The building is more than a ghost by light

The history of art feeds on small personal stories. And if one day Claude Monet went to Rouen, where he will give rise to a series of major paintings, it is simply to visit his brother, Leon. The latter is a textile industrialist, a very active notable in local life. Claude Monet had travelled for the first time to Rouen twenty years earlier, he returned in 1892 to what will become a historic act. Between 1892 and 1893, he is going to paint one of the achievements of his work and one of the apothéoses of modern art: a series of 28 "Cathedral" (1). In 1895, twenty paintings representing the facade of the Cathedral are exhibited at Gallery in Paris at Durand-Ruel. Printing is high. And Clemenceau transforming for the occasion by art critic described in "The Justice" this "moving wonder of all time".

Eleven of the paintings of the series was collected in Rouen - it is a performance - in an exhibition devoted to "Rouen and late 19th century painters". The attachment is not at the meeting. A context that makes even more grandiose across exposed on some rewarding walls would have liked... Damage.

But, alone, eleven paintings worth the travel. About this variation on the same subject, Monet had issued a final formula: "everything changes although pierre." He is was imposed this ground in slightly variant points of view according to occupied workshops. He was aware of the difficulty of his task and confessait: "I was able to settle in an empty apartment opposite the Cathedral, but it is a tough task I undertake here."

Materialize the passage of time

It will work in two stages and several paintings at the same time from one bridge to another with changes in light. He is caught by the observation of the climate and light variations on Gothic architecture. One of the most impressive effects is painted light lunch in "Portal of the Cathedral of Rouen, Sun," usually in Boston. The building is more than a ghost by light. The structure is materialized by white vertical bands.

Monet has already painted series: 25 "wheels" in 1891 and the same year 23 "Poplar". In 1899, he produced 12 "Japanese bridge". Between 1899 and 1901, 35 paintings London representing "charing Cross" and 39 "Waterloo Bridge"... This idea amply taken subsequently, including pop artists like Andy Warhol, is part of a purely modern vision. The repetition of a specific theme at different times, it is the materialization of the passage of time; the decomposition of the movement in photography; and, also, the film which is in its infancy. But Monet, he painted.

It is not the only artist visitor at Rouen. There is a Pissarro, charismatic and generous Impressionist leader. Date one year after the exhibition of the "Cathedral" of Monet in Paris and Rouen production highlighted at the Museum of fine arts of the city was certainly influenced by his desire to get there. It has views of the river Seine, but they are more repetitive than serial. It is better and more virtuoso in his production of watercolours of 1883, where the view of the "Côte Sainte-Catherine", diluted in a learned molten gray, shows vessels as ghosts.

There are also Gauguin, who, by Pissarro, settled in the town in 1884. At home, no sea but a campaign which foreshadows exotic and major of Tahiti and Marquesas with the appearance of its contrasting orange and green tones as in the "rising road", a view of geometric houses on a road sorry.

The exhibition is also the opportunity to discover lesser-known names of the local but with a remarkable verve scene. At the beginning of the 1880s, Charles Fréchon (1859-1929), a never exiled Rouennais painted in pointillist style very split country scenes in the acidic colours. At the same time, Léon-Jules Lemaître is in a genus similar but softer edge of river worthy of the great history of the art scene. But the exhibition, consisting of 130 works, includes also any cohort of quite conventional artists who tartinent, academic manner, edges and grey sea views of Tower as if it was raining. The remarks loses unfortunately of the substance and the viewer of the interest.

Judith Benhamou-Huet blog on images on lesechos.fr/diaporamalesechos.fr/diaporama