898 at Galerie Georges Petit as well as that recorded in Monet’s own livre de comptes. The painting had the following titles during the lifetime of the artist:

    Possibly June 1898: Poste de Douaniers, à Varengeville, 1897. (Galerie Georges Petit, Exposition Claude Monet, exh. cat. [Georges Petit, 1898], p. 5, cat. 27 or cat. 28; according to Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, vol. 3, Nos. 969–1595 [Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996], p. 603, cat. 1455 [ill.]).

    Feb. 1899: poste douanier Varengeville (Monet’s livre de comptes, ventes janvier–juillet 1899. The livre de comptes is located at the Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris. Photocopy of this page in curatorial object file, Art Institute of Chicago).

    Feb. 27, 1911: La cabane du douanier. (Bernheim-Jeune, Collection Maurice Masson, exh. cat. [Bernheim-Jeune, 1911], p. 17, cat. 23).

    June 22, 1911: La cabane du douanier. (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).

    June 23, 1911: La cabane du douanier (Durand-Ruel, Paris, stock book for 1901–13 [no. 9648]; see Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 5, 2013, curatorial object file, Art Institute of Chicago).

    July 21, 1913: La cabane du douanier (Durand-Ruel, Paris, stock book for 1901–13 [no. 9648]; see Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 5, 2013, curatorial object file, Art Institute of Chicago).

    Aug. 6, 1913: La cabane de douaniers (Durand-Ruel, New York, stock book for 1904–24 [no. 3668]; see Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 5, 2013, curatorial object file, Art Institute of Chicago).

    Feb. 10, 1914: La cabane de douaniers (Durand-Ruel, New York, stock book for 1904–24 [no. 3668]; see Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 5, 2013, curatorial object file, Art Institute of Chicago. The same title is listed on a purchase receipt on Durand-Ruel letterhead, also dated February 10, 1914, photocopy in curatorial object file, Art Institute of Chicago).

    Feb. 1925: Coast-Guard’s Shack. (M. C., “Monets in the Art Institute,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 19, 2 [Feb. 1925], p. 20).

  2. Paul Hayes Tucker, Monet in the ’90s: The Series Paintings, exh. cat. (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/Yale University Press, 1989), p. 203.
  3. The number preceded by a W refers to the Monet catalogue raisonné; see Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, vols. 1–4 (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996).
  4. See Richard Thomson, “Looking to Paint: Monet 1878–1883,” in Michael Clarke and Richard Thomson, Monet: The Seine and the Sea, 1878–1883, exh. cat. (National Galleries of Scotland, 2003), pp. 15–35. See also John House, Monet: Nature into Art (Yale University Press, 1986), p. 225; and Paul Hayes Tucker, Monet in the ’90s: The Series Paintings, exh. cat. (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/Yale University Press, 1989), especially “Monet and the Challenges to Impressionism in the 1880s,” pp. 15–37, and “Normandy and the North: Monet’s Cliff Paintings of 1896 and 1897,” pp. 189–217.
  5. Mary Mathews Gedo, Monet and His Muse: Camille Monet in the Artist’s Life (University of Chicago Press, 2010), pp. 215–16.
  6. John House, Monet: Nature into Art (Yale University Press, 1986), p. 21.
  7. John House, Monet: Nature into Art (Yale University Press, 1986), pp. 195–96.
  8. Douglas Druick, Renoir, Artists in Focus (Art Institute of Chicago, 1997), pp. 49, 55–56.
  9. Paul Hayes Tucker, Monet in the ’90s: The Series Paintings, exh. cat. (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/Yale University Press, 1989), p. 23.
  10. John House, Monet: Nature into Art (Yale University Press, 1986), p. 29.
  11. John House, Monet: Nature into Art (Yale University Press, 1986), p. 31.
  12. Paul Hayes Tucker, Monet in the ’90s: The Series Paintings, exh. cat. (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/Yale University Press, 1989), p. 203. The number preceded by a W refers to the Monet catalogue raisonné; see Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, vols. 1–4 (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996).
  13. The number preceded by a W refers to the Monet catalogue raisonné; see Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, vols. 1–4 (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996).
  14. For more on the influence of Japanese art on Monet, see National Gallery of Australia, Monet and Japan, exh. cat. (National Gallery of Australia/University of Washington Press, 2001). For the influence of Japanese art on Impressionism more generally, see Karin Breuer, Japanesque: The Japanese Print in the Era of Impressionism, exh. cat. (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco/Delmonico/Prestel, 2010).
  15. Monet to Paul Durand-Ruel, Feb. 25, 1896; translated in Richard Thomson, “Looking to Paint: Monet 1878–1883,” in Michael Clarke and Richard Thomson, Monet: The Seine and the Sea, 1878–1883, exh. cat. (National Galleries of Scotland, 2003), p. 35; original French in Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné, vol. 3, Peintures, 1887–1898 (Bibliothèque des Arts, 1979), p. 289, letter 1324.
  16. The numbers preceded by a W refer to the Monet catalogue raisonné; see Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, vols. 1–4 (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996).
  17. The only exception is that at some point during this fifteen-year period, a cowl was added to the left-hand chimney. See Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, vol. 3, Nos. 969–1595 (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996), p. 603.
  18. For further discussion of the comparative analysis of the thread counts of the Monet paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago, see Kimberley Muir, Inge Fiedler, Don H. Johnson, and Robert G. Erdmann, “An In-depth Study of the Materials and Technique of Paintings by Claude Monet from the Art Institute of Chicago,” ICOM-CC 17th Triennial Meeting Preprints, Melbourne, Sept. 15–19, 2014 (forthcoming). The number preceded by a W refers to the Monet catalogue raisonné; see Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, vols. 1–4 (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996).
  19. John House, Monet: Nature into Art (Yale University Press, 1986), pp. 220–21. House refers to the statement about “more serious qualities”; however, the original appears in Theodore Robinson’s diary, June 3, 1892, MS, Frick Art Reference Library, New York.
  20. The number preceded by a W refers to the Monet catalogue raisonné; see Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, vols. 1–4 (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996).
  21. Paul Hayes Tucker, Monet in the ’90s, exh. cat. (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/Yale University Press, 1989), p. 208.
  22. Monet to Alice Monet, c. Mar. 24, 1897; quoted in Paul Hayes Tucker, Monet in the ’90s, exh. cat. (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/Yale University Press, 1989), p. 208; original French in Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné, vol. 3, Peintures, 1887–1898 (Bibliothèque des Arts, 1979), p. 294, letter 1383.
  23. For further discussion, see Kimberley Muir, Inge Fiedler, Don H. Johnson, and Robert Erdmann, “Thread Count, Weave, and Ground Analysis of Claude Monet’s Vieille & Troisgros/Troisgros Frères canvases in the Art Institute of Chicago,” in Painting Techniques: History, Materials and Studio Practice (Rijksmuseum, forthcoming). The numbers preceded by a W refer to the Monet catalogue raisonné; see Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, vols. 1–4 (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996).
