Description
The Beach at Sainte-Adresse is a hand-painted reproduction of Monet’s canvas in the Art Institute of Chicago: above a pale shingle beach lies a turquoise-green sea with dark-sailed fishing boats, fishermen stand by the boats, a man with a telescope and a woman sit mid-shore, and a cloudy grey sky fills the top. The original measures 102.5 x 75.8 cm, is oil on canvas, is signed “Claude Monet 67” at the lower right, dates from 1867 and carries accession number 1933.439. We paint it in eight sizes or to your own, with a photograph of the finished work sent for approval before dispatch.
| Title: | The Beach at Sainte-Adresse |
| Other titles: | The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (the museum’s title); La Plage de Sainte-Adresse (the French title in Wikidata); La Plage à Sainte-Adresse (the second Impressionist exhibition, 1876); Marine, temps gris (the Durand-Ruel stock book, 1873); in the Wildenstein catalogue the work is number 92 |
| Painter: | Claude Monet (1840–1926) |
| Year: | 1867 |
| Original size: | 102.5 cm x 75.8 cm |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Style: | Impressionism |
| Held at: | Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago (inv. 1933.439) |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted oil on canvas, eight sizes or made to measure |
The Beach at Sainte-Adresse – Claude Monet
What is on the canvas?
The sky takes up about three fifths of the height, grey and white, in short horizontal strokes of cloud. Below it lies a turquoise-green sea with fishing boats under dark, red-brown sails, and a row of tiny sails along the horizon. On the left a green bank rises above the bay with a tall house at the top and a pointed church spire among the houses lower down, and a line of buildings runs along the shore to the right.
The lower part of the canvas is pale shingle. On the left dark boats lie hauled up, with three fishermen beside them, one in blue. In the middle of the shore sit two figures whom the museum describes as a man in a dark hat and suit looking through a telescope and a woman in a straw hat with a scarlet ribbon. On the right a blue boat and a dark one behind it are pulled up on the shingle. The signature stands at the lower right in a dark colour.
When and where was it painted?
The museum dates the canvas 1867, with no range, Wikidata gives the same year, and the inscription at the lower right reads Claude Monet 67. According to the museum’s record Monet spent the summer of 1867 with his aunt at Sainte-Adresse, an affluent suburb of the port of Le Havre, where he grew up. Conservation research, the museum reports, showed him changing the composition as he worked: he first included other tourists and yachts, then painted over them and shifted the focus to the fishermen, the part of life in Sainte-Adresse he knew best.
What does the museum record say about the work?
The work is held by the Art Institute of Chicago under accession number 1933.439, with the credit line Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection, and hangs in Gallery 225. The museum gives the size height first, 75.8 x 102.5 cm, and 104.1 x 130.2 x 11.4 cm with the frame; in the Wildenstein catalogue of 1979 the work is number 92.
The record reads “Inscribed lower right: Claude Monet 67”; on our file it stands at the lower right in dark paint, as the museum says. The museum’s website refuses our automated requests, so we read the record through its public programming interface. Our file measures 4000 x 2957 pixels and is a reduced version of the museum’s photograph of 6793 x 5021 pixels, which Wikidata also points to; its width-to-height ratio is 1.3527, against the canvas’s 1.3522.
Where has the canvas been?
The museum publishes the whole chain of owners. On 28 February 1873 Monet sold the canvas for 400 francs to Durand-Ruel in Paris, which entered it in its stock book as number 2585, Marine, temps gris. By 1876 it was probably bought by Jean-Baptiste Faure; the museum relies on the Wildenstein catalogue of 1996, adding that the Durand-Ruel archives cannot confirm it. The catalogue of the second Impressionist exhibition, in 1876, notes beside the canvas “Appartient à M. Faure”.
On 9 January 1893 Durand-Ruel bought it back for 7,000 francs and on 17 January sold it for 8,000 francs to Henri Véver of Paris. At the Véver sale at the Galerie Georges Petit on 1 and 2 February 1897 it went as lot 79 for 9,000 francs to Boulley, acting for Georges Kohn; the Durand-Ruel archives state expressly that the buyer was Kohn, not Kahn.
On 11 June 1920 Durand-Ruel and Bernheim-Jeune bought it jointly for 40,000 francs, and on 8 February 1923 it was bought by Annie Swan Coburn of Chicago, who died in 1932; in 1933 it came to the museum as a bequest.
The same credit line, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection, stands in the museum’s records for three more canvases we sell: The Cliff Walk at Pourville, 1933.443, Stacks of Wheat (End of Day, Autumn), 1933.444, and Venice, Palazzo Dario, 1933.446. Annie Swan Coburn bought the last of these on the same day as this canvas.
Which Sainte-Adresse beach is this?
