Les fonds d'Étretat
Claude Monet (1840–1926)

Claude Monet, Les fonds d'Étretat (Fields of Étretat), 1884, oil on canvas. Museo d'arte della Svizzera italiana, Lugano. Collezione Città di Lugano. Carla Milich-Fassbind Donation

When we speak of Impressionism today, we owe the term to the painting Impression: soleil levant, which Monet exhibited in 1874 at an exhibition of independent artists at the Paris studio of the photographer Nadar.

This country landscape in shades of pink and green, made ten years later, became part of the City of Lugano’s collection in 1965, through the Milich-Fassbind Donation. The Japanese businessman Kojiro Matsukata, whose collection led to the construction of the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, probably bought the work directly from the artist in the 1920s. The composition departs from a strict adherence to Impressionist rules, going beyond the simple recording of the natural phenomenon. The colours are no longer true to life and the forms are vigorously depicted using loose brushstrokes, giving the work a dynamic effect. There is a strong colour contrast between the various elements of the painting, a feature that would gradually diminish in Monet’s works over the years, demonstrating the artist’s new quest for a personal style based on the combination of light and colour.