Claude Monet (1840-1926)
Property from the family of Claude Monet
Claude Monet (1840-1926)

Yport, la nuit

Details
Claude Monet (1840-1926)
Yport, la nuit
stamped with signature 'Claude Monet' (Lugt 1819b; lower right of the support)
pastel on paper adhered to a support sheet
5 ¼ x 10 ¼ in. (13.2 x 26 cm.)
Provenance
Estate of the artist.
Michel Monet, Giverny (by descent from the above).
Rolande Verneiges, France (gift from the above).
By descent from the above to the present owner.
Literature
D. Wildenstein, Claude Monet, Catalogue raisonné, Lausanne, 1991, vol. V, p. 156, no. P 6 (illustrated).
Further Details
The small group of pastels which Monet executed in the quiet town of Yport on the Normandy coast are somewhat unique within his œuvre – they are among only a handful of motifs which the artist chose not to return to in his later oil paintings. Recording the play of light and atmospheric conditions above a largely featureless stretch of ground, Yport, la nuit stands as a tribute to the romantic landscape tradition, popular in Germany during the 19th century. Echoing the powerfully evocative landscapes of Caspar David Friedrich, Monet uses a limited colour palette to capture the scene, filling the composition with an enveloping darkness that is punctuated by just a small amount of light from the shining moon that escapes through a break in the clouds. Highlighting the rich forms of the night sky, this patch of light also perfectly frames the silhouette of the house further along the path, the only sign of human presence in Monet’s landscape.

Caspar David Friedrich, Sea Shore in Moonlight, 1835-1836.
Kunsthalle Hamburg, Hamburg.

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Elaine Holt
Elaine Holt

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