''Saint-Georges majeur au crépuscule'' (Eng: ''Dusk in Venice'', ''San Giorgio Maggiore by Twilight''
or ''Sunset in Venice'') refers to an
Impressionist painting by
Claude Monet
Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. Durin ...
, which exists in more than one version. It forms part of a series of views of the monastery-island of
San Giorgio Maggiore. This series is in turn part of a larger series of views of
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
which Monet began in 1908 during his only visit there.
Versions in Cardiff and Tokyo
One version of ''San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk'' was acquired in Paris by the Welsh art collector
Gwendoline Davies. She bequeathed it to the Art Gallery (now
National Museum Cardiff
National Museum Cardiff ( cy, Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd) is a museum and art gallery in Cardiff, Wales. The museum is part of the wider network of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales. Entry is kept free by a grant from the Welsh Gov ...
) in
Cardiff
Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...
,
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
. The painting is normally on display there.
[)]
The other version is in the
Bridgestone Museum of Art in Tokyo.
''San Giorgio Maggiore al Crepuscolo'': Description of the painting
''San Giorgio Maggiore al Crepuscolo'' is approximately two-by-three feet and painted in oil on canvas. It depicts mysterious buildings that seem to magically appear from the surrounding landscape, they almost seem to float in the background. The forms are gently inserted, though not enough to disguise their identity. The painting focuses on the
Church of San Giorgio Maggiore with its bell tower rising to the top of the painting. To the right are the faintly visible domes of
Santa Maria della Salute and the mouth of the
Grand Canal.
Monet and San Giorgio Maggiore
Monet painted the church of San Giorgio Maggiore in six lighting conditions. With this varied approach, the paintings focused on the ‘nature of experience.’
He was particularly impressed by the Venetian sunsets, “these splendid sunsets which are unique in the world.” He had previously been inspired by other sunsets, such as those of
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
(in ''
Rouen Cathedral
Rouen Cathedral (french: Cathédrale primatiale Notre-Dame de l'Assomption de Rouen) is a Roman Catholic church in Rouen, Normandy, France. It is the see of the Archbishop of Rouen, Primate of Normandy. It is famous for its three towers, each i ...
'' and ''
Haystacks'', his series of the 1890s) and London (
''Houses of Parliament'').
Viewpoints
Monet and his wife
Alice stayed at the
Palazzo Barbaro for a couple of weeks, and then moved to the Hotel Britannia, where they stayed until December.
According to Mme. Monet, the Britannia had a view, "if such a thing were possible, even more beautiful than that of Palazzo Barbaro..."
Monet painted looking out from this hotel, but not, it seems, in the case of this particular painting. Although the view from the hotel included the church of San Giorgio Maggiore, the painting at dusk appears to have been viewed from the waterfront known as the
Riva degli Schiavoni, where the island forms a focal point of the view.
Monet was reportedly reluctant to paint from the waterfront. He disliked crowds of tourists and he was also worried about conforming to other artists who were drawn to Venice, such as
Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Re ...
or
Manet
A wireless ad hoc network (WANET) or mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a decentralized type of wireless network. The network is ad hoc because it does not rely on a pre-existing infrastructure, such as routers in wired networks or access points ...
. San Giorgio Maggiore was a favorite subject for painters, including the proto-Impressionist
Turner
Turner may refer to:
People and fictional characters
*Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
* Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name
*One who uses a lathe for turni ...
.
Completion of the paintings in France
Monet felt Venice was a city "too beautiful to be painted",
Claude Monet in Venice
/ref> which may be why he returned with many paintings unfinished to , his home in France. However, he had already retreated from his earlier practice of painting from life, in front of the subject. He worked on the Venetian scenes at home and the death of his wife Alice in 1911 seems to have been a factor in their completion.
Dispersal
In 1912 the Venice paintings were mainly dispersed as a result of a successful exhibition of twenty-nine canvases. This exhibition, entitled ''Claude Monet Venise'', was held at the gallery Bernheim-Jeune
Bernheim-Jeune gallery is one of the oldest art galleries in Paris.
Opened on Rue Laffitte in 1863 by Alexandre Bernheim (1839-1915), friend of Delacroix, Corot and Courbet, it changed location a few times before settling on Avenue Matignon. Th ...
in Paris. The same gallery had hosted exhibitions of the Rouen and London series.
In popular culture
The painting became familiar in 1999 after its appearance in John McTiernan
John Campbell McTiernan Jr. (born January 8, 1951) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for his action films, especially ''Predator'' (1987), '' Die Hard'' (1988), and ''The Hunt for Red October'' (1990). His later well-known films incl ...
’s heist film
The heist film or caper film is a subgenre of crime film focused on the planning, execution, and aftermath of a significant robbery.
One of the early defining heist films was '' The Asphalt Jungle'' (1950), which ''Film Genre 2000'' wrote "alm ...
''The Thomas Crown Affair''. In the film the picture is taken from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
. In actuality, the Metropolitan does not own the painting, although they have another of Monet's Venetian scenes '' The Doge's Palace Seen from San Giorgio Maggiore''.
See also
Other paintings from Monet's ''San Giorgio Maggiore'' series are to be seen in Cardiff and Indianapolis Museum of Art
The Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) is an encyclopedic art museum located at Newfields, a campus that also houses Lilly House, The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park: 100 Acres, the Gardens at Newfields, the Beer Garden, and more. It ...
[The Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice]
Indianapolis Museum of Art.
References
* Brownjohn, John and Stephan Koja and Galerie Osterreichische, ''Claude Monet''. New York: Prestel, 1996.
* Koja, Stephan and Katja Miksovsky, ''Claude Monet: the Magician of Colour''. New York: Prestel, 1997.
* National Museum Wales, "San Giorgio Maggiore by Twilight Breaking Dawn,
* Newcomb, Molly. "San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk: Claude Monet." (2 April 2012)
* Pissarro, Joachim. ''Monet and the Mediterranean'', New York: Rizzoli, 1997.
* Tucker, Paul Hayes and George T.M. Shackleford and Mary Anne Stevens, ''Monet in the 20th Century''. New Haven: Museum of Fine Arts, 1998.
External links
The Davies Sisters Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk
1908 paintings
Paintings of Venice by Claude Monet
Paintings in the collection of National Museum Cardiff
Landscape paintings
Water in art
Churches in art
Paintings of Venice