  24. For an overview of the materials and methods of Claude Monet’s paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago, see Kimberley Muir, Inge Fiedler, Don H. Johnson, and Robert G. Erdmann, “An In-depth Study of the Materials and Technique of Paintings by Claude Monet from the Art Institute of Chicago,” ICOM-CC 17th Triennial Meeting Preprints, Melbourne, Sept. 15–19, 2014 (forthcoming).
  25. Using the toolbar at the bottom right, any two images of the painting may be selected for comparison by clicking the layers icon to the right of the slider bar. The slider bar may be moved to transition back and forth between the two chosen images. The jagged line icon brings up a list of available annotations, or colored lines that show the significant features visible in each image, which may be turned on or off in any combination. For example, the red annotation lines, associated with the natural-light image, trace some of the painting’s key compositional features. When overlaid onto a technical image (X-ray, raking light, UV, etc.), the red outlines help the viewer to better observe how features in the technical image relate to or diverge from the painting as seen with the naked eye. (When annotations are turned on, a legend appears in the upper right showing each color and its associated image type.) The circular arrow icon returns the image to the default settings (natural light, full-image view, natural-light [red] annotation on). The four-arrow icon toggles between the view of the image in the page and a full-screen view of the image. In the upper right corner, the vertical slider bar may be moved to zoom into or out of the image; different parts of the image can be accessed by clicking and dragging within the image itself. The icon in the upper left corner opens a small view of the full image, within which a red box indicates the portion of the overall image being viewed when zooming is enabled.
  26. XRF analysis, in conjunction with microscopic examination of the painting surface, indicates that the paint mixture contains vermilion, viridian, and cobalt blue; other pigments may also be present. See Kimberley Muir, “Mon_Customs_33_1149_XRF_Results,” Dec. 16, 2010, on file in the Conservation Department, Art Institute of Chicago.
  27. Flax was confirmed by microscopic cross-sectional fiber identification; see Inge Fiedler, “1933_1149_Monet_analytical_report,” June 9, 2014, on file in the Conservation Department, Art Institute of Chicago.
  28. See, for example, the chart of standard sizes available from Bourgeois Aîné in 1888, reproduced in David Bomford, Jo Kirby, John Leighton, and Ashok Roy, Art in the Making: Impressionism (National Gallery, London/Yale University Press, 1990), p. 46, fig. 31. The original dimensions of the painting were based on a visual estimate of the original foldovers. Small discrepancies between the current dimensions and standard sizes may be a result of this approximation, as well as other factors such as restretching of the painting on a new stretcher after lining.
  29. Thread count and weave information determined by Thread Count Automation Project software; see Don H. Johnson and Robert G. Erdmann, “Thread Count Report: Claude Monet, The Customs House at Varengeville (W1455/1933.1149),” Nov. 2011.
  30. This suggests that these canvases were cut from the same bolt of fabric. See Don H. Johnson, “Weave Match Report: Claude Monet, W1281, W1455, W1527,” Apr. 2011. For further discussion, see Kimberley Muir, Inge Fiedler, Don H. Johnson, and Robert Erdmann, “Thread Count, Weave, and Ground Analysis of Claude Monet’s Vieille & Troisgros/Troisgros Frères canvases in the Art Institute of Chicago,” in Painting Techniques: History, Materials and Studio Practice (Rijksmuseum, forthcoming). The numbers preceded by a W refer to the Monet catalogue raisonné; see Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, vols. 1–4 (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996).
  31. See examination of auxiliary support report, n.d., on file in the Conservation Department, Art Institute of Chicago.
  32. The presence of a sizing layer is difficult to determine from the cross sections due to previous conservation treatments, including wax-resin lining.
  33. Traces of magnesium, aluminum, and silicon were detected in association with the calcium particles and are believed to be impurities often associated with the chalk. The ground composition was analyzed using SEM/EDX, PLM, and XRF. See Inge Fiedler, “1933_1149_Monet_analytical_report,” June 9, 2014; Inge Fiedler, “1933_1149_Monet_PLM_Results,” Nov. 20, 2013; and Kimberley Muir, “Mon_Customs_33_1149_XRF_Results,” Dec. 16, 2010, on file in the Conservation Department, Art Institute of Chicago.
  34. These strokes occur in two roughly parallel, horizontal lines in the left half of the sky. It is possible that they were used as a way of delineating the horizon or the different color bands of the sea. Similar strokes occur along the left edge of the roof, where they appear to be related to short diagonal strokes in the water that were brought just to the edge of the roof.
  35. In addition, the edges of the losses often appear soft, suggesting that the paint was still somewhat fluid when the losses occurred.
