monet - fondation beyeler · communiqué de presse. ... la dernière salle de l’exposition offre...

Communiqué de presse

Monet 22 janvier – 28 mai 2017 À l’occasion de ses vingt ans, la Fondation Beyeler consacre une exposition à l’un des plus grands artistes du monde, l’un des plus appréciés aussi, Claude Monet. Cette exposition, véritable fête de la lumière et des couleurs, éclaire l’évolution artistique du peintre français depuis sa phase impressionniste jusqu'aux célèbres tableaux de nymphéas. Elle présente ses représentations de paysages méditerranéens, de la côte sauvage de l’Atlantique et du cours de la Seine, ses prairies fleuries, ses meules de foin, ses nymphéas, ses cathédrales et ses ponts dans la brume. Mêlant reflets et ombres, Monet crée des atmosphères magiques. Claude Monet a été un grand pionnier, qui a découvert la clé du jardin secret de la peinture moderne et a permis à tous d’ouvrir les yeux sur une nouvelle vision du monde. Cette exposition présente 62 toiles provenant des plus grands musées d’Europe, des États-Unis et du Japon, parmi lesquels le Musée d’Orsay de Paris, le Metropolitan Museum de New York, le Museum of Modern Art de New York, le Museum of Fine Art de Boston et la Tate de Londres. S’y ajoutent, chose exceptionnelle, 15 toiles appartenant à des particuliers qui ne sont présentées au public que très rarement et n’ont plus été montrées depuis longtemps dans le cadre d’une exposition consacrée à Monet. L’exposition MONET a été généreusement soutenue par : Beyeler-Stiftung Hansjörg Wyss, Wyss Foundation Novartis Steven A. and Alexandra M. Cohen Foundation Office fédéral de la culture OFC Réservez vos billets en prévente sous : www.fondationbeyeler.ch Images de presse : Veuillez consulter notre nouvelle page d'accueil www.fondationbeyeler.ch et vous réenregistrer pour le téléchargement des images de presse. Vos données d'accès ne sont malheureusement plus utilisables. Informations supplémentaires : Elena DelCarlo, M.A. Head of Communications Tél. + 41 (0)61 645 97 21, [email protected], www.fondationbeyeler.ch Fondation Beyeler, Beyeler Museum AG, Baselstrasse 77, CH-4125 Riehen Heures d’ouverture de la Fondation Beyeler : tous les jours 10h00–18h00, le mercredi jusqu’à 20h.


Monet 22 janvier – 28 mai 2017 En cette année de son 20e anniversaire, la Fondation Beyeler consacre une exposition à l’un des principaux artistes de sa collection permanente : Claude Monet. Cette présentation concentrée mettra l’accent sur certains aspects choisis de son œuvre. Ce regard sur les années de création situées entre 1880 et le début du XXe siècle avec une échappée sur l’œuvre tardive offre une approche nouvelle et souvent inattendue de ce magicien des images, qui continue d’influencer notre expérience (visuelle) de la nature et du paysage. Lumière, ombres et réflexions, et leur traitement constamment renouvelé dans l’art de cet artiste constituent le leitmotiv de « Monet ». Ses célèbres univers picturaux, ses paysages méditerranéens, les côtes sauvages de l’Atlantique, le cours de la Seine, les prairies en fleurs, les meules de foin, les nymphéas, la cathédrale et les ponts dans la brume sont au cœur de cette exposition. Dans ces tableaux, l’artiste a exploré les jeux mouvants de la lumière et des couleurs au fil des heures de la journée et des saisons. À l’aide de réflexions et d’ombres, Monet a su créer des atmosphères ensorcelantes. Ce grand pionnier de l’art a trouvé la clé du jardin mystérieux de la peinture moderne et a ouvert les yeux de tous à une nouvelle vision du monde. Cette exposition présente 62 toiles provenant des plus grands musées d’Europe, des États-Unis et du Japon, parmi lesquels le Musée d’Orsay de Paris, le Metropolitan Museum de New York, le Museum of Modern Art de New York, le Museum of Fine Art de Boston et la Tate de Londres. S’y ajoutent, chose exceptionnelle, 15 toiles appartenant à des particuliers qui ne sont présentées au public que très rarement et n’ont plus été montrées depuis longtemps dans le cadre d’une exposition consacrée à Monet. Lumière, ombre et réflexion Après la mort de sa femme en 1879, Monet s’engage dans une phase de réorientation. Sa période de pionnier de l’impressionnisme est achevée ; son importance artistique est certes encore loin d’être universellement reconnue, mais grâce à son marchand, il accède à une certaine indépendance économique dont témoignent ses nombreux voyages. Ceux-ci lui permettent notamment de s’intéresser pour la première fois à la lumière de la Méditerranée, et donnent de nouvelles impulsions à son œuvre. Son art se fait plus personnel et s’affranchit du style strictement « impressionniste ». Mais surtout, ses œuvres semblent prendre pour thème de façon croissante la peinture elle-même. Sans doute faut-il interpréter en ce sens la réflexion qu’il fit à son futur beau-fils, Jean Hoschedé, selon laquelle c’était moins le motif qui l’intéressait que ce qui se passait entre le motif et lui. Les réflexions de Monet sur la peinture doivent être compris aux deux sens du terme. La répétition des motifs par le biais des réflexion, qui trouvent leur apogée et leur conclusion dans les toiles des bassins aux nymphéas, constitue en même temps une réflexion durable sur les possibilités de la peinture, réflexion dont témoignent la représentation et la répétition d’un motif dans le tableau.