Wikidata lists fifteen works by Monet with Sainte-Adresse in their English or French title, eight of them from 1867. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York holds Regatta at Sainte-Adresse, from 1867, oil on canvas, 101.6 x 75.2 cm, accession number 51.30.4, with the credit line “Bequest of William Church Osborn, 1951”. From the same summer our shelf carries Terrace at the Seaside, Sainte-Adresse, Metropolitan Museum, inv. 67.241, 129.9 x 98.1 cm. Ours is 1933.439 in Chicago, with the year 67 at the lower right.
Why does this work matter?
Because, as the museum’s record puts it, it turns a traditional coastal scene into a scene of modern life. The railway had turned the fishing village into a resort, and the fashionably dressed couple are, the museum says, undoubtedly on holiday, which makes the canvas one of the artist’s first explorations of tourism.
The museum adds that the canvas foreshadows qualities of later Impressionism, which is perhaps why Monet showed it at the second Impressionist exhibition in 1876, nearly ten years after he painted it, as number 151, La Plage à Sainte-Adresse. In November 1872 he painted Impression, Sunrise in Le Havre, a view of the port of the same town, as our page on that work records. An impressionist painting of this kind shows modern life without a narrative: fishermen and holidaymakers share the same shore on a grey day.
How is our hand-painted version made?
Every order is painted individually by an artist, in oil on cotton or linen. That is how every canvas painting leaves us, with no print and no machine step. This oil painting reproduction is demanding in the sky: the clouds have to stay short, moving strokes, or the upper part turns into a flat grey field.
The second test is the small figures, the couple with the telescope and the fishermen, which must stay quick strokes rather than drawn people. A Monet reproduction of this kind depends on the sea staying turquoise and the shingle pale. Work of this kind will not take a high gloss, so ours is matt. A hand-painted copy is not a facsimile; two canvases of the same size always differ in the brushwork.
Which size for which wall?
There are eight sizes, from 50 x 40 to 150 x 110 cm. By size the closest to the original is 100 x 80 cm, 2.5 cm narrower and 4.2 cm taller, but at 1.2500 noticeably taller in shape than the original at 1.3522. By proportion the closest is 150 x 110 cm at 1.3636, followed by 80 x 60 and 120 x 90 cm at 1.3333.
For nearly the size of the original choose 100 x 80, for its shape 120 x 90 or 150 x 110, and 80 x 60 for a smaller wall. The wide grey sky brings quiet daylight into a room, which makes this a good painting for the living room. All sizes are listed with the product in our Claude Monet gallery.
Custom size, stretcher bar and frame
For a size not on the list, made to measure is the only route; send us the width and height and we keep the proportion of the original. The canvas is stretched on a wooden bar. A frame is not included; the museum’s own measures 130.2 x 104.1 cm and is 11.4 cm deep.
Delivery and guarantee
Making it takes two to three weeks, a few days more at the largest sizes. It arrives stretched on its bar in a rigid box, or rolled in a tube, with tracking. If it arrives damaged or differs noticeably from the approved photograph, we replace it or refund. Small differences in the brushwork are expected in handwork; damage is not.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the original?
In Chicago, at the Art Institute of Chicago, accession number 1933.439.
What year is it from?
1867. The museum, Wikidata and the inscription at the lower right all give that year.
Who is sitting on the shore with the telescope?
The museum names no one; by their dress they are undoubtedly holidaymakers.
Is La Plage de Sainte-Adresse the same work?
Yes, it is the French title of the same canvas in Wikidata.
Is this a print?
No. Ours is made by hand, in oil on canvas; we sell no printed work.
Which size should I choose?
100 x 80 cm for nearly the size of the original, 120 x 90 or 150 x 110 cm for its shape.
Can I have a size that is not listed?
Yes. A piece to your own measurement keeps the proportion of the original at any width.
How does the work reach me?
Stretched on its bar in a rigid box, or rolled in a tube, with tracking.
What is this work about, in one sentence?
About the fishing shore on a grey day, where holidaymakers appear among the fishermen.
Is the original for sale and what is it worth?
Not for sale: it is in a museum collection, and we give no valuation.
Is it suitable as a gift?
It is, and if you are unsure of the size there is a voucher with which the recipient chooses.
- Subject. The fishing shore of Sainte-Adresse under a grey sky, sails on a turquoise sea and a couple with a telescope on the shingle.
- Original. Oil on canvas, 102.5 x 75.8 cm, 1867; signed at the lower right “Claude Monet 67”; Art Institute of Chicago, inv. 1933.439.
- Ours. Eight sizes; 100 x 80 cm is closest by size, 150 x 110 cm by proportion.
- Worth knowing. By the museum’s record Monet first painted other tourists and yachts, then painted them over.