  36. This perhaps provides tangible evidence of Monet having worked on the painting outdoors. Additional fibers may be present but completely embedded in the paint. Similar fibers were observed in Monet’s Stacks of Wheat (Sunset, Snow Effect) (cat. 29 [W1278], inv. 1922.431) and Poppy Field (cat. 26 [W1253], inv. 1922.4465). The numbers preceded by a W refer to the Monet catalogue raisonné; see Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, vols. 1–4 (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996).
  37. The pigments were identified by the following methods: lead white, cadmium yellow, vermilion, emerald green, viridian, cobalt blue, cobalt violet (PLM, XRF); chrome yellow, red lake, ultramarine blue, possible bone black (PLM). PLM analysis highlighted the presence of pale-red and deeper-red particles of red lake, suggesting that two different types may be present. Paint scrapings taken in 1974 were reexamined by PLM in 2013. Analysis was carried out on selected areas and may not include all pigments present in the painting. For more detailed results and conditions used, see Inge Fiedler, “1933_1149_Monet_analytical_report,” June 9, 2014; Inge Fiedler, “1933_1149_Monet_PLM_Results,” Nov. 20, 2013; and Kimberley Muir, “Mon_Customs_33_1149_XRF_Results,” Dec. 16, 2010, on file in the Conservation Department, Art Institute of Chicago.
  38. Identifying the specific type of lake used only by its fluorescence under UV is difficult, as many factors, including the type of substrate, binders, varnishes, and admixtures with other pigments, can ultimately affect the perceived color of the fluorescence. Some types of madder and purpurin lake pigments have been reported to fluoresce orange, but other lakes, such as lacs, may fluoresce as well. The characteristics of red lakes, including their fluorescence under UV, are discussed in Helmut Schweppe and John Winter, “Madder and Alizarin,” in Artists’ Pigments: A Handbook of Their History and Characteristics, ed. Elisabeth West FitzHugh, vol. 3 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1997), pp. 124–26. See also Ruth Johnston-Feller, Color Science in the Examination of Museum Objects: Nondestructive Procedures (Getty Conservation Institute, 2001), p. 207.
  39. The binding medium was not analyzed. The estimation of an oil medium is based on visual examination, as well as on knowledge of Monet’s technique and published analyses of Monet paintings in other collections. See, for example, David Bomford, Jo Kirby, John Leighton, and Ashok Roy, Art in the Making: Impressionism (National Gallery, London/Yale University Press, 1990), pp. 72–75.
  40. See treatment notes on reverse of Anton Konrad, examination report, Mar. 14, 1960, on file in the Conservation Department, Art Institute of Chicago.
  41. See Alfred Jakstas, treatment report, Aug. 20, 1974, on file in the Conservation Department, Art Institute of Chicago.
  42. See Kristin Lister, treatment report, Nov. 15, 2010, on file in the Conservation Department, Art Institute of Chicago.
  43. Kirk Vuillemot, “Monet Frame Descriptions Final,” Dec. 3, 2013, on file in the Conservation Department, Art Institute of Chicago.
  44. Kirk Vuillemot, “Monet Frame Descriptions Final,” Dec. 3, 2013, on file in the Conservation Department, Art Institute of Chicago.
  45. This transaction is recorded in Monet’s livre de comptes, ventes janvier–juillet 1899, as “Allard et Noel / Vernon temps gris 6000 / poste douanier Varengeville 6000.” The livre de comptes is located at the Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris. Photocopy of this page in curatorial object file, Art Institute of Chicago.
  46. See Bernheim-Jeune, Collection Maurice Masson, exh. cat. (Bernheim-Jeune, 1911), p. 17, cat. 23. This exhibition took place February 27–March 15, 1911.
  47. See 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. The transaction is recorded in the Durand-Ruel, Paris, stock book for 1901–13 (no. 9648, as La cabane du douanier): “Purchased by DR Paris on 23 June 1911 at the Masson sale, (Paris, Lair-Dubreuil commissaire-priseur), lot no. 23, for 9 020 F; Stock DR Paris no. 9648; photo no. 7040,” 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, Art Institute of Chicago.
  48. 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.” 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, Art Institute of Chicago.
  49. The transaction is recorded in the Durand-Ruel, New York, stock book for 1904–24 (no. 3668, as La cabane de douaniers): “Sold to M. A. Ryerson on 10 February 1914 for $7 500,” as confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 5, 2013. A purchase receipt on Durand-Ruel letterhead, dated February 10, 1914, details 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, Art Institute of Chicago. This painting was on loan from Martin A. Ryerson to the Art Institute of Chicago, intermittently, by 1921, according to Museum Registration department artists sheets, on file in Museum Registration, Art Institute of Chicago.
  50. According to Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, vol. 3, Nos. 969–1595 (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996), p. 603, cat. 1455 (ill.).
  51. An inscription on the painting’s stretcher appears to read: “Exposition Monet 15 rue Richepanse 1906”. In 1906 Bernheim-Jeune transferred to 15 rue Richepanse; see http://www.bernheim-jeune.com/histoire/, accessed Apr. 7, 2014. According to the Monet catalogue raisonné, there were two Monet exhibitions at Bernheim-Jeune in 1906: Oeuvres de Cl. Monet. 1894–1905 (Mar. 1906); and Cl. Monet (Oct. 15–Nov. 3, 1906). The Art Institute’s painting, however, is not identified as being in either of those exhibitions; see Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, vol. 4, Nos. 1596–1983 et les grandes décorations (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996), p. 1019.