Monet se livre, à travers la représentation d’ombres, à une autre exploration des possibilités de la peinture. Les ombres sont à la fois reproduction et inversion du motif, et leur forme abstraite prête au tableau une structure qui semble remettre en question la simple illustration du motif. C’est ce qui a conduit Wassily Kandinsky, lors de sa célèbre découverte du tableau d’une meule de foin à contre-jour réalisé par Monet (Kunsthaus Zürich et dans la présente exposition), à ne même plus reconnaître le sujet en tant que tel : la peinture en soi avait pris une signification nettement supérieure à la représentation d’un motif traditionnel. Les mondes picturaux de Monet Cette exposition est un voyage à travers les mondes picturaux de Monet. Elle est regroupée par thèmes. Elle se consacre d’abord, dans une grande salle, aux nombreuses et diverses représentations de la Seine. On remarquera tout particulièrement le portrait rarement exposé de la compagne et future épouse de Monet, Alice Hoschedé, assise dans le jardin de Vetheuil juste au bord de la Seine. Une salle suivante célèbre la représentation des arbres de Monet : un hommage caché à Ernst Beyeler, qui avait consacré en 1998 toute une exposition au thème des arbres. Inspiré par des gravures sur bois colorées japonaises, Monet a inlassablement traité les arbres sous des éclairages différents, s’intéressant à leurs formes et à la projection de leurs ombres. Ses tableaux prennent ainsi souvent une structure géométrique, particulièrement visible dans les séries. Les couleurs éclatantes de la Méditerranée sont illustrées par un ensemble de toiles que Monet a peintes dans les années 1880. Il évoque dans une lettre de cette période la « lumière féerique » qu’il a découverte dans le Sud. En 1886, il écrit à Alice Hoschedé qu’il est littéralement fou de la mer. Une importante partie de l’exposition est consacrée au littoral normand et à Belle-Île ainsi qu’aux ambiances lumineuses constamment mouvantes de la mer. On ne peut qu’être fasciné par la succession de vues et d’éclairages changeants dont fait l’objet la cabane d’un douanier sur une falaise, tantôt présentée sous un soleil éblouissant, tantôt plongée dans l’ombre. Quand on l’observe de plus près, l’ombre paraît composée de myriades de couleurs. Un calme contemplatif émane des toiles qui présentent des atmosphères matinales au bord de la Seine : le motif peint est ici répété sous forme de reflet peint, de sorte que la ligne de séparation entre la réalité peinte et son reflet peint semble se fondre dans la brume qui se lève. Le motif est intégralement répété sous forme de reflet, ce qui empêche de définir clairement le haut et le bas du tableau. Autrement dit : la convention indiquant comment regarder un tableau est abrogée et laissée à la subjectivité du spectateur. On a l’impression que Monet s’approche ici du fondement même de la nature, du « panta rhéi » de la modification constante. En effet, il ne peint pas seulement le changement de lumière entre la nuit et le jour, il représente aussi l’opiniâtreté de la confluence de deux cours d’eau. Monet aimait Londres, une ville qui lui avait déjà servi d’asile pendant la guerre franco-allemande de 1870/1871. Devenu un peintre prospère et déjà très connu, il y retourna à la charnière des deux siècles et peignit des vues célèbres des ponts de Waterloo et de Charing Cross, ainsi que le parlement britannique sous des luminosités diverses, dans la brume surtout, qui rend toutes les formes plus floues et les met en scène comme des phénomènes atmosphériques. Un hommage au grand modèle de Monet, William Turner, mais aussi une révérence à la puissance mondiale de la Grande-Bretagne, qui reposait sur son parlement et sur son commerce, constructeur de ponts.

L’œuvre tardive de Monet est presque exclusivement marquée par son intérêt pictural pour son jardin et pour le jeu des reflets dans ses bassins aux nymphéas. La Collection Beyeler en contient de remarquables exemples. La dernière salle de l’exposition offre une échappée sur les tableaux du jardin de Monet à Giverny. L’exposition MONET a été généreusement soutenue par : Beyeler-Stiftung Hansjörg Wyss, Wyss Foundation Novartis Steven A. and Alexandra M. Cohen Foundation Office fédéral de la culture OFC Réservez vos billets en prévente sous : www.fondationbeyeler.ch Billet combiné à l’occasion des 20 ans de la Fondation Beyeler : venez voir les expositions « Monet », « Wolfgang Tillmans » et « Paul Klee » au prix avantageux de 60 CHF en tout.

Images de presse : Veuillez consulter notre nouvelle page d'accueil www.fondationbeyeler.ch et vous réenregistrer pour le téléchargement des images de presse. Vos données d'accès ne sont malheureusement plus utilisables.

