Artwork
Le port de Honfleur la nuit
Le port de Honfleur la nuit is an oil painting by the Impressionist artist Félix Vallotton. It dates from 1901 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The work thus represents both the specific locale of Honfleur and the broader theme of the French maritime port as a site of visual and atmospheric interest.
Le port de Honfleur la nuit depicts the harbor of Honfleur at night, rendered in oil paint by Félix Vallotton in 1901. According to the cataloguing record, the painting's iconographic content explicitly includes the port itself, boats, buildings, and the harbor of Honfleur, situating the work firmly within the tradition of nocturnal harbor views of the Normandy coast. By selecting the port as his subject, Vallotton engages with a long-standing motif in French painting while filtering it through his own contemporary sensibility.
The combination of vessels, architecture, and water under nighttime conditions suggests an interest in atmosphere, reflection, and the quiet activity of a working harbor after dark, rather than a topographically descriptive record. The work thus represents both the specific locale of Honfleur and the broader theme of the French maritime port as a site of visual and atmospheric interest.
Technique & Style
Félix Vallotton's Le port de Honfleur la nuit (1901) is an oil painting executed on a cardboard support. The work measures 69.9 cm in height and 99.7 cm in width. As a nocturnal harbor scene, the piece employs oil paint to depict the port of Honfleur, including its boats and buildings.
The choice of cardboard as a support medium is notable for a painting of this scale, suggesting a specific handling of the oil medium that accommodates the rigid yet lightweight nature of the substrate. The composition captures the formal qualities of the harbor environment through the artist's characteristic application of paint, creating a distinct visual representation of the night setting at the French port.
History & Provenance
Painted in 1901, Le port de Honfleur la nuit is a nocturnal oil-on-cardboard view by Félix Vallotton. The work entered the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it remains held. No documented commission or preparatory material has been traced, and the artist’s records do not specify the circumstances of its creation beyond the known date.
The work is held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where it is recorded under accession number 54.152.1. It was painted in 1901 and entered the museum’s collection in 1954 through the Rogers Fund. The painting has been exhibited in thematic displays of Vallotton’s nocturnes and early 20th-century French modernism, though no dedicated solo exhibition history is recorded in the museum’s public records.
Overview
This oil painting, titled Le port de Honfleur la nuit, depicts a tranquil harbor scene observed at dusk. The artwork captures the subdued atmosphere of the port as evening descends, presenting a view where architectural forms and maritime elements merge with the fading light.
Artist & collection
Artist
Félix Édouard Vallotton (French: ; December 28, 1865 – December 29, 1925) was a Swiss and French painter and printmaker associated with the group of artists known as Les Nabis.
