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Lot Essay
Painted on a frigid winter’s day at the beginning of 1879, Lavacourt, l'hiver is one of a series of snow-covered landscapes that Claude Monet depicted while living in Vétheuil, the small, rural village situated on the Seine, north of Paris. Here, the artist crossed the river to paint from Lavacourt, the hamlet that stood on the opposite bank. Monet’s time in Vétheuil marked a crucial turning point in his career. Amid personal turmoil, family tragedy, and financial hardships, this was a period of extraordinary productivity that saw Monet forge a new direction in his art. Leaving behind the scenes of modern life that had defined his earlier output, the artist embraced the landscape in its purest form, capturing the ephemeral and fugitive effects of light and atmosphere on this picturesque corner of the Île de France.
In the summer of 1878, Monet left Argenteuil, the fashionable, suburban town on the outskirts of Paris, and, after a short stay in the capital, moved further north to Vétheuil, a village of just over six hundred inhabitants, positioned on a wide oxbow bend of the Seine. The ancient settlement was clustered around the church, Notre Dame de Vétheuil, with its large bell tower and Renaissance façade an imposing presence over the surrounding environs. Seeking to escape the increasingly over populated and over industrialized Argenteuil and in search of new subjects (as well as a lower cost of living), Monet was pleased with his new home. As he wrote happily to a friend on 1 September, “I have set up shop on the banks of the Seine at Vétheuil in a ravishing spot” (quoted in D. Wildenstein, Monet or the Triumph of Impressionism, Cologne, 1999, p. 137).
The artist, his wife Camille, and their two young sons lived together with Ernest and Alice Hoschedé and their six children. A close friend and important patron of the artist, Hoschedé had lost his enormous inherited fortune and had been forced to declare bankruptcy, losing not only his art collection, but both his Paris apartment and opulent Château at Montgéron. Monet, who was likewise struggling financially, invited the Hoschedés to live with them, pooling their resources to support their two families. The house they initially rented was too small, and by the end of the year they had moved again into a larger property overlooking the Seine and Lavacourt beyond.
The three years that Monet spent in these idyllic environs would prove to be a decisive moment of artistic reassessment for him. At Vétheuil, he began to focus on capturing the transient aspects of nature, employing a nascent serial technique that laid the groundwork for his most important later production. “The acknowledged painter of contemporary life who settled in Vétheuil in 1878 departed from that town in 1881, as from a chrysalis, renewed and redirected,” Carole McNamara has written (Monet at Vétheuil: The Turning Point, exh. cat., University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, 1998, p. 86).
Monet immediately began to paint his new surroundings, exploring the deserted, flower-filled meadows, quiet, winding lanes, verdant orchards, and the village and church itself. Much to his relief, he was able to sell many of these initial landscapes, which provided a much-needed influx of money to the family. The winter of 1878-1879 was, however, freezing. Having long reveled in the visual effects of the snow-covered landscape, Monet braved the low temperatures and set about painting the muffled, muted world around him.
The present work was painted on the banks of the river, looking downstream, at Lavacourt. In the opening months of 1879, he painted three other works from this spot, some of which capture the view looking the other way, upstream (Wildenstein, nos. 511-514). A towpath flanked by a line of small houses hugs the river’s edge as it disappears into the distance. This was not a new motif for the artist: not long prior, he had painted the same view in a series of landscapes, some of which include chickens on the riverbank (Wildenstein, nos. 495-500). The verdant greenery of these earlier paintings has been replaced in the present work by a sheet of white snow. Rapid, vigorous strokes of pigment give way to softer shades of delicate pinks and pale blue that lead to the silvery-colored passage of the still river beyond. These harmonious tones are matched perfectly by the sky that hangs leaden above the freezing landscape. Huddled figures make their way along the path, gradually engulfed by the cold. Flecks of olive green in the immediate foreground serve as harbingers of warmer days to come, the snow and ice just starting to melt to reveal the grass below.
With his distinctive aptitude at capturing the nuances of atmosphere in a landscape, in Lavacourt, l'hiver, Monet has perfectly rendered the sense of icy stillness and calm that the frozen conditions had brought. As Eliza Rathbone has written, “Of all the Impressionists, Monet painted the largest number of snowscapes and the greatest variety of sites, time of day, quality of light, and quality of snow itself. He was not only interested in a relatively traditional conception of a snowy landscape, but he found beauty in unexpected phenomena of winter. He brought to his snowscapes his desire to experiment both with new technique and with formal invention” (exh. cat., op. cit., 1998, p. 25).
The palette of Lavacourt, l'hiver in many ways anticipates the series of winter riverscapes that Monet began the following, historically cold winter. At the beginning of 1880, these intense conditions once again brought Monet rich subject matter. Freezing temperatures at the end of the year prior had caused the Seine to freeze over. When January brought slightly warmer weather, the ice began to thaw, causing thunderous rumblings and spectacularly dramatic scenes as the ice broke up and the floes began moving down the river. Monet captured this natural theater in a series of Débâcle paintings.
Lavacourt, l'hiver was acquired almost immediately after it was painted, in January 1879, by a fellow artist and latterly a member of the Salon jury, Paul Vayson de Pradenne. In 1891, the painting crossed the Atlantic to enter the collection of the banker, Cyrus J. Lawrence. The present work, as well as those by Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro and others, was sold in an auction of Lawrence’s collection in New York in 1910. The sale catalogue poetically described the present work, “Above the water the mist hangs heavy, and the forms of the tall poplars can scarcely be seen through the wreaths of vapor. The road and river bank are covered with snow, the sky is heavy and wintry, and a few frozen figures appear in the middle distance... the pallid touch of a winter’s sun and the uncertain reflections from the broken surface of the snow” (Illustrated Catalogue of the Art Treasures Collected by the Well-Known Connoisseur the Late Cyrus J. Lawrence, Esq. New York, American Art Association, New York, 21 January 1910, lot 67).
