Monet on Belle-Ile in 3 paintings

Monet is advised by his hosts at the Marec Inn to visit Grand Phare and the Grotte de l’Etoile. Alone, he sets off on foot and is delighted by Port Coton. Reminded of Japanese prints (highly in vogue at the time and a favourite of Van Gogh’s) and the Aiguilles d’Etretat which he’d visited earlier, Monet decides to paint these fascinating “needles”.

From above, Monet paints the rocks and the sea, doing away with as much sky as he could in order to capture the power and wilderness of the landscape. He frames his works differently each time, trying to better capture the structure of the rocks, like a sculpture, a novel way of working for him.

“In the morning, the weather was superb, but around 9 o’clock, clouds arrived, then wind and the terrible rain.”

Belle-Ile’s weather and lighting changes often, “forcing” Monet to work in series, painting the same spot over and over to capture each variation in colour, illumination and wind. This new method would mark him, adopting it for later subjects like cathedrals and haystacks.

“To truly paint the sea, you must see it every day, at all hours, and in the same place to understand its life in that particular spot; that’s why I redo the same subjects up to 4 or 6 times, even…”

Monet is the true “inventor” of Port Coton as a tourist site. Upon his arrival, there are no roads, no manor houses, just the flat open plains of the plateau. Only Grand Phare and the “Talut” semaphore stand in view … the latter of which is frequently omitted from his scenes!

Overall, Monet would paint Port Goulphar ten or so times. To create a sense of depth, he places warmer colours in the foreground whilst using colder ones for the background. He focuses on replicating the “structure” of the rocks with small dabs of paint, almost sculpting the surface. He also uses the grain of the canvas to emulate relief.

At the same time (late November) he is expected by his friend, Octave Mirbeau in Noirmoutier. The latter, tired of waiting, joins Monet in Belle-Île and is struck by his work:

“I went to spend 8 days with Monet in Belle-Île…He did very great things: it will be a new strength of his talent. A terrible, formidable Monet.”

Gustave Geffroy is an art critic who regularly publishes his articles in the newspaper “La Justice”, managed by Clémenceau.
In the midst of a political crisis, he goes on the trail of Auguste Blanqui, exiled to Belle-île. There he will meet Claude Monet at the Marec Inn, and a horse cart ride to La Pointe des Poulains will seal their friendship.

Monet would eventually give him the painting “Rochers à Port Goulphar” in 1900, when Gustave Geffroy became the great painter’s biographer.