NARRATOR:
In this early seascape, the great Impressionist master Claude Monet wonderfully conveys the freshness of the outdoors. There’s also a sound sense of structure; Monet arranged all his elements to create a rhythmic harmony. The rhythmic motions of jaunty sails, birds, and waves punctuate the scene, like musical notes on the choppy water.
The Mouth of the Seine at Honfleur is one of two canvases that Monet exhibited in his first show, at the Paris Salon of 1865. The Paris-born artist was only 25, and lacked regular academic training, but his work received immediate acclaim from artists, critics, and public alike. This picture was singled out for the most praise. In the influential Gazette des Beaux-Arts, the distinguished art critic Paul Mantz proclaimed:
CRITIC (ACTOR):
“The taste for harmonious schemes of color in the play of analogous tones, the feeling for values, the striking point of view of the whole, a bold manner of seeing things and of forcing the attention of the spectator—these are qualities that Monet already possesses in high degree. His Mouth of the Seine abruptly stopped us in passing, and we shall not forget it.”
NARRATOR:
When Monet painted this seascape in 1865, Impressionism was just developing. His early success at the Salon was short-lived. In 1867, for example, his entry was rejected. Over the next few years, Monet became friends with Édouard Manet, and began to work with Impressionist painters Renoir and Pissarro, whose pictures you’ll also find in the Norton Simon Museum. In 1874, in the first independent Impressionist group exhibition, Monet showed twelve paintings. One of them, Impression: Sunrise, gave the movement its name.
Mouth of the Seine at Honfleur
1865
Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926)
On View
In 1865, a twenty-four-year-old Claude Monet made his Salon debut with this picture and its pendant (today in the Kimbell Art Museum), declaring an allegiance to Courbet, Manet, and the Realist avant-garde. We stand on a jetty looking across the harbor at Honfleur, a town on the Normandy Coast where the Seine empties into the English Channel. The sails of fishing boats swell with a wind that stiffens waves in the foreground and sends clouds rolling across the sky. For all its salty immediacy, the picture was painted not outdoors—en plein air—but back in Monet’s Paris studio, on the basis of sketches he had made on-site.
Details
- Artist Name: Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926)
- Title: Mouth of the Seine at Honfleur
- Date: 1865
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 35-1/4 x 59-1/4 in. (89.5 x 150.5 cm)
- Credit Line: The Norton Simon Foundation
- Accession Number: F.1973.33.2.P
- Copyright: © The Norton Simon Foundation
Object Information
The artist, sold 1865 for Ff 300 to;
Alfred Cadart, Paris.
Rousselle, sold 24 July 1922 to;
[Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, stock no. 23.095, sold 28 September 1922 to];
Georges Bernheim, Paris, still in 1924, possibly 1926.
Y. de Saint-Albin, Paris;
Jacques de Saint-Albin, Paris, by 1959.
Remond, Geneva.
[Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, by 1968, sold 1973 to];
The Norton Simon Foundation.
Alfred Cadart, Paris.
Rousselle, sold 24 July 1922 to;
[Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, stock no. 23.095, sold 28 September 1922 to];
Georges Bernheim, Paris, still in 1924, possibly 1926.
Y. de Saint-Albin, Paris;
Jacques de Saint-Albin, Paris, by 1959.
Remond, Geneva.
[Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, by 1968, sold 1973 to];
The Norton Simon Foundation.
- Paris, Salon, to
Lathom, Xenia, Claude Monet, p. 47
Bernard, Bruce, The Impressionists, p. 17
Le Roux, H., Gil Blas, p. 2
Brenneman, David A., Monet: A View from the River, fig. 14 p. 31
Ortrud Westheider & Michael Philipp (Editors), Monet: Places, fig. 4 p. 25 ; p. [24] (ill.)
Monet, Claude, Art News Annual, p. 198
Isaacson, Joel, Monet: Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe, p. 98, n. 8; p. 102, n. 29 pp. 20, 98, 102
Fels, Florent, Claude Monet, p. 2
Steadman, David W., The Connoisseur, fig. 1 pp. 220-222
Levine, Steven Z., Monet, Narcissus, and Self-Reflection: The Modernist Myth of Self, fig. 5 p. 4
Reuterswärd, Oscar, Monet: En konstnärshistorik, fig. 1 pp. 28, 30-31
Mount, Charles Merrill, Monet, pp. 76-77, 86-87, 90-91, 95-97, 403
Kawachi, Nori, Claude Monet, p. 19
Brettell, Richard R. and Stephen F. Eisenman, Nineteenth-Century Art in the Norton Simon Museum, volume 1,
Mack, Gerstle, Paul Cézanne, p. 187
The New Painting: Impressionism 1874-1886, fig. 3 p. 95
Bricon, Étienne, Psychologie d'Art. Les Maîtres de la fin du XIXe siècle, pp. 297-298
Hodge, Susie, Claude Monet (Artists and Their World), p. 11
Rich, Daniel Catton, Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly, p. 28
Kimball Art Museum, Catalogue of the Collection, pp. 200, 202
Chavange, R., Le Figaro Artistique, p. 147
Wildenstein, Daniel, Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné, no. 51 pp. 138-139
Kostenevich, Albert, Hidden Treasures Revealed: Impressionist Masterpieces and Other Important French Paintings Preserved by the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, fig. 2 pp. 132, 134
Robiquet, Jean, L'impressionnisme vécu, p. 62
Taillandier, Yvon, Monet, p. 93
Dubosc, G., Journal de Rouen, p. 4
James H. Rubin, Edouard Manet: Initiale M, L'Oeil, Une Main, Fig. 87 p. 258
Grappe, Georges, Monet, p. 13
Monet: A Retrospective, p. 32
Cahen, Gustave, Eugène Boudin; sa vie & son oeuvre, pp. 106-107
Mühlberger, Richard, O Que Faz de um Monet um Monet?, pp. 7 - 9
Degand, Léon and Denis Rouart, Claude Monet, p. 32
Régamey, R., Gazette des Beaux-Arts, p. 76
Isaacson, Joel, Observation and Reflection: Claude Monet, fig. 2 pp. 14, 193
Privat, Gonzague, Place aux jeunes! Causeries critiques sur le Salon de 1865, p. 190
Seiberling, Grace, Porticus (Journal of the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester), fig. 3 p. 41
Cassou, Jean, Les Impressionnistes et leur époque, p. 17
Wildenstein, Daniel, Kindlers Malerei Lexikon, pp. 466, 470
Alexandre, Arsène, Claude Monet, pp. 34, 36, (opp. p. 36)
Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, cat. 992 p. 360
Tabarant, Adolphe, La vie artistique au temps de Baudelaire, p. 425
Impressionist Revolution, p. 254
Thiébault-Sisson, François, Le Temps, p. 3
Eisenman, Stephen, Monet: Atti dei convegno (Symposium essays: 'Monet. I luoghi della pittura'), p. 139-141
Lathève, Jacques, Impressionnistes et Symbolistes devant la presse, pp. 29-30
Gimpel, René, Art in America, p. 173
Petrie, Brian, Claude Monet: The First of the Impressionists, fig. 8 p. 16
Pigalle, L'autographe au Salon de 1865 et dans les ateliers, pen drawing p. 76
Wildenstein, Daniel, Monet: Catalogue Raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, no. 51
Mathey, François, L'impressionnisme, p. 37
Wildenstein, Daniel, Monet. Impressions, pp. 14, 16
Geffroy, Gustave, Claude Monet, sa vie, son temps, son oeuvre, pp. 27-28
Graber, Hans, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Claude Monet nach eigenen und fremden Zeugnissen, pp. 166-167
Duret, Théodore, Histoire d'Édouard Manet et de son oeuvre avec un catalogue des peintures et des pastels, p. 61
National Gallery of Scotland, Lighting up the Landscape: French Impressionism and Its Origins, fig. 4 p. 18
Sietz, William C., Monet, fig. 5 pp. 10, 16, 46
Dewhurst, Wynford, Impressionist Painting: Its Genesis and Development, p. 39
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Manet and the Sea, fig. 63 p. 202
Fels, Marthe de, La vie de Claude Monet, p. 73
House, John, Monet, fig. 2 p. 6
Mantz, Paul, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, p. 26
Shimada, Norio; and Sakagami, Keiko, Claude Monet, Volume I, 1858-1880, fig. 12 p. 32
Stoll, Robert Thomas, Die Französischen impressionisten, pp. 33-34
Bortolatto, Luigina Rossi, L'opera completa di Claude Monet, no. 8 p. 88
Duret, Théodore, Die Impressionisten, p. 19
Malingue, Maurice, Claude Monet, p. 15
Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum, p. 128
Skeggs, Douglas, River of Light: Monet's Impressions of the Seine, pp. 24-25
Mathey, François, The Impressionists, pp. 50, 63, 66
Lanöe-Villène, Georges, Histoire de l'École Française de Paysage depuis Chintreuil jusqu' à 1900, p. 280
Czymmek, Götz, Dossier de l'Art, p. 62
Léger, Charles, Claude Monet, p. 6
Gordon, Robert; and Andrew Forge, Monet, pp. 15-17
Mantz, Paul, Le Temps, p. 3
Ina Conzen, Manet and the Impressionists, fig. 37 p. 41
McKendry, Meredith - Editor, Monet: Impression Sunrise, pp. 41-42; p. 42 (ill.)
Stoll, Robert Thomas, La peinture impressionniste, p. 40
Bortolatto, Luigina Rossi ;and Janine Bailly-Herzberg, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Monet 1870-1889, no. 8 p. 88
Mauclair, Camille, Claude Monet, p. 6
Mathey, François, Les Impressionnistes et leur temps, p. 72
Bazin, Germain, L'époque impressionniste avec notices biographiques et bibliographiques, p. 10
Rewald, John, The History of Impressionism, n. 40 pp. 122, 137
Gimpel, René, Journal d'un collectionneur, marchand de tableaux, pp. 253-254
Duret, Théodore, Histoire des peintres impressionnistes, pp. 95, 101
Stuckey, Charles F., Claude Monet, 1840-1926, p. 190
Bernard, Bruce, The Impressionists, p. 17
Le Roux, H., Gil Blas, p. 2
Brenneman, David A., Monet: A View from the River, fig. 14 p. 31
Ortrud Westheider & Michael Philipp (Editors), Monet: Places, fig. 4 p. 25 ; p. [24] (ill.)
Monet, Claude, Art News Annual, p. 198
Isaacson, Joel, Monet: Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe, p. 98, n. 8; p. 102, n. 29 pp. 20, 98, 102
Fels, Florent, Claude Monet, p. 2
Steadman, David W., The Connoisseur, fig. 1 pp. 220-222
Levine, Steven Z., Monet, Narcissus, and Self-Reflection: The Modernist Myth of Self, fig. 5 p. 4
Reuterswärd, Oscar, Monet: En konstnärshistorik, fig. 1 pp. 28, 30-31
Mount, Charles Merrill, Monet, pp. 76-77, 86-87, 90-91, 95-97, 403
Kawachi, Nori, Claude Monet, p. 19
Brettell, Richard R. and Stephen F. Eisenman, Nineteenth-Century Art in the Norton Simon Museum, volume 1,
Mack, Gerstle, Paul Cézanne, p. 187
The New Painting: Impressionism 1874-1886, fig. 3 p. 95
Bricon, Étienne, Psychologie d'Art. Les Maîtres de la fin du XIXe siècle, pp. 297-298
Hodge, Susie, Claude Monet (Artists and Their World), p. 11
Rich, Daniel Catton, Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly, p. 28
Kimball Art Museum, Catalogue of the Collection, pp. 200, 202
Chavange, R., Le Figaro Artistique, p. 147
Wildenstein, Daniel, Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné, no. 51 pp. 138-139
Kostenevich, Albert, Hidden Treasures Revealed: Impressionist Masterpieces and Other Important French Paintings Preserved by the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, fig. 2 pp. 132, 134
Robiquet, Jean, L'impressionnisme vécu, p. 62
Taillandier, Yvon, Monet, p. 93
Dubosc, G., Journal de Rouen, p. 4
James H. Rubin, Edouard Manet: Initiale M, L'Oeil, Une Main, Fig. 87 p. 258
Grappe, Georges, Monet, p. 13
Monet: A Retrospective, p. 32
Cahen, Gustave, Eugène Boudin; sa vie & son oeuvre, pp. 106-107
Mühlberger, Richard, O Que Faz de um Monet um Monet?, pp. 7 - 9
Degand, Léon and Denis Rouart, Claude Monet, p. 32
Régamey, R., Gazette des Beaux-Arts, p. 76
Isaacson, Joel, Observation and Reflection: Claude Monet, fig. 2 pp. 14, 193
Privat, Gonzague, Place aux jeunes! Causeries critiques sur le Salon de 1865, p. 190
Seiberling, Grace, Porticus (Journal of the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester), fig. 3 p. 41
Cassou, Jean, Les Impressionnistes et leur époque, p. 17
Wildenstein, Daniel, Kindlers Malerei Lexikon, pp. 466, 470
Alexandre, Arsène, Claude Monet, pp. 34, 36, (opp. p. 36)
Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, cat. 992 p. 360
Tabarant, Adolphe, La vie artistique au temps de Baudelaire, p. 425
Impressionist Revolution, p. 254
Thiébault-Sisson, François, Le Temps, p. 3
Eisenman, Stephen, Monet: Atti dei convegno (Symposium essays: 'Monet. I luoghi della pittura'), p. 139-141
Lathève, Jacques, Impressionnistes et Symbolistes devant la presse, pp. 29-30
Gimpel, René, Art in America, p. 173
Petrie, Brian, Claude Monet: The First of the Impressionists, fig. 8 p. 16
Pigalle, L'autographe au Salon de 1865 et dans les ateliers, pen drawing p. 76
Wildenstein, Daniel, Monet: Catalogue Raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, no. 51
Mathey, François, L'impressionnisme, p. 37
Wildenstein, Daniel, Monet. Impressions, pp. 14, 16
Geffroy, Gustave, Claude Monet, sa vie, son temps, son oeuvre, pp. 27-28
Graber, Hans, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Claude Monet nach eigenen und fremden Zeugnissen, pp. 166-167
Duret, Théodore, Histoire d'Édouard Manet et de son oeuvre avec un catalogue des peintures et des pastels, p. 61
National Gallery of Scotland, Lighting up the Landscape: French Impressionism and Its Origins, fig. 4 p. 18
Sietz, William C., Monet, fig. 5 pp. 10, 16, 46
Dewhurst, Wynford, Impressionist Painting: Its Genesis and Development, p. 39
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Manet and the Sea, fig. 63 p. 202
Fels, Marthe de, La vie de Claude Monet, p. 73
House, John, Monet, fig. 2 p. 6
Mantz, Paul, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, p. 26
Shimada, Norio; and Sakagami, Keiko, Claude Monet, Volume I, 1858-1880, fig. 12 p. 32
Stoll, Robert Thomas, Die Französischen impressionisten, pp. 33-34
Bortolatto, Luigina Rossi, L'opera completa di Claude Monet, no. 8 p. 88
Duret, Théodore, Die Impressionisten, p. 19
Malingue, Maurice, Claude Monet, p. 15
Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum, p. 128
Skeggs, Douglas, River of Light: Monet's Impressions of the Seine, pp. 24-25
Mathey, François, The Impressionists, pp. 50, 63, 66
Lanöe-Villène, Georges, Histoire de l'École Française de Paysage depuis Chintreuil jusqu' à 1900, p. 280
Czymmek, Götz, Dossier de l'Art, p. 62
Léger, Charles, Claude Monet, p. 6
Gordon, Robert; and Andrew Forge, Monet, pp. 15-17
Mantz, Paul, Le Temps, p. 3
Ina Conzen, Manet and the Impressionists, fig. 37 p. 41
McKendry, Meredith - Editor, Monet: Impression Sunrise, pp. 41-42; p. 42 (ill.)
Stoll, Robert Thomas, La peinture impressionniste, p. 40
Bortolatto, Luigina Rossi ;and Janine Bailly-Herzberg, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Monet 1870-1889, no. 8 p. 88
Mauclair, Camille, Claude Monet, p. 6
Mathey, François, Les Impressionnistes et leur temps, p. 72
Bazin, Germain, L'époque impressionniste avec notices biographiques et bibliographiques, p. 10
Rewald, John, The History of Impressionism, n. 40 pp. 122, 137
Gimpel, René, Journal d'un collectionneur, marchand de tableaux, pp. 253-254
Duret, Théodore, Histoire des peintres impressionnistes, pp. 95, 101
Stuckey, Charles F., Claude Monet, 1840-1926, p. 190
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