In the summer of 1878, Monet left Argenteuil, the fashionable, suburban town on the outskirts of Paris, and, after a short stay in the capital, moved further north to Vétheuil, a village of just over six hundred inhabitants, positioned on a wide oxbow bend of the Seine. The ancient settlement was clustered around the church, Notre Dame de Vétheuil, with its large bell tower and Renaissance façade an imposing presence over the surrounding environs. Seeking to escape the increasingly over populated and over industrialized Argenteuil and in search of new subjects (as well as a lower cost of living), Monet was pleased with his new home. As he wrote happily to a friend on 1 September, “I have set up shop on the banks of the Seine at Vétheuil in a ravishing spot” (quoted in D. Wildenstein, Monet or the Triumph of Impressionism, Cologne, 1999, p. 137).
The artist, his wife Camille, and their two young sons lived together with Ernest and Alice Hoschedé and their six children. A close friend and important patron of the artist, Hoschedé had lost his enormous inherited fortune and had been forced to declare bankruptcy, losing not only his art collection, but both his Paris apartment and opulent Château at Montgéron. Monet, who was likewise struggling financially, invited the Hoschedés to live with them, pooling their resources to support their two families. The house they initially rented was too small, and by the end of the year they had moved again into a larger property overlooking the Seine and Lavacourt beyond.
The three years that Monet spent in these idyllic environs would prove to be a decisive moment of artistic reassessment for him. At Vétheuil, he began to focus on capturing the transient aspects of nature, employing a nascent serial technique that laid the groundwork for his most important later production. “The acknowledged painter of contemporary life who settled in Vétheuil in 1878 departed from that town in 1881, as from a chrysalis, renewed and redirected,” Carole McNamara has written (Monet at Vétheuil: The Turning Point, exh. cat., University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, 1998, p. 86).
Monet immediately began to paint his new surroundings, exploring the deserted, flower-filled meadows, quiet, winding lanes, verdant orchards, and the village and church itself. Much to his relief, he was able to sell many of these initial landscapes, which provided a much-needed influx of money to the family. The winter of 1878-1879 was, however, freezing. Having long reveled in the visual effects of the snow-covered landscape, Monet braved the low temperatures and set about painting the muffled, muted world around him.
The present work was painted on the banks of the river, looking downstream, at Lavacourt. In the opening months of 1879, he painted three other works from this spot, some of which capture the view looking the other way, upstream (Wildenstein, nos. 511-514). A towpath flanked by a line of small houses hugs the river’s edge as it disappears into the distance. This was not a new motif for the artist: not long prior, he had painted the same view in a series of landscapes, some of which include chickens on the riverbank (Wildenstein, nos. 495-500). The verdant greenery of these earlier paintings has been replaced in the present work by a sheet of white snow. Rapid, vigorous strokes of pigment give way to softer shades of delicate pinks and pale blue that lead to the silvery-colored passage of the still river beyond. These harmonious tones are matched perfectly by the sky that hangs leaden above the freezing landscape. Huddled figures make their way along the path, gradually engulfed by the cold. Flecks of olive green in the immediate foreground serve as harbingers of warmer days to come, the snow and ice just starting to melt to reveal the grass below.
With his distinctive aptitude at capturing the nuances of atmosphere in a landscape, in Lavacourt, l'hiver, Monet has perfectly rendered the sense of icy stillness and calm that the frozen conditions had brought. As Eliza Rathbone has written, “Of all the Impressionists, Monet painted the largest number of snowscapes and the greatest variety of sites, time of day, quality of light, and quality of snow itself. He was not only interested in a relatively traditional conception of a snowy landscape, but he found beauty in unexpected phenomena of winter. He brought to his snowscapes his desire to experiment both with new technique and with formal invention” (exh. cat., op. cit., 1998, p. 25).
The palette of Lavacourt, l'hiver in many ways anticipates the series of winter riverscapes that Monet began the following, historically cold winter. At the beginning of 1880, these intense conditions once again brought Monet rich subject matter. Freezing temperatures at the end of the year prior had caused the Seine to freeze over. When January brought slightly warmer weather, the ice began to thaw, causing thunderous rumblings and spectacularly dramatic scenes as the ice broke up and the floes began moving down the river. Monet captured this natural theater in a series of Débâcle paintings.
Lavacourt, l'hiver was acquired almost immediately after it was painted, in January 1879, by a fellow artist and latterly a member of the Salon jury, Paul Vayson de Pradenne. In 1891, the painting crossed the Atlantic to enter the collection of the banker, Cyrus J. Lawrence. The present work, as well as those by Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro and others, was sold in an auction of Lawrence’s collection in New York in 1910. The sale catalogue poetically described the present work, “Above the water the mist hangs heavy, and the forms of the tall poplars can scarcely be seen through the wreaths of vapor. The road and river bank are covered with snow, the sky is heavy and wintry, and a few frozen figures appear in the middle distance... the pallid touch of a winter’s sun and the uncertain reflections from the broken surface of the snow” (Illustrated Catalogue of the Art Treasures Collected by the Well-Known Connoisseur the Late Cyrus J. Lawrence, Esq. New York, American Art Association, New York, 21 January 1910, lot 67).