1885
oil
canvas
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Dominant colour
The Departure of the Boats, Étretat is a 1885 oil by Claude Monet, a Impressionism work, depicting Harbor, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
You see boats lined up on a pebbly beach. Waves roll in under a pale sky. The colors are mostly gray, white, and soft blue. Monet painted this indoors in 1885. Bad weather trapped him in his hotel room. He watched the boats from his window and used quick brushstrokes to show movement. This work looks ahead to his later water studies. Check the Art Institute of Chicago to see it in person.
Forced indoors by inclement fall weather, Claude Monet painted Boats on the Beach at Étretat and The Departure of the Boats, Étretat while looking out the window of his room at the Hôtel Blanquet. The two form a pair that share a palette, subject, and vantage point. In one of his daily letters to his companion and future wife, Alice Hoschedé, dated November 24, 1885, Monet described first Boats on the Beach and then Departure of the Boats : “In the afternoon, I worked in my room on my caloges [retired fishing boats covered with tarred planks and used for storage] in the rain, then I attempted…
The artist (d. 1926); sold to Durand-Ruel, Paris, December 21, 1892, for 6,000 francs [this and the following per Durand-Ruel, Paris, stock book for 1891–1901 (no. 2548, as Caloges d’Etretat), as confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 5, 2013, curatorial object file]; sold to Potter Palmer, Chicago, Dec. 21, 1892, for 6,000 francs; by descent to Bertha Honoré Palmer (wife of Potter Palmer), Chicago; on deposit from Bertha Honoré Palmer, Chicago, to Durand-Ruel, New York, Mar. 17, 1909–May 9, 1911 [per…
Art Institute of Chicago, “A Century of Progress”: Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, May 23–Nov. 1, 1933, cat. 293. Art Institute of Chicago, “A Century of Progress”: Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture for 1934, June 1–Oct. 31, 1934, cat. 211. Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art, The Spirit of Modern France: An Essay on Painting in Society, 1745–1946, Nov.–Dec. 1946, cat. 49; Toronto, Art Gallery of Toronto, Jan.–Feb. 1947. Art Institute of Chicago, The Paintings of Claude Monet, Apr. 1–June 15, 1957, no cat. no. Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings by Monet, Mar. 15–May 11, 1975,…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Oscar-Claude Monet was born in Paris on November 14, 1840, and raised from the age of five in Le Havre, where he began selling charcoal caricatures as a teenager.
See the richer artist page
