The Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois church

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The Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois Church (Claude Monet)
The Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois church
Claude Monet , 1867
Oil on canvas
79 × 98 cm
National Gallery, Berlin

The Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois Church is a painting by the French painter Claude Monet from 1867 . The picture, painted in oil on canvas, is 79 cm high and 98 cm wide. It belongs to the collection of the National Gallery in Berlin . You can see an everyday urban scene in Paris with a view from the Palais du Louvre to the church of St-Germain-l'Auxerrois . While the architecture is reproduced in full detail, Monet depicts the people in this picture as shadowy silhouettes. His painting style already shows elements of the emerging impressionism . In the same year Monet painted two more cityscapes, which also show the area around the Louvre.

Image description

Buildings on the Place du Louvre: left the town hall of the 1st arrondissement of Paris, in the middle the bell tower and right the church of St. Germain l'Auxerrois, photograph from 2008

The painting shows a Paris cityscape. From an elevated point of view, the view is directed towards the facade of the Church of St. Germain-l'Auxerrois. To the right of this is a row of residential buildings, another house can be seen on the left edge behind the church and an attached archway. A light blue sky appears almost monochrome above the buildings, in some places there are white cloud streaks. In the foreground you can see the Place du Louvre with numerous chestnut trees in bloom. The square and the surrounding streets are characterized by hustle and bustle; numerous passers-by stroll around and a few horse-drawn carriages are waiting for passengers at the square. Another vehicle has already made its way on the left edge. For the art critic Karl Scheffler , the architecture of the church and the houses on the edge is not the main motif of the picture, but for him it is "the shadow under the blooming chestnut trees with the teeming crowd".

Monet shows a different style of painting within the painting. The facade of the church is largely precise. Many details such as the large rose window , the buttress , several finials and a roof figure are clearly visible. In terms of color, a cool gray-blue predominates in the upper area of ​​the church, on the ground floor there is a light ocher tone and the attached archway appears light gray. The clear lines of the architecture contrasts with the painting style of the chestnut trees. They are characterized by thin black tree trunks, the spotted light green of the leaves and the white-yellow flowers that appear in them. The vegetation suggests spring as the time when the picture was created. The numerous passers-by in the picture are also not very detailed. Although the women are characterized by parasols and sweeping dresses, and the men are dominated by black suits and top hats, the people appear overall as faceless figures, of which little more than their silhouettes can be recognized. For Karl Scheffler, the crowd is represented "with rare persuasiveness", "although it is not composed of types, but of patches of color."

What is striking is the image section chosen by Monet, which is reminiscent of new types of architectural photographs, such as those known from Gustave Le Gray since the late 1850s . The archway visible on the left in the picture connects St.-Germain-l'Auxerrois with the second bell tower of the church, which, however, is cropped from the edge of the picture outside the view of the painting. This tower, like the town hall of the 1st arrondissement of Paris to the left, had only been built a few years earlier. Monet, on the other hand, focused in his view on the representation of the medieval church and, as a contemporary contrast, chose the houses built in the 19th century on the right edge. The picture is signed lower right with “66 Claude Monet”, although the year is incorrect.

Monet's cityscapes from 1867

After Monet had painted his first views of Honfleur in 1864 , he created three Paris motifs in 1867. In addition to the view of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, he painted the pictures Quai du Louvre ( Art Museum The Hague ) and The Infanta Garden ( Allen Memorial Art Museum , Oberlin, Ohio). It is not known why Monet turned thematically to the cityscapes of Paris. In the spring of 1867, the jury of the annual Salon de Paris art exhibition rejected Monet's multi-figure painting Women in the Garden . With the traditional subject of the vedute , Monet may have tried to convince critics and potential buyers. Such cityscapes have been a popular motif since Italian baroque painting and there are also some models for this in France. In the first half of the 19th century , Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot created various cityscapes, including the Parisian motif Quai des Orfèvres et pont Saint-Michel ( Musée Carnavalet ) painted in 1833 . For the art historian Peter Krieger , Monet created his views of Paris from 1867 “in the spirit of Corot, whom he admired”.

