Rouen Cathedral, Portal and Tower Saint-Romain, Morning Light

In the winter of 1892 and again in 1893, Monet rented rooms on the square in Rouen, in Normandy, directly across from the west front of the cathedral. From a window above the street he painted the same stone façade again and again, more than 30 times, changing nothing but the hour and the weather. This is the morning version, the portal and the Saint-Romain tower caught in early light, the sky barely there, the whole surface built from blues, greys and violets laid on as thick as carved stone. He finished few of them on the spot. Monet carried the canvases back to his studio at Giverny and reworked them together for another year, so the set would hold as one.