Informations complémentaires : Elena DelCarlo, M.A. Head of Communications Tél. + 41 (0)61 645 97 21, [email protected], www.fondationbeyeler.ch Fondation Beyeler, Beyeler Museum AG, Baselstrasse 77, CH-4125 Riehen Heures d’ouverture de la Fondation Beyeler : tous les jours de 10h à 18h, le mercredi jusqu’à 20h.

http://www.fondationbeyeler.ch/

Images de presse : Veuillez consulter notre nouvelle page d’accueil www.fondationbeyeler.ch et vous réenregistrer pour le téléchargement des images de presse. Vos données d’accès ne sont malheureusement plus utilisables. Les documents iconographiques ne doivent être utilisés qu’à des fi ns de publication dans le cadre d’un compte-rendu de presse. La reproduction n’est autorisée qu’en rapport avec l’exposition en cours et pendant sa durée exclusivement. Toute autre utilisation – sous forme analogique ou numérique – nécessite l’autorisation des ayants-droit. Les utilisations purement privées sont exclues de ces dispositions. Nous vous prions de reprendre les légendes et les mentions de copyright qui les accompagnent. Merci de nous faire parvenir un exemplaire justifi catif.

22 janvier – 28 mai 2017

FONDATION BEYELER

05 Claude MonetJean-Pierre Hoschedé et Michel Monet au bord de l’Epte, vers 1887–90 Huile sur toile, 76 x 96,5 cmNational Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Gift of the Saidye Bronfman Foundation, 1995Photo : © National Gallery of Canada

06 Claude MonetLa Cabane du douanier, 1882 Huile sur toile, 61 x 75 cmHarvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum, donation Annie Swan Coburn, 1934Photo: Imaging Department © President and Fellows of Harvard College

07 Claude MonetVue de Bordighera, 1884 Huile sur toile, 66 x 81,8 cmThe Armand Hammer Collection, donation de Armand Hammer Foundation, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles

01 Claude MonetEn Norvégienne, 1887 Huile sur toile, 97,5 x 130,5 cmMusée d’Orsay, Paris, legs de Princesse Edmond de Polignac, 1947Photo : © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski

02 Claude MonetCharing Cross Bridge, brouillard sur la Tamise, 1903 Huile sur toile, 73,7 x 92,4 cmHarvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum, donation de Madame Henry Lyman, 1979Photo : Imaging Department © President and Fellows of Harvard College

03 Claude MonetMatinée sur la Seine, 1897 Huile sur toile, 89,9 x 92,7 cmThe Art Institute of Chicago, Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection, 1933Photo : © The Art Institute of Chicago / Art Resource, NY / Scala, Florence

04 Claude MonetCoucher de soleil sur la Seine, 1880 Huile sur toile, 60,6 x 81,1 cmPola Museum of Art, Pola Art Foundation

22 janvier – 28 mai 2017

FONDATION BEYELER

11 Claude MonetPrairie à Giverny, effet d’automne, 1886 Huile sur toile, 92,1 x 81,6 cmMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston, Juliana Cheney Edwards CollectionPhoto : © 2017 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

12 Claude MonetNymphéas, 1916–1919 Huile sur toile, 200 x 180 cmFondation Beyeler, Riehen / Basel, Collection BeyelerPhoto : Robert BayerLa restauration de cette œuvre est soutenue par la Fondation BNP Paribas Suisse

13 Theodore RobinsonPortrait de Monet, vers 1888–90 Cyanotype, 24 x 16,8 cmTerra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, donation de Monsieur Ira Spanierman, 1985Photo : © Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago / Art Ressource, NY

08 Claude MonetLe Parlement, ciel orageux, 1904 Huile sur toile, 81 x 92 cmPalais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, legs de Maurice Masson, 1949Photo : © RMN-Grand Palais / René-Gabriel Ojéda

09 Claude MonetPrès de Vernon, île aux Orties, 1897 Huile sur toile, 73,3 x 92,7 cmThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. McVeigh, 1960Photo : © bpk / The Metropolitan Museum of Art

10 Claude MonetLa Terrasse à Vétheuil, 1881 Huile sur toile, 81 x 65 cmCollection privéePhoto : Robert Bayer

11 Claude MonetPointes de rochers à Port-Domois, 1886 Huile sur toile, 81,3 x 64,8 cmCincinnati Art Museum, Fanny Bryce Lehmer Endowment and The Edwin and Virginia Irwin Memorial, 1985Photo : Bridgeman Images

12 Claude MonetLes Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, 1891 Huile sur toile, 92,4 x 73,7 cmTate, Presented by the Art Fund 1926Photo: © Tate, London 2016

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L E H AV R E

Oscar-Claude Monet was born in Paris on November 14,1840, the son of Claude-Alphonse, a commercial ofcer,and Louise-Justine Aubrée. From 1845 on he grew up inthe port city of Le Havre in Normandy, his father havingfound employment in the trading house of his brother-in-law, Jacques Lecadre. The Lecadres owned a housethree kilometers away in the little shing village ofSainte-Adresse, which as a burgeoning bathing resortwas much loved by the Monets. Claude attended thelocal high school beginning in 1851 and there receivedhis rst drawing lessons. His earliest surviving sketchesdating from 1856 show caricatures of his teachers andthe landscapes of Le Havre. When Monet’s mother died,in 1857, Claude and his elder brother, Léon, moved inwith their aunt, Marie-Jeanne Lecadre, who would become very important to him and support him in hispursuit of an artistic career. As an amateur painter with

a studio of her own, she had connections to local artistsand made sure that her nephew could continue hisdrawing lessons in Le Havre. Monet’s caricatures soonattracted notice and were exhibited at the local sta-tioner’s, Gravier, who also sold paints and frames. Thisbrought his work to the attention of Eugène Boudin,

