The White Cliffs of Normandy

The White Cliffs of Dover, Beachy Head and the Seven Sisters, the Needles and Durdle Door -- the southern English coastline has plenty of spectacular chalk and limestone features, but just across the Channel the French have got something equally if not more stunning: the chalk cliffs at Etretat. 

Surrounding the bay of what was once a small fishing village, three natural arches and a 70-metre freestanding needle of chalk are a breathtaking sight (we were there a couple of years ago), and they're now a huge tourist attraction. But even before the tourists got there, some of the most famous names in French art had discovered a motif of which they rarely tired; as Normandy Tourism puts it: "Nature has carved unusual shapes out of the white cliffs in Etretat, and as a result, this picturesque spot attracted many Impressionist painters, who sought to capture the cliffs on canvas." 

Etretat, Beyond the Cliffs: Courbet, Monet, Matisse is devoted to those depictions of the white cliffs of Normandy, though it feels slightly strange to be viewing it several hundred miles to the south at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon. To get you in the mood, when you go in, the first thing you see is a digitalised video recreation of the coastline projected right onto the walls, so you can imagine you're viewing the cliffs from a boat on the sea.

Claude Monet's painting from 1885, showing the Porte d’Aval to the west of the village and the needle, conveys just how stupendous these natural phenomena are. Look closer and you'll see those small brown triangles dotted on the waves are boats, perhaps fishing vessels heading out into the Channel. 

Monet made nearly 80 canvases of Etretat from the 1860s to the 1880s, and to reach his vantage point on the beach for this one, he will either have come round by boat past these outcrops or climbed the grassy path up the cliff to the right and then come down again with all his painting gear. 

You can see how formidable the outcrop ending in the Porte d'Aval appears from the village side in this painting by Eugène Delacroix, made in the 1840s. The cliffs look like a fortress, those solid brushstrokes creating a mass that seems insurmountable. The arch has taken on the form of a buttress, or the hind leg of an animal, or perhaps even, as the writer Guy de Maupassant put it, an elephant's trunk.  

Delacroix was an early visitor, but by no means the first artist to succumb to the charms of Etretat. Eugène Isabey made an extended stay at the start of the 1820s; a later chalk-and-watercolour work by him captures a magical first view of the bay from inland. 

Delacroix and his fellow artists, though, actually depicted a lot more than just the cliffs. The fishermen, the washerwomen and later the tourists are all painted, recording how the character of Etretat changed when it became a resort as its fame spread. 

Gustave Courbet's painting below, from a similar viewpoint to Delacroix's, shows a number of fishing boats, which would have been heaved ashore with the aid of the capstan that's just discernible on the edge of the grass to the left of the largest boat; there's no harbour in Etretat. And just to the left of that large boat, a group of women washing clothes down at the edge of the sea are almost indistinguishable from the pebbles on the shore. The mysterious-looking door in the cliffs opened into a storeroom for fishing gear, we're told on the wall caption. 

It all seems so calm, but this painting actually shows the aftermath of a storm, and you can see how disturbed the water around the Porte d'Aval is, with plenty of white foam. The bad weather has actually moved out to sea and darkened the horizon. There appears to be just one boat out there, braving the elements. 

That storm, which hit the Channel coast in September 1869, fascinated Courbet. Maupassant later wrote how he encountered the painter working in his studio amid the wind and rain: "From time to time, he would lean his face against the glass and watch the storm." The result was a series of paintings entitled The Wave; rough seas and turbulent clouds, some boats in the early versions. There's no cliffs to identify the location, but it's the spirit of Etretat all the same.  

OK, time for one last view of the Porte d'Aval before we turn round to face the east; it's a small Monet pastel from 1885, a red sky at night as the sun sets. 

Almost abstract, isn't it. Almost Edvard Munch. Not sure the Norwegian ever made it to Etretat, though he might well have painted something similar if he had. 

Time now to look towards the Porte d'Amont, on the other side of the bay. The arch is admittedly a little bit less stupendous than the Porte d'Aval, but it's still a tremendous view. Though not apparently for this group of fishermen, seemingly deep in discussion before setting out. It's a nice day for it, July 14 or Bastille Day, according to the title of this work, painted by Félix Vallotton in 1899, though only the Tricoleur hints at the fact it's the national holiday. The nets spread out on the beach form almost abstract shapes. 

