“La Cote Sauvage” Original lithograph printed in brownish black on tan Chine applique , circa 1892. 210x263 mm; 8 1/4 x 10 ½ inches ,full margins. Edition of 25. Custom wood frame -black laquer and gold leaf.

This piece is signed both by Monet and Thornley in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Belfond, Paris, with the blind stamp (Lugt 225d, lower right). Published by Goupil, Paris. From L’Album de 20 lithographies d’apres les tableaux de Claude Monet. A superb, richly-inked  impression of  this scarce lithograph.

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CLAUDE MONET

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Recognized as the 'Father of Impressionism’, Claude Monet (1840 - 1926) instigated one of the most important artistic movements in history, and his groundbreaking work continues to inspire the development of artists and artistic styles today. 

How do artists represent and reflect the world they live in? The fact that the natural world is constantly changing makes depicting it a challenge when it comes to oil paintings, which are static and cannot show motion like movies do. To address this issue, the painter Claude Monet became one of the founders of the Impressionism art movement. Impressionism broke from convention and showed artists a new way to develop techniques to get to the heart of the reality in front of them. 

Claude Monet was born in Paris, France on November 14, 1840. He began drawing as a boy when his family moved to Normandy. After becoming known for making caricatures of his teachers and people living in town, Monet met landscape artist Eugene Bodin, who taught him how to paint outside. 

This led to Monet moving back to Paris, where he became a student at the Academie Suisse. Here, he immersed himself in the Barbizon school, which emphasized making preliminary sketches outside and then bringing the canvas back indoors to paint the natural world in a controlled environment. 

Monet wasn't satisfied with this approach and began to paint outside, remaining on the scene from the beginning until the end instead of finishing the work inside of a studio. He was beginning to focus on capturing the evanescence of shifting, natural light, which required faster painting and a new attitude about art. Impressionism actually became possible thanks to manufacturers producing new ranges of paint color in tubes that were easy to transport and use outside rather than having to rely on a studio to mix and store the hues.

At times, the light Monet achieved in his paintings was almost the subject itself. The light enhanced the works and gave Monet's paintings a photographic quality, despite the "impression" of the subject of the piece. It was these impressions - rather than the subjects or themes - that established Monet as a revolutionary artist. Monet became increasingly interested in how our eyes truly perceive the natural world. To that end, he would create multiple paintings to record and reveal the process of perception as the natural scene's appearance changed throughout the day. Examples of these efforts include his paintings of Haystacks (1891), Waterloo Bridge (1903). 

Along with the other Impressionists, Monet's aim in his painting was to capture reality and analyse the ever-changing nature of light and color. He recorded his surroundings faithfully, from the grime of a Paris railway station to the incandescent beauty of his later paintings based on the gardens he created at Giverny in northeastern France.

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