Catholicism and Science in Monet's Rouen Cathedral Series

FAIN: FT-54576-06

Barbara Jean Larson
University of West Florida (Pensacola, FL 32514-5750)

Monet's paintings of the facade of Rouen Cathedral (1892-93) engage in the polemic between Church and State before their official separation (1905). They respond to the tradition of belief by emphasizing transcendence, reverie, the sublime, non- naturalistic colors, and a regional Gothic cathedral built over a four hundred year period. They also are careful documents of weather and lighting based on the artist's interest in meteorology, a science supported by the anti-clerical Third Republic that empties the heavens of divine mysteries.