Brief Report
The painting is one of a group of works which Monet painted in the winter of 1885 showing the Val de Falaise, to be precise the Vallon des Vaux Vailly near Giverny. Shrouded in fog to the right of the centre of the picture, a farmhouse near the hamlet of Falaise can just be made out. Monet seems to have chosen his standpoint in the middle of the valley between the hills overlooking the River Epte [Wildenstein 1979, p. 156]. According to the stamp verso, Monet acquired the standard F30-size canvas, which was preprimed in off-white, from the artists’ supplies dealer Vieille & Troisgros (fig. 2). An interesting feature of this commercial priming is the presence of countless microscopically small holes, which continue into the paint layers (fig. 6). This may point to inadequate moistening as a result of the sizing not having been worked in properly, for example its having been applied too quickly. In spite of the fact that the canvas is almost entirely covered with paint containing a high proportion of white, it is still possible, using stereomicroscopy and infrared reflectography, to follow Monet’s steps when planning the picture, right down to the compositional sketch. A few strokes, probably in charcoal, were enough for the artist to capture the fleeting motif in the fog as the first step in his planning [Abb. 8]. Monet’s contemporaries described precisely this working technique, but hitherto it has not been demonstrated on any post-1875 pictures [House 1986, p. 66]. The paint was subsequently applied with rapid, mostly broad, diagonal brushstrokes over wide areas [figs 4, 10, 11]. The paints were applied wet in wet, and the motif seems to have been captured in a single session. The painting was evidently not completed, which may have been because the weather conditions did not return. The picture was not signed in the artist’s lifetime. Only as part of the estate was the work, which was in the possession of Michel Monet, given its obtrusively dominant signature stamp (fig. 7).

Claude Monet
Houses at Falaise in the Fog, 1885, oil on canvas, 73.5 x 92.5 cm, WRM Dep. FC 673

Claude Monet

born on 14 November 1840 in Paris,
died on 5 December 1926 in Giverny

Brief report with complete data as downloadable pdf-file

Further illustrations:

Fig. 02

Verso


Fig. 03

Raking light


Fig. 04

Transmitted light


Fig. 05

UV fluorescence


Fig. 06

Details, right-hand turnover edge showing edge of ground, holes due to burst bubbles from the sizing of the canvas, continue into the ground and paint-layer, microscopic photographs (M = 1 mm)


Fig. 07

Details, signature stamp in incident light (top) and under UV (bottom), microscopic photograph (top right, M = 1 mm)


Fig. 08

Details, sketch-like underdrawing in charcoal(?); detail in incident light (left); in the IR reflectogram (right) loose strokes of the drawn lay-in are visible


Fig. 09

Charcoal(?) particles of the underdrawing mixed into the paint-layer as smears, microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm)


Fig. 10

Detail, unpainted area, leaving the pale ground visible


Fig. 11

Detail, large-area zigzag brushstrokes with embedded hairs from the brush


Fig. 12

Colour blend with pale red smear, presumably vermilion(?), microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm)