Kathedrale von Rouen, Portal

In the winter of 1892 Monet rented rooms on a square in Rouen, right across from the west front of the cathedral, and set up several canvases at once. As the light moved through the morning he shifted from one to the next, each pinned to a particular hour, trying to hold the exact colour the stone took under a given sky. He returned the next winter and did it all again, then spent much of 1894 reworking the whole group back in his studio. This view of the portal is one of more than thirty. The paint sits so thick and encrusted on the surface that it reads almost like the carved masonry itself, worn and shadowed.