Study of Rocks; Creuse

Study of Rocks; Creuse: 'Le Bloc' is an 1889 painting by Claude Monet. It is an oil on canvas and measures 72.4 x 91.4 cm.^[1]

Study of Rocks; Creuse: 'Le Bloc'
Study of Rocks; Creuse
Artist	Claude Monet
Year	1889
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	72.4 cm × 91.4 cm (28.5 in × 36.0 in)

Monet gave the painting to Georges Clemenceau in 1899 according to Daniel Wildenstein, though Clemenceau is cited as the owner in an 1891 exhibition catalogue.^[2] Clemenceau nicknamed the painting 'Le Bloc' ('The Rock').^[3] The painting was one of fourteen that were exhibited in a joint exhibition with Auguste Rodin at Georges Petit's Parisian gallery in June 1889.^[3]

Paul Hayes Tucker, the curator of the 1990 exhibition Monet in the '90s: The Series Paintings, at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, described the painting as "majestic".^[1]

The painting was reproduced in a copy by the British artist Gerald Kelly in 1939. Kelly's version is now in a private collection.^[3]

Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother bought the painting for £2,000 in 1949 (equivalent to £89,253 in 2023); it was worth an estimated £15 million at the time of her death in 2002.^[4] The dramatist and performer Noël Coward was also an amateur artist and arranged a visit to Clarence House specially to see Study of Rocks.^[5]

Description

The painting depicts a hillside covered with rocks and crags; a blue sky with clouds hangs above the scene, with branches on the left hand side against the sky.^[3] The location of the painting is a rocky outcrop that rises above the confluence of two sources of the river Creuse. The painting is one of a series of 24 that Monet painted inspired by the landscapes around the village of Fresselines in the department of Creuse.^[3]

See also

• List of paintings by Claude Monet