A delightful serving of Claude Monet's marine drawings

Marine Café Blog spotlights the marine drawings of Claude Monet in celebration of his 182nd birth anniversary.

Monet, a leading light of French Impressionism, was born in Paris on 14 November 1840. His countless oil paintings continue to bedazzle the world long after he passed away on 5 December 1926. Unfortunately, they have also diverted attention away from an important part of Monet’s creative output: his drawings.

In an article published on the Britannica website (updated 10 November 2022), William C. Seitz points out the seminal role that drawing played in Monet’s long artistic career:

Monet’s first success as an artist came when he was 15, with the sale of caricatures that were carefully observed and well drawn. In these early years he also executed pencil sketches of sailing ships, which were almost technical in their clear descriptiveness. His aunt, Marie-Jeanne Lecadre, was an amateur painter, and, perhaps at her suggestion, Claude went to study drawing with a local artist. But his life as a painter did not begin until he was befriended by Eugène Boudin, who introduced the somewhat arrogant student to the practice—then uncommon—of painting in the open air. (read the full article here)

The following drawings include four which Monet made as a teenager. Click on each image for a larger view.

“One day Boudin said to me, ‘Learn to draw well and appreciate the sea, the light, the blue sky.’ I took his advice.”

– Claude Monet

The Old “Le Pollet” Quarter of Dieppe, 1856–57
Graphite and watercolour on scratchboard
Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926)
Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Cliffs and Sea, Sainte-Adresse, 1864
Black chalk on ivory laid paper
Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926)
Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

View of Rouen, 1883
Black chalk on blued white Gillot paper
Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926)
Courtesy of The Clark Art Institute, Massachusetts

“I can only draw what I see.”

— Claude Monet

Sailboats, 1857
Pencil
Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926)
Courtesy of Pubhist.com

Marine, Sainte-Adresse beach, c 1856-1857
White chalk and pencil on paper
Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926)
Courtesy of MutualArt
Shared by Marine Café Blog under the Fair Use principle

Two Men Fishing, 1883
Black crayon and scratchwork on paper coated with gesso and incised with fine vertical lines
Courtesy of the Harvard Art Museums
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College. Shared by Marine Café Blog under the Fair Use principle.

“… draw with all your might; you can never learn too much.”

— Claude Monet

Child and Dinghy, 1857
Lead and white chalk on paper
Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926)
Courtesy of Christie’s
Shared by Marine Café Blog under the Fair Use principle

[Fishing boat at Etretat]
Illustration from The Book of the Homeless by Edith Wharton, 1916
Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926)

Two boats stranded, forward turned to the left), no date
Graphite
Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926)
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons (sourced from Musee du Louvre)