Rouen Cathedral, West Façade, Sunlight by Monet, Claude

Claude Monet's "Rouen Cathedral, West Façade, Sunlight," painted in 1894, is a masterpiece of Impressionism housed in various collections, including the Musée d'Orsay.

This painting is part of a series of over thirty canvases, all depicting the west façade of Rouen Cathedral. Monet executed these works from a rented room directly across the square, meticulously capturing the subtle atmospheric and chromatic variations throughout different hours and days.

Notice how the thick impasto on the central facade creates a texture that mimics the carved stone itself, even as the light dissolves its form. Monet’s genius was in making us see not just the cathedral, but the very light that illuminates it.

His method involved working on multiple canvases simultaneously, switching between them as the light changed. What do you see in this painting that tells you it's a specific time of day?