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a former partner in the business, who became Monet’snew teacher. Boudin invited the young Monet to joinhim on plein air painting expeditions around Le Havre,an experience that made a lasting impression on hispupil. Monet twice applied for a municipal scholarship,but was turned down both times. Despite moving toParis to take painting lessons there in 1859, Monet re-peatedly returned to Le Havre, including in 1862, whenafter a year of military service in Algeria he had to re-turn to France on grounds of poor health. Later thatyear he was discharged from military service thanks to the replacement fee paid by his aunt. It was in thesummer of that year that he met the Dutch painterJohan Barthold Jongkind and claimed to have found in him his “true teacher.” He also spent the months May to November 1864 painting landscapes in andaround Le Havre. His lover and future wife, CamilleDoncieux, gave birth to their rst child, Jean-Armand-Claude Monet, in Paris in 1867; yet, urged by his father,who was against the relationship, to leave Paris, thepainter spent the summer without them, paintingseascapes, gardens, gural compositions, and regattas in Sainte-Adresse. A year later he won a silver medal at the Le Havre art show. After the death of his aunt, in 1870, followed by that of his father just a year later,his visits to Le Havre became less frequent. At the sametime, he was drawn more to the towns further up theNormandy coast, to Étretat, Fécamp, and Pourville,where he found even more impressive subjects forpaintings.

PA R I S

Monet, who was born in Paris, returned to the capital inthe spring of 1859 to visit the Salon and take paintinglessons. During his stays in “chaotic Paris” he incurrednumerous expenses, which he was able to defray thanksonly to the support of his father and his aunt. Instead ofenrolling at the atelier of the painter Thomas Couturefor the preparatory course for admission to the École

des Beaux-Arts, he chose the academy of Charles Suisse,where he probably met Camille Pissarro. After his discharge from the army in 1862, Monet returned toParis and there joined the studio of the Swiss historypainter Charles Gleyre, where he made the acquain-tance of Alfred Sisley, Frédéric Bazille, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Two years later, when Gleyre ran intonancial difculties and had to close his studio, Monet’sfather provided him with the funds he needed to rent astudio together with Bazille on the rue de Furstenberg.Renoir, Sisley, Pissarro, and even Paul Cézanne were all regular visitors there. Monet was experimentingwith gural paintings at the time, including his largeDéjeuner sur l’herbe (1865–66). When their money

troubles came to a head in January 1866, Monet andBazille had no choice but to relinquish their sharedspace. Monet then rented a small studio of his own on the place Pigalle, and it was there that he engagedCamille Doncieux, the woman he would marry in 1870,to sit for him. His painting of the nineteen-year-oldCamille (Camille, or La Femme à la robe verte, 1866),was accepted for the Salon and not only won fulsomepraise from the critic Émile Zola, but also aroused the interest of Édouard Manet. Together with other Impressionists, Monet founded the Société anonymecoopérative des artistes peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs,etc., whose rst group show was held in the studio of the photographer Nadar on the boulevard des


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Capucines in Paris in 1874. Among the works exhibitedwas Monet’s work Impression, soleil levant, painted inLe Havre in 1872. The show was savaged by the critics,who in a play on the title of Monet’s painting derided it as an “exhibition of impressionists.” Monet tended tond his subjects in the suburbs of Paris rather than inthe capital itself, one exception being Saint-Lazare rail-way station, which he captured on several canvases in1877. When Monet moved to Vétheuil, in 1878, he heldonto a small studio in Paris, even if he used it mainly as a showroom for art dealers and potential collectors.When Monet’s patron Ernest Hoschedé declared bank-ruptcy, in 1877, he had no choice but to sell his large collection of works by the Impressionists a year later. It was through the sale of Hoschedé’s paintings thatMonet met the collector and gallerist Georges Petit,who in the world of Impressionism would soon come torival the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel. In 1882 Durand-Ruel himself commissioned Monet with several still lifesfor his home on the rue de Rome. In 1914, in Giverny,Monet began work on his last major project, the famousGrandes Décorations, and after his death, in 1927, twenty-two of these large-format paintings of water lilies wereinstalled in the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris.

