In 1886, the writer Guy de Maupassant published his eyewitness account of Monet at Étretat. "The artist walked along the beach, followed by children carrying five or six canvases representing the same subject at different times of the day and with different effects. He took them up and put them aside by turns according to changes in the sky and shadows." Monet painted the dramatically arched projection in the cliff at Étretat six times from this angle: twice during each of three visits to the Normandy coast in 1883, 1885, and 1886. He refined the pictures in his studio.
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Artwork Details
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Title:The Manneporte near Etretat
Artist:Claude Monet (French, Paris 1840–1926 Giverny)
Date:1886
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:32 x 25 3/4 in. (81.3 x 65.4 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Lillie P. Bliss, 1931
Object Number:31.67.11
Inscription: Signed and dated (lower left): Claude Monet 86
[Durand-Ruel, Paris and New York, 1887–92; bought from the artist and sold on May 28, 1892 to Palmer]; Potter Palmer, Chicago (1892–93; returned on January 24, 1893 to Durand-Ruel, New York ); [Durand-Ruel, New York, 1893–1909]; Cornelius Newton Bliss, New York (1909–d. 1911); Lillie P. Bliss, New York (1911–d. 1931)
New York. Durand-Ruel. "Monet," January 12–27, 1895, no. 31 [see Wildenstein 1979].
Boston. St. Botolph's Club. "Monet," February 1895, no. 10 [see Wildenstein 1979].
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Loan Exhibition of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings," May 3–September 15, 1921, no. 77 (as "Étretat," lent anonymously).
Brooklyn Museum. "Summer Exhibition of Modern French and American Painters," June 12–October 14, 1926, no catalogue (lent by Miss L. P. Bliss).
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Memorial Exhibition: The Collection of the Late Miss Lizzie P. Bliss, Vice-President of the Museum," May 17–September 27, 1931, no. 99 (as "The Cliff at Étretat").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Landscape Paintings," May 14–September 30, 1934, no. 51 (as "Étretat").
Kunsthaus Zürich. "Claude Monet, 1840–1926," May 10–June 15, 1952, no. 67 (as "Le Pic à Étretat").
The Hague. Gemeentemuseum. "Claude Monet," July 24–September 22, 1952, no. 52 (as "Le Pic te Étretat").
Pittsburgh. Carnegie Institute. "An Experimental Gallery, Featuring the Art Historical Background to Impressionism," October 1–31, 1953, no catalogue.
Bronx County Courthouse. "Paintings from the Metropolitan, Pinturas del Metropolitano," May 12–June 13, 1971, no. 22.
Roslyn Harbor, N.Y. Nassau County Museum of Art. "Normandy and its Artists Remembered," June 12–September 11, 1994, unnumbered cat.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920," February 4–May 6, 2007, no. 90.
Berlin. Neue Nationalgalerie. "Französische Meisterwerke des 19. Jahrhunderts aus dem Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 1–October 7, 2007, unnumbered cat.
Portland, Me. Portland Museum of Art. "The Draw of the Normandy Coast (1860–1960)," June 14–September 3, 2012, unnumbered cat. (ill. p. 56).
San Diego. Timken Museum of Art. "Monet's Etretat: Destination & Motif," September 8–December 31, 2017, unnum. checklist.
Tokyo. Ueno Royal Museum. "Claude Monet: Journey to Series Paintings," October 20, 2023–January 28, 2024, no. 38.
Osaka. Nakanoshima Museum of Art. "Claude Monet: Journey to Series Paintings," February 10–May 6, 2024, no. 38.
Bryson Burroughs. "The Bequest of Lizzie P. Bliss." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 26 (November 1931), pp. 262, 264 n. 2, ill.
John Rewald. The History of Impressionism. New York, 1946, ill. p. 397.
Oscar Reuterswärd. Monet. Stockholm, 1948, p. 284, incorrectly identifies the subject as the Porte d'Aval.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 69.
Jean Leymarie. Impressionism. Lausanne, 1955, ill. p. 83 (color).
Luigina Rossi Bortolatto. L'opera completa di Claude Monet, 1870–1889. Milan, 1966, pp. 107–8, no. 296, ill.
Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 3, XIX–XX Centuries. New York, 1967, p. 136, ill.
Margaretta M. Salinger. "Windows Open to Nature." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 27 (Summer 1968), unpaginated, ill.
Raymond Cogniat. Claude Monet. New York, 1969, ill. p. 29 (color).
Douglas Cooper. "The Monets in the Metropolitan Museum." Metropolitan Museum Journal 3 (1970), pp. 291–92, 294, 302, 304–5, fig. 15.
Jean Clay. L'Impressionnisme. [Paris], 1971, pp. 196–97, ill. (color).
Joel Isaacson. Observation and Reflection: Claude Monet. Oxford, 1978, pp. 37–38, 217, pl. 84, claims that it was developed as a pair along with a very similar painting in the Pritzker collection, Chicago (W1035).
Daniel Wildenstein. Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné. Vol. 3, 1887–1898: Peintures. Paris, 1979, p. 66 n. 1278, as included in exhibitions at Durand-Ruel, New York, and St. Botolph's Club, Boston, in 1895.
Daniel Wildenstein. Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné. Vol. 2, 1882–1886: Peintures. Lausanne, 1979, pp. 43, 45, 184–85, no. 1052, ill.
Robert Herbert. "Method and Meaning in Monet." Art in America 67 (September 1979), p. 108.
Brian Petrie. Claude Monet, The First of the Impressionists. Oxford, 1979, pp. 58, 61, pl. 51.
