The ravines of the Creuse

Claude Monet's 'The Ravines of the Creuse' (1889) belongs to his extended campaign in the Creuse Valley — one of the most ambitious plein air campaigns of his career, during which he remained in Fresselines for weeks pursuing a series of canvases of the dramatic river valley under varying atmospheric conditions. The ravine subjects specifically captured the geological drama of the Creuse's gorge — the deep, rocky valley cut by the river through the granite of the Massif Central creating a landscape of primordial character quite unlike the gentle Norman countryside or the Mediterranean coast where he more typically worked.

Monet renders the Creuse ravines with a vigorous, emphatic brushwork that suits the rugged geological subject — the rock formations and sparse vegetation of the steep valley walls depicted with the assertive stroke he developed for this demanding terrain. His palette in the Creuse subjects tends toward the austere (grey granite, dry ochre vegetation, the brown water of winter) enlivened by the atmospheric effects of the low winter and early spring light. The series format allowed him to investigate how different conditions transformed the same fundamental forms.