In the early years of the twentieth century, Gustave Loiseau ventured frequently to the rugged coastline of Normandy to paint the iconic cliffs in varying weather conditions. This painterly endeavour resulted in a striking series of works, to which the present work belongs, that are defined by a quintessentially Impressionist palette.

Left: Fig. 1, Gustave Loiseau, Falaises de Normandie, 1907, oil on canvas. Sold: Replica Shoes ’s, New York, November, 2021 for: $528,200

Right: Fig. 2, The present work

Drawn to the scenic coastline that had so inspired his contemporaries, Loiseau found inspiration in the raw natural beauty of the area. Much like his Impressionist forebear Claude Monet, Loiseau preferred to paint en plein air and the present work reflects the artist’s careful study of the changing effects of light upon Saint-Jouen. As well as a proclivity for painting outdoors, Loiseau also shared with Monet a close relationship with the dealer Paul Durand-Ruel who was representing both artists at the turn of the century. In 1883, Durand-Ruel held an exhibition of Monet’s work, the first solo show dedicated to the work of an Impressionist, and in this exhibition Monet’s views of the Normandy and Brittany coast were exhibited. It is likely, therefore, that Loiseau was familiar with Monet’s series of landscapes painted in the 1880s and 1890s. In the present work, Loiseau adopts a similar perspectival cropping of the composition and also reflects upon the power and sweeping scale of the coastline. The present composition is enlivened by the presence of two figures illuminated in a pool of sunlight in the distance, dwarfed by the expanse of the surrounding landscape.

Fig. 3, Claude Monet, Falaise à Varengeville, 1882, oil on canvas. Private collects ion

Les falaises de Saint-Jouen exemplifies Loiseau’s acute understanding of colour. Shadows are articulated in broad brushstrokes of lilac, complementing the pale blues of the ocean and accentuating the pockets of sunlight breaking through the clouds. The grassy foreground is rendered in a rich impasto that heightens the drama of the scene and provides a juxtaposition to the smoother surfaces of sand and sea. Les falaises de Saint-Jouen is test.mes nt to the technical virtuosity that Loiseau had achieved by the turn of the century.