The Departure of the Boats, Étretat
Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926)1885
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Materials & printing
Archival matte paper, 189 g/m² (10.3 mil), sourced from Japan, printed with multicolor water-based inkjet so every brushstroke stays crisp. Framed prints arrive ready to hang in a .75″ ayous-wood frame with an acrylite front. Sized to standard frames by cropping, never stretching — at most about 3% comes off one edge, which isn’t noticeable on most pieces, and we only offer a size when it stays that small.
Shipping & returns
Made to order and delivered in 5–8 business days (2–4 to print, 3–4 in transit). US shipping only for now. Because each print is made for your order, all sales are final — but if it arrives damaged or defective, send us a photo within 14 days and we’ll replace it free. Full policy.
Why is it this affordable?
A thin, flat margin on every piece — just enough to keep the store running. Most of what you pay is the print itself. We only sell sizes that reproduce at full quality, and we don’t mark up the large sizes the way most shops do.
About this work
Forced indoors by inclement fall weather, Claude Monet painted Boats on the Beach at Étretat and The Departure of the Boats, Étretat while looking out the window of his room at the Hôtel Blanquet. The two form a pair that share a palette, subject, and vantage point. In one of his daily letters to his companion and future wife, Alice Hoschedé, dated November 24, 1885, Monet described first Boats on the Beach and then Departure of the Boats: “In the afternoon, I worked in my room on my caloges [retired fishing boats covered with tarred planks and used for storage] in the rain, then I attempted to do, always through the window, a picture of the boats departing.”
Monet centered each composition on the boats, combining pastel blues, pinks, purples, and greens to render wet surfaces. The brightly colored hulls of beached crafts lend relative scale to the structures in Boats on the Beach, and the groups of figures at the water’s edge, composed of quick, gestural strokes, register human activity in Departure of the Boats. Monet purposefully arrived well after tourist season, so it is unclear whether he observed the fashionably dressed women at left or rather inserted them as a foil to the local fishermen at right.
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 73.5 × 93.5 cm (28 15/16 × 36 13/16 in.)
Museum record · 1 owner · 8 exhibitions
Provenance
- The artist (d. 1926); sold to Durand-Ruel, Paris, December 21, 1892, for 6,000 francs; sold to Potter Palmer, Chicago, Dec. 21, 1892, for 6,000 francs; by descent to Bertha Honoré Palmer (wife of Potter Palmer), Chicago; on deposit from Bertha Honoré Palmer, Chicago, to Durand-Ruel, New York, Mar. 17, 1909–May 9, 1911; by descent to the Potter Family, Chicago; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1922.
Exhibitions
- Art Institute of Chicago, “A Century of Progress”: Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, May 23–Nov. 1, 1933.
- Art Institute of Chicago, “A Century of Progress”: Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture for 1934, June 1–Oct. 31, 1934.
- Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art, The Spirit of Modern France: An Essay on Painting in Society, 1745–1946, Nov.–Dec. 1946; Toronto, Art Gallery of Toronto, Jan.–Feb. 1947.
- Art Institute of Chicago, The Paintings of Claude Monet, Apr. 1–June 15, 1957, no cat. no. Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings by Monet, Mar. 15–May 11, 1975.
- Highland Park, Neison Harris, May 29, 1984–May 13, 1985, no cat. Tokyo, Seibu Museum of Art, Shikago bijutsukan insho-ha ten, Oct. 18–Dec. 17, 1985; Fukuoka Art Museum, Jan. 5–Feb. 2, 1986; Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Mar. 4–April 13, 1986.
- Art Institute of Chicago, Seurat and the Making of “La Grande Jatte,” June 19–Sept. 19, 2004.
- Art Institute of Chicago, Monet and Chicago, September 5, 2020-June 14, 2021.
- Seattle Art Museum, Monet at Étretat, July 1-October 17, 2021, no cat. no.
