Description
View of Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme shows the small town at the mouth of the Somme, seen from above across its roofs. The upper third is a pale pink-grey sky. At the left stands a tall dark house wall with a barred window, and behind it a factory chimney rises with its smoke. Across the middle run orange-red tiled roofs, and among them a round tower with a conical cap. Below spread gardens, hedges and a slope falling away at an angle, flecked with green and blue-grey. There is not one person in the scene. The original is an oil work on canvas and is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York under inventory number 1975.1.167. Ours is made by hand in eight sizes from 50 x 40 to 150 x 120 cm, or to your own measurement, and you receive a photograph of the finished work for approval before it ships.
| Title: | View of Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme |
| Other titles: | Vue de Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme, Village de Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme |
| Painter: | Edgar Degas (1834–1917) |
| Year: | circa 1896 |
| Size of the original: | 50.8 cm x 61 cm |
| Technique of the original: | oil, canvas |
| Style: | impressionism |
| Where it hangs: | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. 1975.1.167) |
| Our version: | hand-painted in oil on linen, 8 sizes from 50 x 40 cm to 150 x 120 cm, custom size on request |
View of Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme – Edgar Degas
Who is in the scene?
Nobody. There is not one human figure on this canvas, which is unusual in Degas, who painted people all his life. In place of figures there are roofs, walls, trees and fields. The only sign that the town is inhabited is the smoke from the factory chimney at the left and the barred window in the dark wall at the lower left. Everything else is brick, render and foliage. The scene is the portrait of a place rather than of a person; anyone looking here for a figure subject will not find one.
What is on the canvas?
A view from height, the kind had by someone standing above the town. The upper third is a cloudless, pale pink-grey sky that drops at the right edge towards a straight, sea-like horizon. Below it the roofs run in ranks: orange-red tile, dark violet and grey slopes, and among them a round tower with a conical cap. At the left rises a tall dark house wall, and beside it the factory chimney with a thin trail of smoke. The middle band is filled with gardens and hedges in green, brown and reddish. At the lower right a slope falls away at an angle, flecked with green and blue-grey. The colours are unusually light for Degas: pink, ochre, orange, dirty green, plum.
Why does this scene matter?
Because Degas painted people almost all his life and landscape only rarely. This work is late, made when the painter’s sight was already failing, and worked from memory rather than in front of the motif; that is why houses and fields assemble as planes of colour rather than as objects carefully copied. The second reason is an absence you notice only after a while: there is nobody on the canvas. The third is the chimney. Even here, in a small town at a river mouth, Degas did not leave industry out — he put it at the left edge, where it cannot be missed.
What does the scene mean?
A place seen from outside and from above. Impressionism in Degas was not open-air painting but a cut as the eye takes it from one particular place, and that place here is above the town. An impressionist painting of this kind is therefore not a postcard view but a note of shapes and colours. As wall art it reads calm and warm, because it holds no event demanding attention; that is exactly why it carries a room you use every day. Take it as a large painting and the roofs come close to their natural size, which is when the flecked slope at the lower right starts to read as ground rather than pattern.
The subject among Degas’s works
Landscapes are few in Degas and nearly all of them late. Landscape by the Sea belongs to the same late group and is likewise built from planes of colour, Beach Scene shows the same coast but with people in it, and View of Rome from the Banks of the Tiber is nearly forty years earlier and shows how different the young Degas was in front of a motif. The work is recorded in the Degas catalogue raisonné as MS 2560; from the same stay comes Village of Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme, MS 631.
How is our hand-painted version made?
With a brush and oil paint, not a printer. The original is oil on canvas, so the same technique as ours. On this subject the hard part is the balance of colour. The pink sky and the orange roofs are both warm and can collapse into one another; so we paint the sky cooler and greyer than it first appears, and leave the roofs as the most saturated thing on the canvas. The green in the middle is built from three different greens, or it flattens into a single field. The dark wall at the left is the darkest point and goes in early, so that everything else has a measure beside it. The smoke from the chimney is the last stroke. Every reproduction is painted afresh, and no two are quite alike, because a hand does not repeat the same stroke twice; each hand-painted copy is therefore its own. For this work we have no photographs of our finished canvases, so none are shown here and none are described. You receive the photograph of your own canvas before it ships.
