{"id":209737,"date":"2026-08-28T09:24:40","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T07:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svetslik.si\/nekategorizirano\/customs-house-varengeville-2\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T03:10:31","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T01:10:31","slug":"customs-house-varengeville","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/svetslik.si\/en\/claude-monet\/customs-house-varengeville\/","title":{"rendered":"Claude Monet \u2013 The Customs House at Varengeville"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Customs House at Varengeville is a hand-painted reproduction of Monet\u2019s canvas in the Art Institute of Chicago: a stone house in pinks, lilacs and greys stands on a cliff top, seen from above, a fence of thin dark stakes runs from it along the cliff edge, and the sea fills the upper part of the canvas in pale turquoise going to white. The original measures 92.8 x 65.6 cm, is oil on canvas, is signed \u00bbClaude Monet 97\u00ab at the lower left, dates from 1897 and carries accession number 1933.1149. We paint it in eight sizes or to your own, with a photograph of the finished work sent for approval before dispatch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Title:<\/td>\nThe Customs House at Varengeville<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Other titles:<\/td>\nThe Customs House at Varengeville (the museum\u2019s title); La cabane du douanier (the title at the Masson collection exhibition of 1911); in the Wildenstein catalogue the work is number 1455<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Painter:<\/td>\nClaude Monet (1840\u20131926)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Year:<\/td>\n1897<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Original size:<\/td>\n92.8 cm x 65.6 cm<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Original technique:<\/td>\nOil on canvas<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Style:<\/td>\nImpressionism<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Held at:<\/td>\nArt Institute of Chicago (inv. 1933.1149)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Our reproduction:<\/td>\nHand-painted oil on canvas, eight sizes or made to measure<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The Customs House at Varengeville \u2013 Claude Monet<\/h2>\n

What is on the canvas?<\/h3>\n

A stone house on a cliff top, seen from above and a little from behind. It stands left of centre, its walls laid in small strokes of pink, lilac, grey and blue, with a small pale blue window in the gable wall on the left. The long roof runs down to the right in lilac grey, a reddish pink chimney rises at the ridge, and the wall facing right is darker, with reddish openings in shadow.<\/p>\n

To the right a low fence of thin dark stakes and brush runs from the house along the edge of the cliff and down to the edge of the canvas. The foreground is a slope of pink earth with tufts of green and turquoise grass. Above and behind everything the sea fills the upper part of the canvas, pale turquoise, whiter towards the top, with no boat and no figure.<\/p>\n

When was it painted, and how often did Monet paint this house?<\/h3>\n

The museum dates the canvas 1897, Wikidata gives the same year, and beside the signature stands 97. The museum record says that Monet painted the customs house at Varengeville, on the Normandy coast of France, four times in 1882 and four more times in 1897.<\/p>\n

Each time, it says, he chose a similar vantage, looking down on the small building, which appears to grow out of the cliffside; and the size of this canvas is nearly identical to that of the other three from the second visit.<\/p>\n

What does the museum record say about the work?<\/h3>\n

The work is held by the Art Institute of Chicago<\/a> under accession number 1933.1149, in the Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection. The museum gives its size as 65.6 x 92.8 cm, height first, and 83.5 x 110.2 x 5.7 cm with the frame; Wikidata gives the same 65.6 x 92.8 cm. The technique is oil on canvas, and in the Wildenstein catalogue the work is number 1455.<\/p>\n

The record reads \u00bbInscribed lower left: Claude Monet 97\u00ab. On our own file the signature stands there in red, with the 97 after the name, which agrees with the museum. That file matches byte for byte the photograph Wikidata points to: 3000 x 2089 pixels, a ratio of 1.4361 against the canvas\u2019s 1.4146. Whether that photograph is cropped we could not measure, because the museum\u2019s photograph server refuses our requests, so this page claims nothing about it.<\/p>\n

Where has the canvas been?<\/h3>\n

The museum gives the chain in full. Monet sold the canvas to the Galerie Allard et No\u00ebl in February 1899 for 6,000 francs, as his own account book records. By 27 February 1911 it belonged to Maurice Masson in Paris, and at his sale at the H\u00f4tel Drouot on 22 June 1911, as lot 23, Durand-Ruel in Paris bought it for 9,020 francs. In the summer of 1913 it went to the Durand-Ruel house in New York; the Paris and New York stock books give different days, 21 July or 6 August, and the museum prints both. On 10 February 1914 Martin A. Ryerson of Chicago, who died in 1932, bought it for 7,500 dollars, and in 1933 it came to the Art Institute of Chicago by bequest.<\/p>\n

On the same day, the museum records, a Durand-Ruel receipt shows Ryerson buying two more paintings with this canvas: Waterloo Bridge, London, 1903, Wildenstein 1586, and Les nymph\u00e9as, paysage d\u2019eau, 1906, Wildenstein 1683. The Art Institute\u2019s Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight Effect<\/a> is dated 1903 and carries that same Wildenstein number, 1586. Two more canvases we sell carry the same Ryerson collection credit line at the museum: Water Lilies<\/a> of 1906 and Charing Cross Bridge, London<\/a> of 1901.<\/p>\n

Which customs house is this?<\/h3>\n

Monet painted this house eight times, by the museum\u2019s count, so a title alone does not pick out one canvas. Harvard Art Museums hold one of 1882 whose title names the place, House of the Customs Officer, Varengeville<\/a>, oil on canvas, 61 x 74.9 cm, object number 1934.27. It came to Harvard by bequest of Annie Swan Coburn; the same name stands in the provenance of Venice, Palazzo Dario<\/a> at the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Coburn name is also on the credit line of The Cliff Walk at Pourville<\/a> of 1882. Ours is 1933.1149 in Chicago, dated 1897 and 65.6 x 92.8 cm; if you are looking for this work in particular, go by that number.<\/p>\n

Why does this work matter?<\/h3>\n

Because it shows the painter working the surface, not only the view. The museum record says that here Monet put more white into his paints to catch finer effects of atmosphere, and that he scraped down or wiped away paint while it was still soft, so that the colours beneath show through. In the water, it says, breaks in the pale grey paint reveal a bright green underneath, which he picked up with further touches of a similar green on top.<\/p>\n

In 1990 the canvas was shown in Monet in the \u201990s: The Series Paintings, as catalogue number 69. An impressionist painting of this kind tells no story; it shows how it was painted.<\/p>\n

How is our hand-painted version made?<\/h3>\n

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 stones: each wall needs its small separate strokes of pink, lilac and grey, or the house turns into a flat pink block.<\/p>\n

The second test is the sea, which must stay pale and full of white without going chalky. A Monet reproduction of this kind depends on how much white goes into the colour, the very thing the museum record points to. 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.<\/p>\n

Which size for which wall?<\/h3>\n

There are eight sizes, from 50 x 35 to 150 x 110 cm. By size the closest to the original is 90 x 65 cm, 2.8 cm narrower and 0.6 cm lower, and at 1.3846 slightly less elongated than the original\u2019s 1.4146. By proportion the closest are 70 x 50 and 105 x 75 cm, both at 1.4000.<\/p>\n

If you want nearly the size of the original, take 90 x 65; if you want its shape on a larger wall, 105 x 75. The pale colours and the single house read well above a table, where a canvas is seen from a chair, which makes this a good painting for the dining room. All sizes are listed with the product in our Claude Monet gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Custom size, stretcher bar and frame<\/h3>\n

For a size not on the list, made to measure<\/a> 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\u2019s own measures 110.2 x 83.5 cm and is 5.7 cm deep.<\/p>\n

Delivery and guarantee<\/h3>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Frequently asked questions<\/h3>\n

Where is the original?<\/h4>\n

In Chicago, at the Art Institute of Chicago, accession number 1933.1149.<\/p>\n

What year is it from?<\/h4>\n

1897. The museum and Wikidata give the same year, and the inscription beside the signature reads 97.<\/p>\n

What does it show?<\/h4>\n

A stone customs house on a cliff top above a pale turquoise sea, with a fence of thin stakes along the cliff edge.<\/p>\n

How many times did Monet paint this house?<\/h4>\n

Eight, by the museum\u2019s count: four times in 1882 and four more in 1897.<\/p>\n

Is this a print?<\/h4>\n

No. Ours is made by hand, in oil on canvas; we sell no printed work.<\/p>\n

Which size should I choose?<\/h4>\n

90 x 65 cm if you want nearly the size of the original, and 70 x 50 or 105 x 75 cm if proportion matters.<\/p>\n

Can I have a size that is not listed?<\/h4>\n

Yes. A piece to your own measurement keeps the proportion of the original at any width.<\/p>\n

How does the work reach me?<\/h4>\n

Stretched on its bar in a rigid box, or rolled in a tube, with tracking.<\/p>\n

What is this work about, in one sentence?<\/h4>\n

About a small stone house on a cliff, painted again fifteen years after the painter first painted it.<\/p>\n

Is the original for sale and what is it worth?<\/h4>\n

Not for sale: it is in a museum collection, and we give no valuation.<\/p>\n

Is it suitable as a gift?<\/h4>\n

It is, and if you are unsure of the size there is a voucher<\/a> with which the recipient chooses.<\/p>\n