This pastel of the Needle Rock at Étretat demonstrates Monet's control of the medium, "the effect of light and colour in the sky reflects the Impressionists' painted treatment of light, achieved with visible brushstrokes of different colors".1
"I hope to come up with something good, in any case I will bring lots of studies back with me so I can work on some big things at home."
-- Letter from Monet to Alice Hoschedé from Étretat, 2 February 18832
"Etretat is becoming more and more amazing... I rage at my inability to express it all better. You'd need to use both hands and cover hundreds of canvases."
-- Letter from Monet to Alice Hoschedé from Étretat, 20 October 18853
"I was hard at work beneath the cliff, well sheltered from the wind, in the spot which you visited with me; convinced that the tide was drawing out I took no notice of the waves which came and fell a few feet away from me. In short, absorbed as I was, I didn't see a huge wave coming; it threw me against the cliff and I was tossed about in its wake along with all my materials! ... the worst of it was that I lost my painting which was very soon broken up, along with my easel, bag etc."
-- Letter from Monet to Alice Hoschedé from Étretat, 27 November 18854
References:
1. Royal Academy Exhibition Brochure, by Lindsay Rothwell, Royal Academy of Arts, 2007, p17.
2. Monet by Himself, edited by Richard Kendall, Macdonald & Co Publishers, London 1989, p104.
3. Ibid, p113.
4. Ibid, p115.
"I hope to come up with something good, in any case I will bring lots of studies back with me so I can work on some big things at home."
-- Letter from Monet to Alice Hoschedé from Étretat, 2 February 18832
"Etretat is becoming more and more amazing... I rage at my inability to express it all better. You'd need to use both hands and cover hundreds of canvases."
-- Letter from Monet to Alice Hoschedé from Étretat, 20 October 18853
"I was hard at work beneath the cliff, well sheltered from the wind, in the spot which you visited with me; convinced that the tide was drawing out I took no notice of the waves which came and fell a few feet away from me. In short, absorbed as I was, I didn't see a huge wave coming; it threw me against the cliff and I was tossed about in its wake along with all my materials! ... the worst of it was that I lost my painting which was very soon broken up, along with my easel, bag etc."
-- Letter from Monet to Alice Hoschedé from Étretat, 27 November 18854
References:
1. Royal Academy Exhibition Brochure, by Lindsay Rothwell, Royal Academy of Arts, 2007, p17.
2. Monet by Himself, edited by Richard Kendall, Macdonald & Co Publishers, London 1989, p104.
3. Ibid, p113.
4. Ibid, p115.