Mar 13, 2018 - Sale 2469

Sale 2469 - Lot 62

Price Realized: $ 30,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 25,000 - $ 35,000
CLAUDE MONET
Maison au toit de chaume, Gainneville.

Pencil on pale blue wove paper, 1857. 232x290 mm; 9 1/8x11 3/8 inches. Signed, dated and inscribed "Gainneville" in pencil, lower recto. Ex-collection Germain Seligman (Lugt 3863, lower right recto); private collection.

Monet (1840-1926) took his first drawing lessons in 1851, when he enrolled at Le Havre secondary school of the arts. In 1856, he met fellow artist Eugène Boudin (1824-1898), who became a mentor to the young Monet. It was through this relationship that Monet learned to use oil paints, as well as the en plein air technique for painting and drawing outdoors, which he used to create his revolutionary Impressionist works as a mature artist.

Monet likely created this drawing in the French village of Gainneville, which is located just outside Le Havre, Normandy, where he resided with his family during this time. Thatched cottages are prevalent in the region, and became a motif in several of Monet's works from this early period, including the 1867 oil painting A Hut at Sainte-Adresse, now in the collection of the Musée d'art et d'histoire de Genève.