Using a very light touch, Claude Monet Tempête à Belle-île (Storm at Belle-île), 1894 creates a chaotic scene of a stormy sea. The water takes up most of the image, swirling around creating crests of waves that crash against each other. Only the very top of the image shows anything but water – beyond the waves we see the uneven horizon line and the sky is streaked with heavy rain. Monet’s impressionist style only adds to the intense power of the water – it becomes difficult to make out the ocean from the sky, mimicking with great skill what a stormy sea looks like in person.

Created in 1894 after an original painting of the same title created in 1886, this color lithograph on chine appliqué on wove paper is hand-signed by Claude Monet (Paris, 1840 - Giverny, 1926) in pencil in the lower left margin; also hand-signed by the engraver G. W. Thornley in pencil in the lower right margin. From an edition of 25 hand-signed proofs by both Claude Monet (Paris, 1840-Giverny, 1926) and G.W. Thornley; printed by Belfond & Cie and published by J. Mancini, Paris.

Catalogue Raisonné & COA:

Monet Storm at Belle-île (Tempête à Belle-île), 1894 is fully documented and referenced in the below catalogue raisonnés and texts (copies will be enclosed as added documentation with the invoices that will accompany the sale of the work).

1. Ganz, James et al. The Unknown Monet: Pastels and Drawings. Williamstown: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2007. Listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné no. A13.

2. Wildenstein, Daniel. Monet or the Triumph of Impressionism: Volume III. Paris: Wildenstein Institute, 1996. Original painting of this work listed and illustrated as catalogue no. 1117.

3. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany this artwork.

About the Framing:

Framed to museum-grade, conservation standards, Monet Storm at Belle-île (Tempête à Belle-île), 1894  is presented in a complementary moulding and finished with silk-wrapped mats and optical grade Plexiglas.