T H E N O R M A N DY C OA S T

Although his career necessitated ever more frequenttrips to Paris, in 1868 Monet wanted to make a home forhimself, his partner Camille Doncieux, and their son,Jean, in Normandy. He wrote to Bazille that he could not imagine spending longer than a month at a time inParis and that whatever he might paint on the coast ofNormandy would be very different from anything pro-duced in the French capital. The cliffs near Fécamp thathe painted in early 1881 show how his style of paintingwas already beginning to change, how his once idylliclandscapes were becoming wilder. Monet spent a fewmonths in Poissy near Paris beginning in December ofthat year, but found the village uninspiring and returned

to the coast, this time to the shing village of Pourville.This was a landscape of rugged cliffs with several subjects of interest to him, among them the customs ofcer’s house near Varengeville. Furthermore, thebeaches were deserted in the winter months, makingthem ideal for painting. Monet began several new se-ries, sometimes working on eight canvases at once sothat he needed help transporting his equipment andcanvases from one place to another. In the 1880s, whensales of his paintings began to pick up and his nancialsituation became less dire, Monet was at last able to rent a holiday home in Pourville. His new partner, AliceHoschedé, and her daughter Blanche, who also painted,often accompanied him on his painting expeditionsthere, and he received visits from both Durand-Rueland Renoir. In January 1883 Monet visited the village


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of Étretat, famed for its precipitous cliffs and arches,and there found several motifs right in front of thehotel. He also sought out remote beaches with views of the Manneporte Arch, which he proceeded to paintin different light conditions, often working on severalcanvases at once. While painting on a secluded beach onNovember 27, 1885, Monet miscalculated the incomingtide and was hurled against the face of a cliff by a wave.He told Alice that his brush and painting equipmenthad fallen into the sea, but that what annoyed him mostwas that the wave had washed away the canvas he wasworking on. Monet nished all of his over fty paintingsof Étretat in his studio in Giverny, which by then hadbecome his permanent home.

O N T H E S E I N E : A R G E N T E U I L ,

V É T H E U I L , A N D P O I S S Y

On December 21, 1871, Monet rented a house in Argen-teuil, a suburb northwest of Paris that allowed him tolive in the country but remain within easy reach of thecity. Thanks to the sale of several paintings as well asCamille’s dowry and inheritance, the Monets were ableto employ three servants and Monet himself bought aboat that he converted into a oating studio. Argenteuilbecame an important center for the Impressionists;Cézanne, Manet, Pissarro, Sisley, and Renoir all visitedMonet there. In 1873 Monet met Gustave Caillebotte.One motif that Monet found especially interesting wasthe railway bridge of Argenteuil. It was destroyed in the Franco-Prussian War but rebuilt soon afterward,making it a symbol of French resilience—and further evidence of Monet’s general interest in bridges.

In 1878 the Monets moved to Vétheuil, a little village on the Seine, some sixty kilometers away fromParis. As Monet’s patron Hoschedé was undergoing nancial difculties at the time, he and his wife, Alice,and their six children shared a house with the Monets.Monet’s wife, Camille, had just given birth to their second son, Michel, but was already ill with cervical

cancer. Their nancial situation had deteriorated andthey were no longer able to pay their servants. As a devout Christian, Alice Hoschedé took it upon herself to ensure that the Monets, who had married in a civilceremony only, received the blessing of the Church fortheir union and that Camille Monet was given the lastrites. Camille died on September 5, 1879, in Vétheuil and was buried in the cemetery there. The winter of1879–80 was exceptionally cold and the Seine frozeover. On January 5, 1880, the Hoschedé-Monet familyawoke to the sound of the ice breaking apart, and Monetspent the next few days painting dozens of impressionsof this spectacle. As Ernest Hoschedé mainly resided in Paris and visited his family only occasionally, Monet

and Alice lived more or less alone with their children in Vétheuil, and before long they were rumored to behaving an affair. In 1881 they decided to move again.Monet had been unable to nd a suitable school for his son Jean, and Alice was considering whether to return to Ernest in Paris with the children. In the end,however, both Monet and Alice moved to Poissy in De-cember of that year. When Poissy proved uninspiring,however, the two families resumed their quest for theperfect home, which they would nd in Giverny in 1883, some seventy kilometers northeast of Paris.


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O N T H E M E D I T E R R A N E A N

In December 1883 Monet accompanied Renoir on ashort trip to the Mediterranean. They traveled fromMarseille to Genoa and visited Cézanne in L’Estaque.Monet was especially taken with the little town of Bordighera on the Ligurian Riviera and vowed to returnthere in January 1884, this time without Renoir, in orderto paint in peace. The three-week stay originally plannedeventually turned into three months, during which Monetexplored the region, visited several mountain villages,and admired the wonderful gardens of FrancescoMoreno, where to his great delight he was able to paintpalms. The colors and new motifs brought Monet closeto despair, and he complained to Alice of how difcult it was to paint the landscape as it really looked. Visiblyfascinated by the warm light of the Mediterranean, hedeclared that he would need a palette of diamonds andjewels to capture its féerique (magical) atmosphere. Although in her replies Alice made no secret of her displeasure at the painter’s constant absences, Monetchose to linger in the south and continued the series he had just begun. He also traveled to Cap Martin and to Monte Carlo, painting as he went. In January 1888 he painted several views of Antibes.

In late September 1908 he visited Venice—one ofonly a few trips undertaken together with Alice—wherehe was especially impressed by the Grand Canal, the

Doge’s Palace, and the church of San Giorgio Maggiore.When the pair left Venice again, in December 1908,Monet consoled himself with the thought that he wouldreturn there the following year, although he already hadan inkling that that was “a forlorn hope.” Even so, the1912 Claude Monet: Venise exhibition, comprising twenty-nine views of Venice and held at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, was a great success.