Monet's decision to paint motifs of the French capital may also be against the background of the Paris World's Fair of 1867. Since Napoleon III took office. From 1853 onwards, Paris was massively redesigned according to plans by Georges-Eugène Haussmann , and the newly created streets and squares were among the city's attractions. The Place du Louvre seen in the painting was also one of these newly created Parisian squares. Monet's view of the medieval church of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, formerly the court church of the French kings, was only made possible by the demolition of a narrow building in front of it a few years earlier. Except for the church, all the buildings on the Place du Louvre were new buildings. The bell tower, which cannot be seen in the painting, and the town hall of the 1st arrondissement, which is architecturally modeled on the church, are historicizing new buildings that were only built during the urban redevelopment.

The Paris World Exhibition of 1867 also represented a high point of Japanese fashion in terms of art . The woodcuts shown there influenced numerous Western artists, including Monet and his painter friends. In Monet's Paris cityscapes of 1867, this influence is evident in the silhouette-like portrayals of people and the view from an elevated point of view, which is repeatedly found in Monet's pictures. For the view of the Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois church, Monet had chosen a location for painting in the colonnades created by Claude Perrault on the east facade of the Palais du Louvre. Monet applied for the necessary authorization on April 27, 1867 from Alfred Émilien de Nieuwerkerke , Superintendent of Fine Arts. Approval came three days later. On May 20th of that year he wrote to his friend Frédéric Bazille that he was working on the cityscapes of the Louvre. From this it becomes clear that these pictures were taken in the spring of 1867 and that Monet incorrectly dated the painting with the view of the Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois church to 1866.

  • Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot: Quai des Orfèvres et pont Saint-Michel , 1833

  • East facade of the Louvre with the colonnades by Claude Perrault, photograph around 1900

  • Claude Monet:
    Quai du Louvre
    1867

  • Claude Monet:
    The Infanta’s Garden
    1867

Monet's series of Paris cityscapes from 1867 can also be seen as a visual response to the essay The Painter of Modern Life by Charles Baudelaire . He had published his text in the newspaper Le Figaro in 1863 and described in it: “Modernity is the ephemeral, the fleeting, the accidental, one half of art, the other half of which is the eternal and unchangeable.” The author Richard Thomson saw in Monet's view of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois is precisely the inclusion of the ordinary and the accidental that makes this cityscape modern for him. He recognized it as playing with movement, the contemporary, the everyday and the banal. The art historian Angelika Wesenberg attested to Monet that the painting was “about the big city with people in a hurry, about the expression of speed”. Her colleague Gary Tinterow noted that Monet refrained from any political comment and instead focused on the young chestnut trees with their lush spring blossoms and the church rose window. Monet submitted the three cityscapes from 1867 to the Salon de Paris in 1869. After the jury of the salon rejected these pictures, he exhibited the works in the window of the paint dealer Latouche on rue Lafayette. There the painter Honoré Daumier, who was admired by Monet, saw the cityscapes and in the presence of Monet called out to the business owner Latouche: “Don't you want to take this hideousness out of your shop window?” In the 1870s, Monet took up the theme of the Parisian cityscapes again as a motif in his Paintings on.

