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Label Text Monet painted this picture during a two-month stay at Belle-île, an island in the Atlantic Ocean just south of Brittany, France. The towering cliffs and rock formations appealed to the artist, who noted “Not a tree for ten kilometers, some rocks and wonderful grottoes; it’s sinister, diabolical, but superb.” The challenging terrain did not deter Monet from painting outdoors. With the help of a local fisherman nicknamed Poly, he managed to set up his easel at preferred locations and protect himself from the constantly changing weather by wearing a makeshift rain slicker. Of the violent waters just off Belle-île’s dramatic shoreline, Monet wrote “It was a joy for me to see the sea in all its fury; it was like a drug.” October, 2020
Exhibition HistoryClaude Monet: The Truth of Nature, Denver Art Museum, Oct 21, 2019 to Feb 2, 2020

Monet: Places, Museum Barberini, Potsdam, Feb 22 to Jun 1, 2020

"Monet/Boudin", Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Jun 26 - Sep 30, 2018

"Monet", Fondation Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland, January 22 - May 28, 2017

"Monet Retrospective," Osterreichische Gallerie Belvedere, Vienna, Austria, March 13 - June 16, 1996

"Claude Monet au temps de Giverny," Centre Culturel Du Marais, Paris, Apr. 6 - July 31, 1983

"Art in Iowa and the Quad-Cities," Davenport Municipal Art Gallery, May 27 - June 25, 1967

"Impressionism and Its Roots," Univeristy Gallery, State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Nov. 8 - Dec. 6, 1964

Galerie Charpentier, Paris, June 1935
Published ReferencesCharles Stuckey, ed., THE MONET ANTHOLOGY, Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc., N. Y.

Hayashi sale catalog, Jan. 8, 1913, no. 158 (painting was sold under the title COTE ROCHEUSE)

Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 1935, exh. cat. ill.

SELECTIONS FROM THE COLLECTION OF HIRSCHL & ADLER GALLERIES, Vol III, 1961, ref. no.70, color ill. p.48

DMAC Bulletin, Mar. 1962, cover ill.

GAZETTE DES BEAUX-ARTS, Feb. 1964 supplement, ref. p.72, ill. pl. no.239

"Impressionism and its Roots," University Gallery, State University of Iowa, Iowa City, 1964, exh. cat. no.32, ill.

"Art in Iowa and the Quad-Cities," Davenport Municipal Art Gallery, 1967, exh. cat. no.51, list of photographs no.2, ill.

Robert L. Polley, ed., GREAT ART TREASURES ON AMERICA'S SMALLER MUSEUMS, G.P. Putnam's Sons, N.Y. in association with Country Beautiful Foundation, Inc. Waukesha, WI, 1967, ill. p.106

Daniel Wildenstein, CLAUDE MONET, BIOGRAPHIE ET CATALOGUE RAISONNE, Vol II, La Bibliotheque des Arts, Lausanne and Paris, 1979, cat. no.1090, ill. p.201

THE NATHAN EMORY COFFIN COLLECTION, a portfolio of fifty selections from the collection, pub. by the Des Moines Art Center to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Nathan Emory Coffin, 1981, b/w ill.

"Claude Monet au temps de Giverny," Centre Culturel Due Marais, Paris, 1983, exh. cat. no.17, color ill. fig. no.23

Robert Gordon and Andrew Forge, MONET, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., N.Y., 1983, ref. p.291, b/w ill. p.115 (two works grouped under cat. no.115)

DES MOINES ART CENTER: SELECTED PAINTINGS, SCULPTURES AND WORKS ON PAPER, Des Moines Art Center, 1985, ref. pp.157 & 158, b/w ill. pl.96, p.158

MONET, Engagement Book, Pomegranate Publications, 1987, color ill. for month of December

Denise Delouche, MONET A BELLE-ILE, Le Chasse-Maree - ArMen, 1992, color ill. p.52

DMAC News, Mar./Apr. 1996, p.6

Stephan Koja, CLAUDE MONET, Osterreichische Gallerie Belvedere, Vienna, Austria, 1996, exh. cat. color ill. p.106

AN UNCOMMON VISION: THE DES MOINES ART CENTER, Des Moines Art Center, 1998, ref. p.196, color ill. p.197

Brettell and Fonsmark, GAUGUIN AND IMPRESSIONISM, Yale University Press in association with Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, 2005, color ill. pg. 334

Denise Delouche, "Monet à Belle Ile", Editions Palantines, 2006, pg. 62 (color ill.)

"Monet: Art de Monet et sa Posterite", The National Art Center, Tokyo, 2007, pg. 209

"In Monet's Garden: Artists and the Lure of Giverny", The Columbus Museum of Art, Musée Marmottan Monet, and Scala Publishers, Ltd., 2007, pg. 87

"Claude Monet l'art de Monet et sa posterite", exhibition catalogue, author: The Yomiuri Shimbun, published: April 7, 2007, Japanese [copy to library]

Foundation Beyeler, MONET, Foundation Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland, 2017, color ill. pg. 38

"Monet: Light, Shadow, and Reflection,"Fondation Beyeler, 2017, p.108

"Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature", Denver Art Museum. 2019. p. 216, illus. 103
DimensionsFrame: 34 7/16 × 40 13/16 × 2 1/2 in. (87.5 × 103.7 × 6.4 cm)
Canvas: 25 7/8 × 32 3/16 in. (65.7 × 81.8 cm)
Image (visible): 25 7/16 × 31 3/4 in. (64.6 × 80.6 cm)
Accession Number 1961.42
Classificationspainting
CopyrightPublic Domain
SignedClaude Monet 86 (l,l oil paint)
Catalogue raisonnéCLAUDE MONET, BIOGRAPHIE ET CATALOGUE RAISONNE, Vol. II by Daniel Wildenstein, pub. by La Bibliotheque des Arts in Lausanne and Paris, 1979, cat. no. 1090, repro. p. 201.
ProvenanceArtist, France; Tadamasa Hayashi (1853-1906), Paris [acquired through exchange with the artist]; (American Art Association, Collection of the Late Tadamasa Hayashi, New York, January 8-9, 1913, no. 158, sold under the title Cote Rocheuse); (Durand-Ruel, New York); Ralph M. Coe (1882-1959), Cleveland [purchased from the previous, 1913]; (Kraushaar Gallery, New York [acquired through trade, 1926]). Georges Bernheim, Paris [acquired by 1935]; (Tableaux Modernes provenant de la collection Georges Bernheim, Galerie Charpentier, 7 June, 1935, no. 71); Victor Hélin, Chateauroux [purchased from the previous, 1935]. Hirschl & Adler Galleries, N. Y. [acquired 1961]; Des Moines Art Center [purchased from the previous, 1961]
Rocher du Lion, Rochers à Belle-Île (Lion Rock, Rocks at Belle-Île)
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines