Monet-Auburtin: The Church at Varengeville-sur-Mer

In Varengeville, Claude Monet and Jean Francis Auburtin repeatedly painted the 16th-century St. Valery Church (Église Saint-Valery), as well as the tiny customs officer's house below. These two picturesque buildings are located above the high cliffs and dominate the sea.

This painting was created from slightly lower down than previous views and is the closest version to Auburtin's work.

Auburtin depicts the site immortalized by Monet in a variety of ways—whether in paint or gouache, or from various angles, such as from the woods of Les Communes or the shingle beach below.
Although the artist was interested in the effects of light and chose a framing markedly identical to that of Monet, his design and colors are much more synthetic

The painter, Jacques-Émile Blanche, a contemporary of Monet and Auburtin and a regular visitor to the Moutiers woods in Varengeville, the house that was built by Edwin Luytens for Guillaume Maliet, also painted these places. He writes, "When Monet painted his series of seascapes, several of which include a silhouette of the church seen against the light, little did he know, I bet, that after him, Francis Auburtin and then 'watercolor ladies' would set up folding chairs in front of the simple fishermen's chapel. […] And some sites have the privilege of inspiring magnificent feelings: their majestic character is no longer disputed. So there you have the pictorial Varengeville."
Jacques-Émile Blanche, "The Graveyard by the Sea," The Arts and Sciences Literary News, October 25, 1930.

One year after settling in the small Norman village, Auburtin painted two oil canvases of the cemetery next to the church.
He captured this place suspended above the cliffs and the sea—the place where he himself would be buried in 1930.

As you can see from this contemporary photograph and the image from Street View, the view from the cemetery has not changed much today.

Like Monet, Auburtin went to the shingle beach at low tide to paint the St. Valery Church, the cliffs, and the rock-dotted beach.

On the same site but with a broader view, Auburtin created a series of gouaches encompassing the cliffs, fishing boats, and the sea.
The fishermen of Pourville used to tie their nets to stakes placed along the coast. As early as 1882, Monet serially painted this same motif. After the ebb, the Monet-Hoschedé children frolicked behind fishermen removing fish from the traps.

At low tide, the long sandy beach is inviting. The Auburtin family, like Monet's, loved to walk there.

Auburtin would draw the outlines of a new creation or his impressions of nature in a sketchbook.
This search for the motif offered the artist, who was looking for new images, an endless repertoire of shapes and symbols. Here, the drawing of zoomorphic rocks, like sphinxes or lions petrified by time and tide, served as a model for his vast compositions.