Provenance

After Monet, Zacharie Astruc was the next owner of the cityscape The Church of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois . Astruc was himself a painter and sculptor, but also worked as an art critic. In his writings he defended Monet's painting from other critics. It is not known whether Monet sold the painting to him or whether he received it as a gift. Astruc sold the painting in 1872 for 400  francs to the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel , who kept it until 1877. The next owner for a short time was the entrepreneur and art collector Ernest Hoschedé , who was friends with Monet and who ran into financial difficulties a few months after purchasing the picture. Hoschedé's art collection was auctioned off in 1878. On that occasion a collector named Luq bought the painting for 505 francs. The next owner was the opera singer and art collector Jean-Baptiste Faure in 1889 . This kept the painting until 1906 when he sold it to Durand-Ruel for 12,500 francs. Shortly afterwards, the Berlin museum director Hugo von Tschudi acquired the picture for the Berlin National Gallery. The two founders, Carl Hagen and Karl Steinbart, took over the sales price of 33,000 francs .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The German title Die Kirche Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois is given in Daniel Wildenstein's catalog of works. There is also the French title Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois , see Daniel Wildenstein: Monet, Catalog raisonné - catalog raisonné , p. 45. In the catalog of the Nationalgalerie the title Saint Germain l'Auxerrois is given, see Angelika Wesenberg: Malkunst im 19th century: the collection of the Nationalgalerie , p. 626.
  2. ^ Karl Scheffler: The National Gallery in Berlin, a critical leader , p. 240.
  3. ↑ Peter Krieger: Painter of Impressionism from the National Gallery Berlin , p. 13.
  4. ^ Karl Scheffler: The National Gallery in Berlin, a critical leader , p. 240.
  5. ↑ Angelika Wesenberg: Painting in the 19th century: the collection of the National Gallery. Vol. 2, L-Z, p. 626.
  6. ^ Richard Thomson: Monet & architecture , p. 94.
  7. ^ Gary Tinterow: Claude Monet, Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois in Gary Tinterow, Henri Loyrette: Origins of impressionism , p. 431.
  8. ↑ Peter Krieger: Painter of Impressionism from the National Gallery Berlin . P. 13.
  9. ^ Richard Thomson: Monet & architecture , p. 90.
  10. ↑ James H. Rubin: The Impressionist Cityscape as an Emblem of Modernism in Hartwig Fischer, Françoise Cachin, Sandra Gianfreda: Pictures of a Metropolis, the Impressionists in Paris , p. 73.
  11. ^ Gary Tinterow: Claude Monet, Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois in Gary Tinterow, Henri Loyrette: Origins of impressionism , p. 431.
  12. ↑ Angelika Wesenberg: Claude Monet, St. Germain l'Auxerrois, 1867 in Johann Georg Prinz von Hohenzollern, Peter-Klaus Schuster: Manet bis van Gogh, Hugo von Tschudi und der Kampf um die Moderne , p. 92.
  13. ^ Gary Tinterow: Claude Monet, Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois in Gary Tinterow, Henri Loyrette: Origins of impressionism , p. 431.
  14. ↑ Peter Krieger: Painter of Impressionism from the National Gallery Berlin , p. 12.
  15. ^ Gary Tinterow: Claude Monet, Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois in Gary Tinterow, Henri Loyrette: Origins of impressionism , p. 431.
  16. ^ German translation of the Baudelaire quote from James H. Rubin The Impressionist Cityscape as an Emblem of Modernism in Hartwig Fischer, Françoise Cachin, Sandra Gianfreda: Pictures of a Metropolis, the Impressionists in Paris , p. 70.
  17. ^ Richard Thomson: Monet & architecture , p. 92.
  18. ↑ Angelika Wesenberg: Painting in the 19th century: the collection of the National Gallery. Vol. 2, L-Z, p. 626.
  19. ↑ Original quote: "Monet eschewed any political commentary and focused instead on the young chestnut trees with their festive spring candels and the splendid flamboyant art and technoligy." In Gary Tinterow: Claude Monet, Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois in Gary Tinterow, Henri Loyrette: Origins of impressionism , p. 431.
  20. ↑ The Daumier quote has been passed down through Monet. It was originally published in Marc Elder: À Giverny, chez Claude Monet , Paris 1924, pp. 55f. The German translation can be found in Angelika Wesenberg: Claude Monet, St. Germain l'Auxerrois, 1867 in Johann Georg Prinz von Hohenzollern, Peter-Klaus Schuster: Manet bis van Gogh, Hugo von Tschudi und der Kampf um die Moderne , p. 90 .
  21. ↑ Information on the provenance is noted in the Daniel Wildenstein catalog raisonné : Monet, Catalog raisonné - catalog raisonné , vol. II, p. 46. Additional information comes from Gary Tinterow, Henri Loyrette: Origins of impressionism , p. 430. Karl Steinbart is the second donor noted in Angelika Wesenberg: Painting in the 19th century: the collection of the Nationalgalerie . Vol. 2, L-Z, p. 626.