Belle-Île Rocks

Black rocks rise from a churning Atlantic, the water swirling around them like flame. Monet painted the same rocks of Port-Coton six times in the autumn of 1886, chasing every change of light and sea.

The story behind the painting

In 1886 Post-Impressionists such as Seurat and Pissarro were challenging the Impressionists with new techniques. Monet left gentle scenery behind and went to the dramatic island of Belle-Ile-en-Mer to prove himself as a leading modern painter. He arrived at Le Palais on 12 September 1886 and went straight to the wild Atlantic coast, including Port-Coton. He meant to stay a fortnight but kept delaying, and left only on 25 November, painting outdoors in often poor weather.

What to look for

This canvas, about 65 by 81 cm, belongs to the series The Pyramides at Port-Coton, Rough Sea: six paintings of the same rock formations from the same angle and in a very similar format. Across the series, the sky and light change from clear midday to mist, partial cloud and warm late afternoon, and the sea from calm to stormy. The rocks appear only as isolated fragments among the water, painted in a fluid, almost flame-like way.

Meaning and intent

Monet wrote to his wife Alice that one needed no sun for lugubrious effects, and called the coast sinister, diabolical and magnificent. Limiting himself to so few motifs, according to Paul Tucker, forced him to be even more exact about the sea's movement, the light dancing on water and the shadows of the black rocks. David Clarke sees the series as part of Monet's exploration of water's ability to suggest personal emotional states. It was his most extensive serial practice before the Haystacks.

Legacy

The series was first shown in spring 1887 at George Petit's gallery in Paris, within a group of ten Belle-Ile paintings, and again in 1889 at the Monet-Rodin exhibition. Gustave Geffroy praised his colour relationships, and for the first time in Monet's career most critics were positive; one called him the most significant landscape painter of modern times. The six canvases are now dispersed, and this one is in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow.