Monet on the Normandy Coast
The Discovery of Étretat

Étretat played an important role in the emergence of a new style of painting that went down in art history as Impressionism. The artists were particularly interested in the distinctive cliff landscape, which they found both excitingly beautiful and threatening. Painters and writers travelled to Étretat, and it was through their works that this remote place became famous beyond France’s borders. 

Following an increase in tourism around 1850, Étretat developed into a popular seaside resort and meeting place for artists, intellectuals, and the Parisian bourgeoisie. Gustave Courbet painted his famous wave pictures here; Guy de Maupassant elevated Étretat to a place of longing in his writing; and Maurice Leblanc’s fictional gentleman thief, Arsène Lupin, hoarded his treasures here. Monet’s fascination with the unique cliffs led him to paint series of motifs in Étretat for the first time, experimenting with the ever-changing light and weather conditions—a working method that would later become his trademark.

Étretat has been a holiday resort and destination for international tourism for more than 150 years. However, the influx of visitors poses as much of a threat to the cliffs as erosion and climate change. The examination of the myth of Étretat thus also makes it possible to understand, as if under a magnifying glass, the ambivalent effects of the popularization of a place and the role that art played in this process.

Curators
Alexander Eiling (Head of Modern Art, Städel Museum)
Eva Mongi-Vollmer (Curator for Special Projects, Städel Museum)
Stéphane Paccoud (Chief Curator of 19th-Century Paintings and Sculptures, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon)
Isolde Pludermacher (General Curator of Paintings, Musée d’Orsay, Paris)

Project Manager
Eva-Maria Höllerer (Curator, Städel Museum)
Nelly Janotka (Assistant Curator, Städel Museum)