Which size for which wall?
If you do not know which: 61 x 51 cm. On this work that size is almost exactly the original’s own: the original measures 50.8 x 61 cm, and ours has an area of 3111 square centimetres against its 3099 — a difference of twelve square centimetres. In proportion the closest are 90 x 75 and 120 x 100 cm, both at a ratio of 1.20 against the original’s 1.201. The 50 x 40 cm is the smallest and belongs on a shelf or in a narrow space. The 61 x 51 and 70 x 60 cm are the usual choice above a chest of drawers. The 80 x 70 and 90 x 75 cm want a broader wall, and there the round tower and the chimney already read clearly. The 100 x 80 and 120 x 100 cm give the roofs at close to natural size. At 150 x 120 cm we are at the sizes that take over a whole room. Measure the size you choose on the wall first with a paper cut-out. No size is kept in stock as a finished piece: every copy is painted to order and stays a single piece.
Custom size, stretcher and frame
If none of the eight sizes fits, or if you want the exact proportion of the original, we paint to your measurement and keep the proportions of the scene as we do, so that the sky keeps its third and the slope at the lower right does not lose its share; this is our work painted to order. Every canvas painting ships stretched on a wooden stretcher, ready to hang. For the frame, use our 3D app: it shows every moulding we carry on this subject, so you can compare gold, silver, black, white and natural wood — it is for choosing a frame and nothing else. If you want to see how the work looks on your own wall, we have a separate service for that, placement in the room.
Delivery and guarantee
Every piece is painted to order in our workshop in Slovenia, so allow 15-45 days depending on the size chosen; at the largest sizes the time is usually at the upper end. It travels stretched and protected for transport, framed if you chose a frame, anywhere in the European Union with no customs. Before it ships you receive a photograph of the finished work for approval, and our returns policy applies to every order. The painter’s full offer is in the Edgar Degas gallery, and his life is described in our article about Edgar Degas.
Frequently asked questions
What painting is this?
It is Degas’s view of the town of Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme of about 1896, oil painted on canvas, 50.8 x 61 cm, held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York under inventory number 1975.1.167.
Where is Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme?
At the mouth of the river Somme in northern France, in Picardy. Degas stayed there in the late 1890s.
Why are there no people in it?
Because Degas painted none. There is not one human figure on the canvas; the only sign of life is the smoke from the factory chimney at the left.
What is the round tower in the middle?
A round tower with a conical cap among the roofs of the town. The record does not name it, so neither do we.
Where is the original?
In the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, under inventory number 1975.1.167.
How big is the original?
50.8 x 61 cm. Our 61 x 51 cm has almost exactly the same area.
Is this a late work?
Yes, about 1896, when the painter was around sixty-two and his sight was already failing.
Do your sizes follow the proportion of the original?
Very closely. The 90 x 75 and 120 x 100 cm are at a ratio of 1.20 against the original’s 1.201.
Is this a print?
No. The work is made by hand in oil; the brushstrokes are visible and can be felt.
Can I have a size that is not on the list?
Yes, we paint to measurement and keep the proportions of the scene as we do.
Is it suitable as a gift?
Yes, and it is one of the easier choices: the scene is quiet, has no figures in it, and settles into any room. Because every piece is painted to order, allow for the making time; if you would rather leave the choice to the recipient, there is our voucher.
- Subject: a small town at the mouth of the Somme, seen from above across its roofs, without one human figure
- Original: Edgar Degas, oil painted on canvas, 50.8 x 61 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1975.1.167)
- Ours: painted by hand in oil, eight sizes from 50 x 40 to 150 x 120 cm, stretched and framed on request
- Note: our 61 x 51 cm has almost exactly the original’s area — a difference of twelve square centimetres
