Description
Rouen Cathedral, Grey Weather is a hand-painted reproduction of one of the five Rouen façades held by the Musée d’Orsay: the portal fills the whole height of the canvas, the blue-violet rose window darkens above it, and two tiny figures stand along the bottom edge. There is no sky at all — the stone reaches the top edge. The original measures 65.4 x 100.2 cm, is oil on canvas and carries the accession number RF 1999. The museum dates it to 1892, while the signature reads “Claude Monet 94”. We paint it in eight sizes or to your own, with a photograph of the finished work for approval before despatch.
| Title: | Rouen Cathedral, Grey Weather |
| Other titles: | La Cathédrale de Rouen. Le Portail, temps gris ; Harmonie grise (the name in the museum record, with both parts) |
| Painter: | Claude Monet (1840–1926) |
| Year painted: | 1892 in the museum record; the signature on the canvas we read as “Claude Monet 94”, so the two years differ |
| Original size: | 65.4 cm x 100.2 cm |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Painting style: | Impressionism |
| Located at: | Musée d’Orsay, Paris (acc. no. RF 1999) |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted oil on canvas, eight sizes or made to measure |
Rouen Cathedral, Grey Weather – Claude Monet
What is on the canvas?
The west front of Rouen Cathedral, seen close to and head on. At the centre is the great portal with its steep gabled porch, a slender pinnacle in front of it, and behind that the rose window in blue-violet, the only genuinely dark surface here; below it sits the pale disc of the clock. At the bottom are three doorways, the middle one tall and dark with a brownish-yellow panel. The left edge cuts through a quieter tower mass, the right edge through a densely carved wall. There is no sky: stone fills the top edge from side to side. The colours are greys with green and violet in them, and warm brown survives only in the shadowed doorways.
Why does the work have two names?
Because the museum gives it both. Its record reads “La Cathédrale de Rouen. Le Portail, temps gris ; Harmonie grise” — two names split by the museum’s own semicolon. The first says what is painted and in what weather; the second says what Monet was after, the accord of a single colour. Our title follows the first. Both stand in the table, because the same museum holds four more Rouen façades, each with its own harmony — brown, blue, white, and blue and gold.
How is the work dated, and what does the canvas say?
The museum dates it to 1892, with no range and no cautious “around”. A signature stands along the bottom edge at the left, which on the large photograph of the canvas we read as “Claude Monet 94”. The record lists no inscription at all, so the reading is ours. Of the three Orsay Rouen canvases we have opened, both dated 1892 carry the number 94 at the lower left, while the one dated 1893 is signed at the right with no legible year — an observation on three photographs, not a claim about the series.
What does the museum record say about the size?
The work is held by the Musée d’Orsay under accession number RF 1999. It gives the measurements height by width, 100.2 x 65.4 cm; our table puts the width first, so here you read 65.4 x 100.2 cm. This time the Wikidata collection agrees completely — same year, same accession number, same measurements to the decimal. We say so rather than stay silent, because a page with no note about a discrepancy and a page where nobody compared look identical a month later.
The bequest of Count Isaac de Camondo, 1911
On the path this canvas took, the museum writes a single line: “Legs comte Isaac de Camondo, 1911”. There is no chain of owners, and where the museum publishes none we do not invent one. Camondo was a banker and a collector whose bequest brought several Impressionist works into the French national collections at once — among them four of this museum’s five Rouen façades. The museum bought the fifth, RF 2779, directly from Monet in 1907. That is the only provenance we have, and it is checkable in each of the five records.
Which of the Orsay’s five Rouen cathedrals is ours?
We have read all five in the museum’s own records. Ours is RF 1999, 65.4 x 100.2 cm. The others are RF 2000, 63 x 92.2 cm, of 1893; RF 2001, 73.2 x 106.5 cm, 1893; RF 2002, 73.5 x 107 cm, 1893; and RF 2779, 74 x 107 cm, 1892. By size the nearest is RF 2000, 2.4 cm narrower and 8 cm shorter. The quickest test needs no tape measure: our side ratio is 0.653 and all four others lie between 0.683 and 0.692, so ours is the most elongated of the five — none of the others is so tall in proportion to its width, and that is why it has no sky. With us RF 2000 is Rouen Cathedral, Morning Sun and RF 2779 is Rouen Cathedral, the Portal Seen from the Front; both carry a piece of sky.
