�tretat is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France. It�s best known for its cliffs which have famous natural arches formed into them. These cliffs and the associated resort beach attracted artists including Eug�ne Delacroix (1798 � 1863), Gustave Courbet (1819 � 1877), Eug�ne Boudin (1824 � 1898) and Claude Monet (1840 � 1926), and were featured prominently in the 1909 Ars�ne Lupin novel The Hollow Needle by Maurice Leblanc.

Part 1 of this post features the �tretat works of Delacroix, Corbet, and Boudin. Part 2 features the �tretat works of Monet.

Claude Monet (1840 � 1926) was the original founder and practitioner of the French Impressionist movement in painting. Some of his best-known works include Impression, Sunrise (for which the movement was named), the Water Lilies series, and the Haystacks series.

During the 1880s, Monet rediscovered the Normandy coast and made repeated visits there to draw by the sea. �tretat had already been painted by both Delacroix and Courbet; Monet in fact owned a Delacroix watercolour of the area. The Courbet retrospective at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1882 featured a group of �tretat seascapes. Monet visited �tretat in 1883 with plans to create his own Normandy seascapes: �I reckon on doing a big canvas on the cliff of �tretat, although it�s terribly audacious of me to do that after Courbet who did it so well, but I�ll try to do it differently.� The region had become a fashionable holiday destination for Parisians, which may have encouraged Monet to create paintings for a growing market.

In the 1890s, Monet began producing his series paintings: multiple images of the same subject done at different times of day and captured in different kinds of light. In the 1880s, Monet painted and drew the coast north of Le Havre at �tretat repeatedly, and the body of work he produced shows that he was already thinking in terms of repeated representations of the same subject. Some of the pieces shown here are in pastel, a medium that enabled Monet to note down ideas for composition and colour with speed.

1873 The Porte d'Amont, �tretat oil on canvas

1883 �tretat, Rough Sea oil on canvas

1883 �tretat, Sunset oil on canvas

1883 The Cliff at �tretat

1883 The Manneport, �tretat oil on canvas

1883 The Manneport, Seen from Below oil on canvas 72 x 91 cm

1883 The Needle of �tretat, Low Tide oil on canvas 60 x 81 cm

1885 �tretat, the Aval Cliff, the Effect of the Sun oil on canvas 60 x 73 cm

1885 �tretat, the Porte d'Aval oil on canvas 60 x 81 cm

1885 The Manneport at High Tide oil on canvas 165.1 x 205.7 cm

1885 The Manneport Seen from the East oil on canvas 166.4 x 206.5 cm

1885 The Rock Needle and the Porte d'Aval oil on canvas 165.1 x 81 cm

1885 The Rock Needle Seen through the Porte d'Aumont oil on canvas 185.4 x 152.4 cm

1885-86 �tretat in the Rain oil on canvas 142.2 x 209.6 cm

1885-86 The Rock Needle Seen through the Porte d'Aval oil on canvas 73 x 92 cm

c1885 �tretat, the Port d'Aval, Fishing Boats leaving the Harbour oil on wood

1885c E�tretat, The Arch, and the Aval Cliff pastel 21 x 37 cm cm

c1885 E�tretat, the Manneporte at Low Tide pastel 23 x 33 cm

c1885 E�tretat, the Needle Rock and Porte d'Aval pastel 40 x 23.5 cm

�tretat, Beach and Falaise d'Aval

�tretat, The End of the Day

�tretat, the Manneporte reflected on water