Monet claude

1900 · 13587J — London: 3 pages octavo February 28 1900. A remarkable historic letter quoted and discussed in Daniel Wildenstein’s definitive Claude Monet biography Monet or the Triumph of Impressionism page 348. Written in French on the printed stationery of the Savoy Hotel in London during one of Monet’s most important periods while he was painting his classic series of the bridges over the Thames river and the Houses of Parliament attempting to capture the unusual and often spooky effects of light and fog while looking out his window at the Savoy Hotel. Monet has dated the letter at 10 a.m. and literarily stops in the middle of painting to quickly write to his wife. “.A few words in haste between two strokes so that you get news before you leave for Rouen.†Monet’s son is ill with the measles and is staying with English friends who were taking care of him while he recovers. “.I could not see Michel yesterday because Mr. Darby was not expected to come back here unless Michel felt worse and he did not show up which is a good sign. I will go immediately to see him tonight because he must be truly bored but as the days grow longer I am more and more busy. I think I will take care of him for the revision but without letting him now.†Monet’s great friends French politician Georges Clemenceau and art critic and Monet supporter Gustave Geffroy visited Monet during his London sojourn. “.Clémenceau and Geffroy left a while ago we dined together yesterday at the restaurant at the Savoy after we saw the Minstrels at St. James. Both of them were very nice and did not prevent me at all from working.†Monet then remarks on his artist friend the great American painter John Singer Sargent who had worked in France becoming good friends with Monet and after the public scandal of Sargent’s daring Portrait of Madame X had relocated to London. “.I just received a note from Sargent who apologizes for not having come by to see me because he has people sitting for him morning and afternoon. He invited me for dinner this coming Monday so that I may meet a couple of young artists who love my work.†Often waiting hours for just the right effect of light to take place while painting a scene Wildenstein writes in his biography “Like a sentinel on the city wall the painter would lie in wait for the returning effect. When it came Monet rushed to his canvas abandoning everything else.†In this letter Monet finds that the light has reached the right effect and time has come to return to his painting. “.But here comes my effect. I must leave you for today. I send you tender hugs and all of my thoughts. Love to Germaine. Regards to Miss Jeans. Your old man who loves you Claude.†Wildenstein remarks that when Monet came to receive Sargent at the Savoy “.the visitor was ‘a little astonished by some of the canvases but full of admiration for others’. In fact the main impression Sargent took away was of too many pictures in progress simultaneously.he watched Monet struggling surrounded by 80 canvases searching desperately for the right one when the effect he was waiting for occurred and as often as not unable to lay hands on it until the effect had passed.†Wildenstein also notes that in Geffroy’s book Claude Monet he devotes four pages to his visit to Monet at the Savoy quoting Geffroy “.Whenever the fog had completely blotted out the the view Monet would remark: ‘Theres no more sun and stop painting. When a little later he would all of the sudden pick up his palette again saying ‘The sun is back ‘ his guests were often bemused. It took them a good while before they could discern the faint premonitory glow of the emerging sun. Monet alone had been able to detect it.†3 pages, octavo unknown