R O U E N

Léon Monet, who ran the Rouen branch of a Swisschemical company, was on good terms with his youngerbrother, Claude. Jean, the elder of Monet’s two sons,would later work for Léon, providing the painter withanother good reason for visiting Rouen. It was probablyat his brother’s instigation that Monet took part in the23ème Exposition municipale des Beaux-Arts, in Rouen


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in March 1872. Monet discovered his fascination withthe Gothic towers of Notre-Dame de l’Assomption, thecathedral in Rouen, which would become such a majorpreoccupation of his later years. He had planned to return to Rouen for longer painting projects as early asthe spring of 1891, but in the end was too busy expand-ing his garden in Giverny to leave. In February 1892,however, he was offered the use of an empty apartmentthat looked out onto the cathedral’s west façade. InMarch of that year he took lodgings above a boutiquethat offered a similar view but from a slightly differentangle. While in Rouen he worked on nine canvases atthe same time, painting from early morning to lateevening. The intensity was not without consequences,and Monet was aficted by nightmares in which thecathedral—“it seemed to be blue, pink, or yellow”—came crashing down on top of him. The constantlychanging light drove Monet almost to despair, and by1893 he was working on up to fourteen canvases at once.In early 1894 he began preparing an exhibition of hiscathedral paintings, but was plagued by doubts overwhether he was up to the task. Twenty paintings in theseries were to be exhibited as a solo show at the galleryof his art dealer, Durand-Ruel, in 1895. Believing thatthis might be an opportunity to raise his market value,he decided to demand 15,000 francs per painting. Durand-Ruel was so appalled that he refused to be involved in the actual sales and left the negotiations to the painter himself. Most of the works were well received in the press and would meet with acclaim inother exhibitions, too. Although Monet never received15,000 francs for his cathedrals during his lifetime, theFrench state did at least pay 10,500 francs for the onethat it bought for the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris in 1907.

LO N D O N

On July 19, 1870, Napoléon III declared war on Prussia.Fearful of being conscripted, Monet ed to London atthe beginning of October that year, taking Camille andtheir son Jean with him. There he met Paul Durand-Ruel, who was likewise a refugee and would becomeMonet’s most important art dealer. Durand-Ruel’s rstdocumented sale of a Monet work was in May 1871. Together with Pissarro, Monet visited London’s manymuseums and there admired the works of Joseph Mal-lord William Turner and John Constable. When the war ended in late May 1871, Monet returned to Francevia the Netherlands.

Although he would return to London on several occasions in the following years, his stays would invari-ably be brief and motivated mainly by visits to fellowpainters. His desire to paint various views of the Thamesswathed in fog nevertheless comes up in several letters.When his youngest son, Michel, went to London tostudy, Monet, Alice, and Alice’s daughter Germaine paidhim a visit there in September 1899. They stayed at theluxurious Savoy Hotel, which has excellent views of theThames. Monet was thus able to spend a whole monthpainting Charing Cross Bridge to excess, dedicatinghimself intensively to Waterloo Bridge later on. Hewould return to London in the next two years, and in1900 set up his easel in a room in St. Thomas’ Hospital


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that commanded an especially ne view of Westminster.While there, Monet received a visit from GeorgesClemenceau, a personal friend of his and later an im-portant French statesman, through whose good ofceshe was granted permission to paint in the Tower of London—a dispensation he never made use of. Thethick fog that he woke up to toward the end of his stayin 1901 was grounds enough for him to postpone his departure. Many of the canvases begun in London wereactually nished back in Monet’s studio in Giverny.There he also began to destroy some of them, admittingto Durand-Ruel that “my mistake is to try to improvethem.” An exhibition of selected London paintings heldin Paris at Durand-Ruel’s in May 1904 met with greatacclaim.

G I V E R N Y

Monet signed a lease for a house with a plot of land inGiverny and moved in on April 29, 1883, bought it in1890, and lived there until his death, for over forty yearsall told. Alice and her children moved in the very nextday after the lease was signed. The village near theSeine is not far from Vernon, which is where the olderchildren went to school. The two-story house was bigenough to accommodate the large family, and the barnwas readily converted into a painting studio. In the rst

summer there, Monet built a boathouse so that he couldexplore his environs in search of suitable motifs by boat.He also began planting a garden, which soon became an enduring passion. He painted views of the church of Vernon as well as his rst elds with grainstacks. It was on the tiny Île aux Orties, which Monet bought as aplace to moor his boats, that he painted Alice’s daughterSuzanne with a parasol (Essai de gure en plein-air:Femme à l’obrelle, 1886). Apart from his French painterfriends, he was visited by both the American painterJohn Singer Sargent (in 1885 and 1887) and GeorgesClemenceau, the former of whom painted both Monetand Blanche Hoschedé at work. The rst grainstacksbegan to appear in late 1888. Monet traveled much lessafter 1890 and tended to conne himself to just a fewmotifs that he painted in series. He clearly felt at homein Giverny and lavished a great amount of time (andmoney) on the cultivation of his garden there, which became a favorite preoccupation. Many of his motifswere now to be found on his doorstep, among them the aforementioned grainstacks, which in 1890–91 hepainted no fewer than twenty-ve times in varying light. Ernest Hoschedé died in Paris in 1891 with hiswife, Alice, at his side. He was buried in Giverny. In thespring of 1891 Monet began painting a series of a row of poplars on the Epte River two kilometers away fromhis home, which he visited in his studio boat. When thepoplars came up for auction in August of that year, hepaid the timber merchant to leave them standing untilhe had nished painting them. A little less than a year


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later Monet and Alice married in Giverny. Work on theirproperty continued, and in early 1893 Monet purchasedthe adjoining plot with the aim of creating a water lilypond. In the summer of 1896 Monet began work on hisMatinée sur la Seine series, for which he set off for workin his boat at half past three in the morning. In 1899 hehad a second studio built specically for the purpose of nishing paintings begun en plein air, while the rststudio, being larger, would henceforth serve mainly as ashowroom. Water lilies were becoming an increasinglyimportant subject by now, and in 1901 he purchased landagain, to enlarge his pond. He also had a third studiobuilt to allow him to commence work on the monumen-tal water lily wall panels (the Grandes Décorations).From 1909 on, Monet’s sight deteriorated to such an extent that he had to undergo various operations,notwithstanding his fears that these might change hisperception of color. Alice fell ill with a rare form ofleukemia and died in 1911, with a distraught Monet byher side. Following the death of his son Jean, in 1914,Blanche, who was both Monet’s stepdaughter anddaughter-in-law, moved into the house at Giverny andcared for the deeply grieved artist. Yet he continuedpainting, right to the end of his days, nding most of his motifs in his own garden. It was also in Giverny thatMonet, who died of lung cancer on December 5, 1926,would nd his nal resting place. He was buried in thesame grave as his son Jean (1914), his wife Alice (1911),her rst husband, Ernest Hoschedé (1891), and theirdaughters Suzanne (1899) and Marthe (1925).

The present chronology is based on the accounts pro-vided in Charles F. Stuckey, “Chronology,” in ClaudeMonet 1840–1926, exh. cat. The Art Institute of Chicago(London and Chicago, 1995), p. 185–266; and quotationscited from the artist’s letters published in DanielWildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogueraisonné (Paris and Lausanne, 1974–91), vols. 1–5.


Citations Contre-jour « Je poursuis un rêve. Je veux l'impossible » -Claude Monet La Seine « La Seine ! Je l’ai peinte pendant toute ma vie, à toute heure, en toute saison (…) Je n’en ai jamais été las : elle est pour moi toujours nouvelle. » -Claude Monet, 1924 Rochers et bords de mer « Vous savez ma passion pour la mer. (…) J’en suis fou.» -Claude Monet, 1886 La Méditerranée « Je suis installé dans un pays féerique. Je ne sais où donner de la tête, tout est superbe et je voudrais tout faire. C’est terriblement difficile, il faudrait une palette de diamants et de pierreries. Quant au bleu et au rose, il y en a ici. » -Claude Monet, 1884 Matinée sur la Seine « A pointe d’aube, en août, trois heures et demie. (…) il arrive à la rivière. Là, il détache sa barque amarrée dans les roseaux du bord et, en quelques coups de rames, gagne le grand bachot à l’ancre qui lui est son atelier. » -Maurice Guillemot, 1898 Londres « Dans Londre, par-dessus tout ce que j’aime, c’est la brume (…) Sans le brouillard, Londres ne serait pas une belle ville. C’est le brouillard qui lui donne son ampleur magnifique. » -Claude Monet, 1918

Claude Monet from a new angle: Light, shadow, and reflection

Ed. Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, Ulf Küster Text(s) by Maria Becker, Gottfried Boehm, Ulf Küster, Philippe Piguet, Hannah Rocchi, and James H. Rubin Graphic design by Uwe Koch English 2017. 180 pp., 130 ills. hardcover 27.40 x 31.00 cm

ISBN 978-3-7757-4239-9 CHF 62.50 / € 58.00

⁄ The painter of light “The world’s appearance would be shaken if we succeeded in perceiving the spaces in between things as things.” These words from the philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty apply to the core of Claude Monet’s art in the years between 1880 and the beginning of the twentieth century. While interest usually lies only on the early and late work of this exceptional artist, the catalogue, containing more than fifty works of art, traces the development between these two periods. Accompanied by texts by well-known art historians, the reader is invited to follow Monet’s unusual treatment of reflections and shadows in his paintings. It allowed him to break loose from the modalities of representational logic and the pictorial object. And they made room for an aesthetic that helped to do justice to perception itself and to enforce a painting’s self-reflexive momentum. Exhibition: Fondation Beyeler Riehen/Basel 22.1.–28.5.2017