  52. According to Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, vol. 3, Nos. 969–1595 (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996), pp. 694–95, cat. 1586 (ill.); and Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, vol. 4, Nos. 1596–1983 et les grandes décorations (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996), p. 1021. Charles F. Stuckey, with the assistance of Sophia Shaw, Claude Monet, 1840–1926, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago/Thames & Hudson, 1995), p. 243, state that Durand-Ruel arranges exhibitions in Midwestern cities between 1911–12 and 1914–18; in Chicago, these exhibitions would take place in the lobby galleries at the Auditorium, Stratford, and Blackstone Hotels.
  53. The exhibition catalogue lists the dates as June 1–November 1, 1933, but newspaper articles confirm that the exhibition opened on May 23. See India Moffett, “Art Show of 1,500 World Famous Treasures Is Opened at Institute,” Chicago Daily Tribune, May 23, 1933, p. 17; and Virginia Gardner, “Record Throng of 1,367,000 Views Art Show,” Chicago Daily Tribune, Oct. 29, 1933, p. 7.
  54. The exhibition catalogue lists the dates as June 1–Nov. 1, 1934, but newspaper articles confirm that the exhibition closed on October 31. See “Fair Art Exhibition Closes Forever at 5:30 This Afternoon,” Chicago Daily Tribune, Oct. 31, 1934, p. 2; and “Shippers Start Dismantling Art Exhibition Today,” Chicago Daily Tribune, Nov. 1, 1934, p. 3.
  55. According to shipping order A690, on file in Institutional Archives, Art Institute of Chicago; and receipt of object 13266, on file in Museum Registration, Art Institute of Chicago.
  56. The exhibition catalogue is printed in Art Institute of Chicago, “Catalogue,” Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly 51, 2 (Apr. 1, 1957), pp. 33–34. Under “Exhibitions” in the same issue, the original exhibition dates were listed as April 1–30 (p. 36); however, the show was extended until June 15. See Edith Weigle, “The Wonderful World of Art,” Chicago Daily Tribune, May 26, 1957, p. E2, for an exhibition review and reference to the extension of the length of the show. The April 1957 issue of the Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly was largely dedicated to the Monet works in the Art Institute’s collection. The exhibition marked the first time the Art Institute’s thirty Monet paintings were shown together in the museum.
  57. According to Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, vol. 3, Nos. 969–1595 (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996), p. 603, cat. 1455 (ill.).
  58. Reprinted in Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Art Institute of Chicago, 1932), p. 185, cat. 91.14.
  59. Reprinted in Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Art Institute of Chicago, 1968), p. 321.
  60. See Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 5 and 20, 2013, curatorial object file, Art Institute of Chicago.
  61. See Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 5 and 20, 2013, curatorial object file, Art Institute of Chicago.
  62. The label was on the pre-1974-treatment stretcher (discarded); preserved in conservation file.
  63. The number was on the pre-1974-treatment stretcher (discarded); preserved in conservation file.
  64. The number was on the pre-1974-treatment stretcher (discarded); preserved in conservation file.
  65. In 1906 Bernheim-Jeune transferred to 15 rue Richepanse; see http://www.bernheim-jeune.com/histoire/, accessed April 7, 2014. According to the Monet catalogue raisonné, there were two Monet exhibitions at Bernheim-Jeune in 1906: Oeuvres de Cl. Monet. 1894–1905 (Mar. 1906); and Cl. Monet (Oct. 15–Nov. 3, 1906). The Art Institute’s painting, however, is not identified as being in either of those exhibitions; see Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, vol. 4, Nos. 1596–1983 et les grandes décorations (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996), p. 1019.
  66. The stretcher dates to the 1974 lining.
  67. This corresponds to the exhibition at Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Monet in the ’90s: The Series Paintings, Feb. 7–Apr. 29, 1990.
  68. See Don H. Johnson, C. Richard Johnson, Jr., Andrew G. Klein, William A. Sethares, H. Lee, and Ella Hendriks, “A Thread Counting Algorithm for Art Forensics,” Proc. IEEE 13th DSP/5th IEEE SPE Workshop (IEEE, 2009), pp. 679–84; doi:10.1109/DSP.2009.4786009.
  69. See Damon M. Conover, John K. Delaney, Paola Ricciardi, and Murray H. Loew, “Towards Automatic Registration of Technical Images of Works of Art,” in Computer Vision and Image Analysis of Art II, ed. David G. Stork, James Coddington, and Anna Bentkowska-Kafel, Proc. SPIE 7869 (SPIE/IS&T, 2011), doi:10.1117/12.872634.

How to Cite

Entry by Jill Shaw; Technical Report by Kimberley Muir and Kirk Vuillemot, “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, rev. ed. (2014; repr., Art Institute of Chicago, 2026), https://doi.org/10.53269/9780865592698/25.

Download printable PDF

Sign up for our enewsletter to receive updates.
Learn more

Image actions

Share

Suggested Terms