Six Rouen cathedrals in our gallery
In the Claude Monet gallery we carry six Rouen façades by Monet. Besides this canvas and the two named above, there are three more: Rouen Cathedral, the Portal and the Saint-Romain Tower; Rouen Cathedral, the Portal and the Saint-Romain Tower in Full Sun; and Rouen Cathedral, the Portal.
How is our hand-painted version made?
Every order is painted individually by an artist, in oils on cotton or linen canvas. A canvas painting is made here with no print, no transfer and no machine step in between. This motif is demanding because it holds almost no pure colour: everything is grey leaning now to green, now to violet, and black would collapse the stone into a single patch. The underlayer stays light and the shadow is built from cool glazes. The second difficulty is the grain — the façade is thousands of short strokes and every one must stay visible, or the carving goes and a wall is left. Every hand-painted oil painting that leaves our workshop is a little its own.
We do not know, and we do not invent a reason. The record does not mention the inscription at all, so the reading is ours, from the photograph.
Which size for which wall?
Eight sizes are available, from 40 x 60 to 120 x 180 cm, and one sits unusually close to the original: 65 x 100 cm is just 4 mm narrower and 2 mm shorter than the canvas in Paris. By the ratio of the sides the same size is nearest too, 0.650 against 0.653. The scene is narrow and tall and works well between two windows. In a hallway 50 x 80 cm does the job; as a painting for living room walls, 80 x 120 cm.
How high to hang the painting: the centre about 145 cm above the floor, and with a tall upright work rather lower than higher.
Made to measure, stretcher and frame
If you want the proportion of the original exactly, made to measure is the only route: send us the width and the height in centimetres. The canvas can come stretched on a wooden stretcher ready to hang, or rolled in a tube if you will have it framed yourself; the frame is not included in the price. A narrow moulding in dark wood or warm grey suits this scene, while a wide gilt one makes the grey look dirty. The museum’s own frame brings the whole to 78.9 x 113.2 cm.
Delivery and guarantee
Making the work takes two to three weeks, a few days longer at the largest sizes, because the oil has to dry between layers. Stretched canvases travel in a rigid box with protected corners, rolled ones in a tube. If the work arrives damaged, or differs noticeably from the approved photograph, we replace it or refund the price. A hand-painted copy is not a factory product and small differences in the stroke are expected; damage or the wrong motif are not.
If the painting is a gift and you are unsure of the size, there is a gift voucher: the recipient chooses the size and the subject.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the original?
In Paris, at the Musée d’Orsay, under accession number RF 1999, where it arrived in 1911 with the Camondo bequest.
What year is the work from?
The museum dates it to 1892, and that is the year we give.
Why did Monet paint Rouen Cathedral so many times?
He was not after the building but the light on it. In 1892 and 1893 he painted the west façade about thirty times, at different hours and in different weather, working on several canvases at once and switching as the light changed. He finished them in his studio in 1894.
How many times did Monet paint Rouen Cathedral?
More than thirty times, in 1892 and 1893; 28 of the canvases show the west façade. He finished them in his studio in 1894 and chose twenty for the show at Durand-Ruel in Paris in May 1895.
- Motif. The portal of Rouen Cathedral close to and head on, with no sky: stone up to the top edge and the blue-violet rose window above the entrance.
- Original. Oil on canvas, 65.4 x 100.2 cm, 1892; Musée d’Orsay, acc. no. RF 1999, bequest of Count Isaac de Camondo 1911.
- Ours. Eight sizes; 65 x 100 cm stands 4 mm from the original in width and 2 mm in height.
- Worth knowing. The museum dates the canvas to 1892, while the signature reads “Claude Monet 94”; we give both, and the source of each.