Sous l’influence de Claude, Vincent, Paul… et les autres

L’influence de la peinture impressionniste sur le jeune cinéma français L’installation cinématographique de Matthias Brunner a été créée pour la Fondation Beyeler à l’occasion de l’exposition « Monet ». Elle dure 30 minutes et est accompagnée musicalement par la Symphonie n° 4 d’Arvo Pärt. On aurait peine à trouver un genre cinématographique aussi étroitement lié aux beaux-arts que ne l’est le film impressionniste des années 1920 au mouvement impressionniste de la peinture française. D’un point de vue purement stylistique, des pionniers du cinéma et des figures emblématiques de la réalisation comme Abel Gance, Jean Epstein, Germaine Dulac et Louis Delluc ont été fortement marqués par la peinture impressionniste du XIXe siècle. Mais de nombreux autres grands artistes comme Man Ray, qui s’est fait plus tard un nom dans les rangs des surréalistes, ou des réalisateurs comme Jean Vigo et Jean Renoir, qui ont fait partie des représentants du réalisme poétique, ont été influencés dans leurs premières œuvres par l’impressionnisme français. C’est ainsi que ce mouvement pictural a servi de passerelle à des transformations ultérieures radicales du langage cinématographique. Ceux qui regrettent l’absence des couleurs de la peinture impressionniste dans le cinéma encore si jeune de l’époque en seront largement dédommagés par le raffinement de la technique cinématographique, caractérisée par des montages rapides, des accélérés, des flous, des surimpressions, des réflexions lumineuses, etc. Peut-être est-ce l’œuvre de Jean-Luc Godard qui permet le mieux – aujourd’hui encore – d’appréhender le dialogue entre peinture et cinéma. Ses films contiennent en effet de très nombreuses citations tirées de la peinture et de l’histoire de l’art. Il convient de mentionner tout particulièrement des réalisateurs étrangers comme Sergueï Eisenstein et G.V. Alexandrov, qui ont tourné en France « Romance sentimentale », ainsi qu’un autre Russe, Dimitri Kirsanoff, qui a tourné en Suisse la production franco-helvétique légendaire « Rapt », d’après Ramuz, sans oublier Alberto Cavalcanti, réalisateur brésilien installé à Paris avec « Rien que les heures ». Leurs films – tous des productions françaises – peuvent parfaitement rivaliser avec ceux des réalisateurs français et sont très régulièrement mis en relation avec le film impressionniste français. Le collage cinématographique comprenant des extraits de 25 films des 12 réalisateurs les plus célèbres qui faisaient alors fureur en France doit être considéré comme un hommage à la peinture impressionniste et au film impressionniste qui a donné naissance par la suite au « cinéma pur », au film abstrait, ainsi qu’au surréalisme et au réalisme poétique. Nous remercions tout particulièrement : Dr. h.c. Sam Keller Dr. Ulf Küster Prof. Dr. Gottfried Boehm Dr. Pamela Kort Christian Wirtz Heinz Spoerli Jürg Steinacher À la mémoire de : Jean Epstein ; Man Ray ; Abel Gance ; Dimitri Kirsanov ; Louis Delluc ; Sergueï Eisenstein ; Germaine Dulac ; G.V. Alexandrov ; Jean Renoir ; Alberto Cavalcanti ; Louis Feuillade ; Jean Vigo

Gratiseintritt für alle bis 25 Jahre Die Fondation Beyeler freut sich, anlässlich ihres 20. Geburtstags im Jahr 2017 allen Personen bis 25 Jahren kostenlosen Eintritt in die Ausstellungen zu offerieren. Diese Aktion wird grosszügig unterstützt durch die Basler Kantonalbank. Entrée gratuite pour les moins de 25 ans La Fondation Beyeler est heureuse d'offrir, à l'occasion de son 20e anniversaire, l'entrée gratuite des expositions à tous les visiteurs de moins de 25 ans. Cette opération bénéficie du généreux soutien de la Basler Kantonalbank. Entrata gratuita per tutti fino ai 25 anni In occasione del suo ventennale nel 2017 la Fondation Beyeler è lieta di offrire a tutte le persone fino a 25 anni d’età l’entrata gratuita alle mostre. Questa iniziativa è generosamente sostenuta dalla Banca cantonale Basilea. Free admission for everyone up to 25 years old In celebration of its 20th birthday in 2017, the Fondation Beyeler is delighted to offer free admission to its exhibitions for everyone up to the age of 25. This special gift is generously supported by the Basler Kantonalbank.

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Partenaires, fondations et mécènes 2016 / 2017

Partenaires

BEYELER-STIFTUNGHANSJÖRG WYSS, WYSS FOUNDATION

AMERICAN FRIENDS OF FOUNDATION BEYELERART MENTOR FOUNDATION LUCERNEAVC CHARITY FOUNDATIONAVINA STIFTUNGDR. CHRISTOPH M. MÜLLER UND SIBYLLA M. MÜLLER ERNST GÖHNER STIFTUNGFONDATION COROMANDELFREUNDE DER FONDATION BEYELERGEORG UND BERTHA SCHWYZER-WINIKER-STIFTUNGHELEN AND CHUCK SCHWAB

LUMA FOUNDATIONL. + TH. LA ROCHE STIFTUNGMAX KOHLER STIFTUNGSIMONE UND PETER FORCART-STAEHELINSTEVEN A. AND ALEXANDRA M. COHEN FOUNDATIONTERRA FOUNDATION FOR AMERICAN ARTTHE BROAD ART FOUNDATIONWALTER A. BECHTLER-STIFTUNGWALTER HAEFNER STIFTUNG

monet - fondation beyeler · communiqué de presse. ... la dernière salle de l’exposition offre...

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