Grace Seiberling. Monet's Series. PhD diss., Yale University. New York, 1981, pp. 65–68, 271, fig. 5,
.
Robert Gordon and Andrew Forge. Monet. New York, 1983, pp. 106, 291, ill. (color).
Charles F. Stuckey. "Monet's Art and the Act of Vision." Aspects of Monet. Ed. John Rewald and Frances Weitzenhoffer. New York, 1984, ill. p. 114.
Charles S. Moffett. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1985, pp. 135, 252, ill. (color).
John House. Monet: Nature into Art. New Haven, 1986, pp. 59–60, 67, 86, 125, 150, 184, 195, 241 n. 20, colorpl. 130, fig. 225 (diagram), discusses the reworking of the lines of the arch; prints a diagram showing changes Monet made in the disposition of forms.
Richard Kendall, ed. Monet by Himself. London, 1989, ill. p. 141 (color).
Karin Sagner-Düchting. Claude Monet, 1840–1926: Ein Fest für die Augen. Cologne, 1990, pp. 134, 140, ill. (color).
Virginia Spate. Claude Monet: Life and Work. New York, 1992, p. 171.
Chuji Ikegami. New History of World Art. Vol. 22, Period of Impressionism. Tokyo, 1993, p. 212, fig. 120.
Constance Schwartz. Normandy and Its Artists Remembered. Exh. cat., Nassau County Museum of Art. Roslyn Harbor, N.Y., 1994, pp. 23, 82, colorpl. X.
Robert L. Herbert. Monet on the Normandy Coast: Tourism and Painting, 1867–1886. New Haven, 1994, pp. 115–16, fig. 129 (color), dates it 1885–86.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 476, ill., as "The Manneporte near Étretat".
Daniel Wildenstein. Monet or the Triumph of Impressionism. Vol. 1, 2nd ed. Cologne, 1996, pp. 210–11, ill. (color, cropped).
Daniel Wildenstein. Monet. Vol. 3, Catalogue raisonné–Werkverzeichnis: Nos. 969–1595. 2nd ed. Cologne, 1996, p. 398, no. 1052, ill. (color).
Rebecca A. Rabinow. "Modern Art Comes to the Metropolitan: The 1921 Exhibition of 'Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings'." Apollo 152 (October 2000), p. 11, fig. 9 (installation photo).
Impressionist & Modern Art Part One. Sotheby's, New York. May 3, 2005, p. 24, under no. 6, mentions it in the entry for another Manneporte picture (W1035).
Robert L. Herbert in "Monet's Neo-Romantic Seascapes 1881–1886." Monet and French Landscape: Vétheuil and Normandy. Ed. Frances Fowle. Edinburgh, 2006, p. 73, colorpl. 10.
Richard Kendall in James A. Ganz and Richard Kendall. The Unknown Monet: Pastels and Drawings. Exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts, London. Williamstown, Mass., 2007, p. 155, fig. 137 (color).
Eric M. Zafran inClaude Monet (1840–1926): A Tribute to Daniel Wildenstein and Katia Granoff. Exh. cat., Wildenstein & Co., Inc. New York, 2007, p. 126.
Joseph Baillio and Cora Michael inClaude Monet (1840–1926): A Tribute to Daniel Wildenstein and Katia Granoff. Exh. cat., Wildenstein & Co., Inc. New York, 2007, p. 165.
Paul Hayes Tucker inClaude Monet (1840–1926): A Tribute to Daniel Wildenstein and Katia Granoff. Exh. cat., Wildenstein & Co., Inc. New York, 2007, p. 75, fig. 13 (color).
Kathryn Calley Galitz inThe Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. New York, 2007, pp. 126, 241, no. 90, ill. (color and black and white).
James H. Rubin inA City for Impressionism: Monet, Pissarro, and Gauguin in Rouen. Ed. Laurent Salomé. Exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen. Paris, 2010, ill. p. 113 (color), reproduces it with caption information for MMA 51.30.5.
Frances Fowle inThe Draw of the Normandy Coast. Exh. cat., Portland Museum of Art. Portland, Me, 2012, p. 53, 87, fig. 10 (color).
Derrick R. Cartwright. Monet's Etretat: Destination & Motif. Exh. brochure, Timken Museum of Art. San Diego, 2017, unpaginated, fig. 3 (color).
Gunhild Bauer inClaude Monet: A Floating World. Ed. Heinz Widauer and Dieter Buchhart. Exh. cat., Albertina Museum. Vienna, 2018, p. 122, fig. 8 (color), dates it 1885/86.
Marianne Mathieu inMonet: The Late Years. Exh. cat., Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Fort Worth, 2019, p. 82.
Marnin Young inFélix Fénéon: The Anarchist and the Avant-Garde. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 2020, p. 39, fig. 21 (color).
Carolyn Kinder Carr in "Championing Impressionism in the American Midwest: Sara Tyson Hallowell and the Formation of the Bertha and Potter Palmer Collection." Collecting Impressionism: A Reappraisal of the Role of Collectors in the History of the Movement. Ed. Ségolène Le Men and Félicie Faizand de Maupeou. Milan, 2022, p. 186.
Irene M. Walsh. Lillie P. Bliss: Collector, Advocate, and Visionary Benefactor of the Museum of Modern Art. London, 2025, pp. 5, 10, 50, 114, 173 n. 21.
The Manneporte is one of several unusual rock formations near the town of Étretat on the coast of the English Channel. Monet painted these rock formations many times. Another work in The Met (51.30.5; W832), painted three years earlier, depicts the Manneporte from the same vantage point, on the same size canvas, but in a horizontal, rather than a vertical, format.
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