Étretat: The Beach and the Falaise d'Amont
by Claude Monet
The cliffs at Étretat in saturated blue, orange and pink, painted in the off-season of 1885 when the resort was empty and the beach held nothing but local fishing boats.
- 1885
- Oil on canvas
About Claude Monet
An empty resort
The Falaise d'Amont rises at the right, the chalk catching low sun and turning orange and pink against a blue sea. The beach curves away beneath it, and on the shingle sits a small cluster of local fishing boats. There are no holidaymakers.
That emptiness is deliberate. Étretat was a well-established tourist town by the 1880s, crowded through the summer, and Monet chose to bring his family in the autumn and winter instead. The near-square canvas crops the view tightly, so the cliff dominates and the scene reads as geology first and seaside second.
Fifty-one canvases in three months
Monet arrived at Étretat with his family in September 1885 and left in December. In that time he began fifty-one canvases, many of which he carried back to Giverny and reworked in the studio. Most of them take the rock formations flanking the bay as their subject — the arches and needles that made Étretat famous, painted over and over from different angles and in different weather.
The working conditions were genuinely dangerous. The motifs sit at the foot of cliffs on a tidal shore, and the same drama that made the place worth painting made it difficult to reach and easy to be caught out by.
Close reading
Reading the work, detail by detail
Monet turns a famous geological formation into a problem of scale. Boats, beach, cliff, and sky are all visible at once, but each is painted with a different density and speed.
1.The cliff is both wall and opening
Warm cream and orange make the rock feel solid, while violet and blue hollow out the arch. The chapel above is barely more than a dark punctuation mark. Its tiny scale turns the cliff from scenery into monument.
2.The working beach anchors the spectacle
The beached boats are short dark hulls surrounded by people reduced to upright strokes. Against the enormous cliff they give a measure of human life—and keep the picture from becoming only a sublime view.
3.Sunlight breaks the water into marks
No continuous blue field stands for the sea. Cream, turquoise, cobalt, and violet touches sit beside one another, their broken surface carrying the glitter of light. The water works because the eye mixes what the brush keeps separate.
Timeline
1885
Monet arrives at Étretat with his family in September and works until December, beginning fifty-one canvases.
1964
Given to the Art Institute of Chicago by Mrs. Anne R. Winterbotham, entering the Joseph Winterbotham Collection.
Frequently asked questions
How many paintings did Monet make at Étretat in 1885?
He began fifty-one canvases between September and December 1885, finishing many of them later in his studio at Giverny.
Why is the beach empty?
Monet went deliberately in the off-season. Étretat was a busy resort in summer; in autumn and winter the beach held only local fishing boats.
What is the Falaise d'Amont?
The cliff at the northern, upstream end of the bay at Étretat — 'amont' meaning upstream. The cliff at the other end is the Falaise d'Aval.
Where is the painting now?
At the Art Institute of Chicago, given by Mrs. Anne R. Winterbotham in memory of John H. Winterbotham as part of the Joseph Winterbotham Collection (accession number 1964.204).