We haven't really mentioned the tourists so far, but in the second half of the 19th century the seaside became a place for the well-off to enjoy themselves and to be seen. Some of the most interesting paintings on this theme are by Eugène Le Poittevin, the first artist to have a villa built to establish himself permanently in the area. 

A matching pair of mid-1860s Le Poittevins are the sort of multi-incident narratives painted by William Powell Frith in England; more than a decade later, though, than Frith's Ramsgate Sands and with a whole lot more bathing going on. There are swimmers and a canoeist in this first picture, but the focus is very much on the visitors in their finery promenading on the edge of the beach. Those planks of wood formed paths allowing the ladies to avoid getting sand in their shoes or dirtying the bottom of their skirts.

In the second, we're concentrating on the dipping -- you'll note the boat with the ladder on the left -- and on the diving, from the wheeled board in the centre. The lady in grey with the dog seems to have taken a wrong turning.... or is she taking a closer look at the technique of the trim chap about to dive?

Not that many people making the strenuous climb up the grassy clifftop to the sailors' chapel, though. 

There are many more artists represented in this show, but they didn't all succumb to the lure of the sea and the cliffs. Camille Corot seems to only give you a glimpse of the water in the background of his paintings, while the best of the works by Henri Matisse shows his daughter in bed in their pension, with just a glimpse of the beach, the sea and some boats visible through the window. And then there's a huge Monet, painted indoors in Etretat in the winter of 1868 to 1869. Lunch, a scene of modern life.  

Inspiration in Etretat, in many forms. This is a terrific exhibition, and one we enjoyed more than we thought we might. Some fantastic art and a huge slice of social history into the bargain. 

Practicalities

Etretat, Beyond the Cliffs: Courbet, Monet, Matisse is on at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon until March 1. It's open from Wednesday to Monday from 1000 to 1800, though there's a later start on Friday at 1030. The museum is closed on Tuesdays and national holidays, including December 25 and January 1. Full-price tickets to the exhibition cost 12 euros and can be booked online with a timeslot here. Booking ahead may well be advisable; it was pretty full when we visited on a wet Sunday afternoon. We spent more than 2 1/2 hours in the show. There's an exhibition guide in English giving you introductions to each room, but note that wall captions for individual pictures are in French only. 

While you're at the MBA, you'll probably want to allow time to visit the permanent collection as well; it's huge and wide-ranging, but to be honest there aren't that many paintings in the gallery that will stop you in your tracks. The museum is located in the centre of Lyon, on the peninsula between the Rivers Rhône and Saône, just across from the City Hall on the Place des Terreaux. Hôtel de Ville is the nearest Metro station. 

This show will move on to the Städel Museum in Frankfurt in the spring under the title Monet on the Normandy Coast: The Discovery of Etretat. It can be seen from March 19 to July 5. 

Images

Claude Monet (1840-1926), Etretat, l’Aiguille et la Porte d’Aval, 1885, The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts. Image © The Clark Art Institute
Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863), Etretat, la Porte d’Aval, around 1840 or 1846, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Image © Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam/Photo Studio Tromp
Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), La Falaise d’Etretat, après l’orage, 1869-70, Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Photo © Musée d'Orsay, Dist. Grand Palais Rmn/Patrice Schmidt

Gustave Courbet, La Vague, temps d'orage, c. 1869-70, Private collection

Claude Monet, Etretat, l’Aiguille et la Porte d’Aval, 1885, Private collection. Image courtesy Sotheby's 

Félix Vallotton (1865-1925), Le 14 juillet à Etretat, 1899, Private collection. Image © Fondation Félix Vallotton, Lausanne
Eugène Le Poittevin (1806-1870), Les Bains de mer, plage d’Etretat, 1865, Private collection. Image courtesy Sotheby's
Eugène Le Poittevin, Bains de mer à Etretat, 1866, Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie, Troyes
Claude Monet, Le Déjeuner, 1868-69, Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main. Image © Städel Museum