Title: L’église de Vernon
Artist: Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926)
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 66 x 93.2 cm
Date Created: 1894
Description
In 1883, newly settled in Giverny, Monet discovered the silhouette of Vernon’s church along the Seine. He captured it in the summer haze, where mist slowly dissolved under the sun, wrapping the golden stones in a vaporous light.
A decade later, after painting campaigns across France and his seminal Rouen Cathedral series, Monet returned to this motif in 1894. From a fixed vantage point, he created seven canvases, including L’église de Vernon. Here, topographic detail yields to atmosphere. The Gothic structure and riverside foliage dissolve into soft, evocative brushwork—a world rendered through color and light.
This work forms a rural counterpart to the urban Rouen series. The solid church becomes an ephemeral vision, its monumentality transformed by mist. In 1895, Monet exhibited both series together at Galerie Durand-Ruel. The Vernon paintings, placed in the first room, acted as a prelude, introducing viewers to his revolutionary serial exploration of time and perception.
Image Download
Image Dimensions: 3200 x 2256 pixels
Image Size: 3.11 MB
Image Format: JPG
Print Resolution: 300 dpi
Download Format: ZIP Archive
License: Public Domain, Free for Commercial Use
