The Tour de France is also referred to by many as a Tour de la France, as the race prides itself on celebrating French culture and landscape as much as the race itself. This year’s race will be one of the most traditional routes in recent years, as it will be held entirely in France, starting with a long trek across Northern France that calls to mind countless Tours of old. But while the opening week may not offer the most spectacular roads of the race on a sporting level, it includes several cultural jewels.

Stage six will start in Bayeux and will celebrate the legendary Bayeux Tapestry, which recounts the Norman Conquest, while Rouen on stage four will also be one of those highlights. And while sports fans may remember that one of French cycling’s favourite sons, Jacques Anquetil, the first five-time winner of the yellow jersey, came from these parts, the city was also the temporary home of one of France’s greatest artists, Claude Monet, whose series of paintings of the city’s famous Gothic cathedral, has become a touchstone of early modern art.

Monet himself never showed much interest in cycling, save for a portrait of his son, Jean, riding a tricycle in the family garden. But it was here in the centre of Rouen, that the godfather of Impressionism set up his own sort of base camp in 1892, painting one of his most revered series of works, focusing on the cathedral façade that towers over this city on the southern edge of Normandy. And when this year’s Tour races towards the finish of stage four, the cathedral will be clearly visible.

When Monet arrived in Rouen in the spring of 1892, he came with a singular objective: to paint the façade of the city’s cathedral morning, noon and night, in an effort to capture the changing effects of light on the monumental structure. 

Rouen Cathedral wasn’t his first in-depth series, as he had already done an extensive series on haystacks, as well as the Gare Saint-Lazare train station in Paris. But the cathedral nevertheless marked a departure in terms of subject matter.

Monet was at the height of his career when he arrived in Rouen in early 1892. It had been 20 years since he and a group of his peers acquired the name Impressionists, inspired by his own painting, Impression, Sunrise.

Ironically, the name was attributed to Monet and his group by a sceptical critic. But despite any initial criticism of their groundbreaking approach to painting – one that emphasised freely brushed colours over the more academic emphasis on lines, contours and realism – Impressionism quickly altered the course of modern art, sparking a century and more of innovation.

Rouen Cathedral was a noted landmark, and for a brief period in the 1870s, its iron spire, which replaced the original spire after it was destroyed in a fire, established it as the tallest building in the world. Mostly however, the move to Rouen also allowed Monet to focus intensely on a singular subject, a short train ride from Paris.

Day in and day out, Monet alternated between different canvases, as he attempted to record how the light affected the appearance of the cathedral’s façade. His first stay lasted from February to April in 1892, and he returned the following year at the same time in an effort to benefit from similar light. All told, he produced over 30 paintings from early morning to sunset.

Though the subject matter never altered, the range of colours and textures varied deeply. One canvas would show the ethereal blue of a hazy dawn; the next might show a burst of bright orange at sunset; another would be a more naturalistic stone shade against the blue sky of midday.

Today his Rouen Cathedral series is considered one of the high points of Monet’s illustrious career, and the paintings are found in many of the world’s most prestigious collections. 

The Gothic architecture of Rouen cathedral may have seemed traditional subject matter for an artist, but Monet’s treatment of it was radical. It offered an intriguing subject, one where light danced through the rich and ornate details of the façade. At times in Monet’s paintings, the façade appears brooding in darkness while in others the structure exploded off the canvas in a fire of reflected sunlight. 

But while any single painting could be considered a masterpiece of its own, to understand the true genius of this body of work, it is best to view several of the paintings together.

And while Rouen Cathedral may have initially appeared to be a nod to Classicism, it provided Monet with an opportunity to expand on his central focus of Impressionism, one where the effects of light on a subject were as important as the subject itself. 

The light’s ever-changing effect on this massive façade, however, proved daunting challenges to Monet and he documented his struggles with the series. “Each day I discover something I hadn’t seen the day before,” he said. And indeed, the intricate details of the Rouen Cathedral façade provided unique challenges even for a master like Monet. 

In the end, despite the challenges, the cathedral façade proved to be an exceptional subject for Monet, not only for the endless possibilities inherent in the changing light, but also for the way in which Monet’s thick layers of brushwork possessed never-before-conceived affinities to the masonry of the façade itself. 

Despite the challenges, however, Monet’s Rouen Cathedral series was immediately championed by art critics, and unlike some of his earlier work, the series met with instant success. Nearly half of the 20 paintings he initially exhibited at his Paris gallery were sold before the exhibition closed in 1895.

Interestingly, while Monet’s paintings of the Rouen Cathedral are cherished around the world, the city, not to mention the Rouen Cathedral itself, are not a common stop for tourists visiting France. This year’s Tour de France however, will provide a unique opportunity for cycling fans and art lovers to bring their two passions together.

Art Cycle features in each issue of Rouleur and explores the relationship between cycling and art. Read the magazine to discover more untold stories.

Photos by André Morin, courtesy of the Musée d’Art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne, France.