The Pyramides at Port-Coton, Rough Sea

During the late 1880s, Post-Impressionist painters like Seurat and Pissarro were gaining popularity with alternative painting techniques, challenging the methods of Impressionist painters such as Monet. It is in this time that Monet decided to depart from the gentle scenery often exemplified in Impressionist works and travel to the dramatic site of Belle Isle in order to prove his worth as a leading modern artist. Monet often struggled with the poor weather during his stay, but he wrote in one of his letters to his wife Alice that "one needed no sun for lugubrious effects". In another one of his letters, he described the coast as "sinister, diabolical and magnificent". Monet focused on a formalized process of serial practice during his stay, the most extensive he had attempted until beginning the Haystacks series in the late 1880s. == Description and analysis ==

In the six paintings of The Pyramides of Port-Coton, Monet presents the light and sky under a variety of conditions including clear midday, mist, partial cloud cover, and the warm light of the late afternoon. The ocean appears in similarly varied states between calm and stormy waters. David Clarke, a professor in the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Hong Kong, states that the Port-Coton series paintings fall under Monet's "exploration of water's ability to connote personal emotional states". Specifically, the dominance of water over the rocks is portrayed through only isolated fragments of rock being visible, "which are represented visually in a fluid or flame-like way". == Exhibition and reception ==

Initial exhibition The series was first shown at the Sixth Annual International Exhibition held at George Petit's in the Spring of 1887. The series was presented together within a group of ten paintings from Belle-Île, which was more extensive than his previous displays of series. The series was then presented to the public again within a group of thirteen paintings at the Monet-Rodin exhibition in 1889 also at George Petit's. Critic reactions Gustave Geffory, one of Monet's critical supporters and eventual biographer, gave a very positive review of Monet's work at the exhibition at Georges Petit in 1887, praising Monet's attention to color relationships. This marked the first time in Monet's career that the critical majority was positive towards his work, with one writer calling Monet "the most significant landscape painter of modern times". Critics also emphasized the relevance of Monet's long stay on the island through harsh conditions. == Current locations ==

The paintings in the series were eventually split up into different museums and private collections, summarized in the table below. == Related works ==

Paysage à Port-Goulphar.jpg|Landscape at Port-Goulphar (1886), Art Institute of Chicago. Tempête, côtes de Belle-Île - Claude.jpg|Tempest off the Coast of Belle-Île (1886), Musée d'Orsay. Claude Monet - Rocks at Belle-lle, Port-Domois - Google Art Project.jpg|Rocks at Belle-Île, Port-Domois (1886), Cincinnati Art Museum Claude Monet - Grotte de Port-Domois.jpg|Grotto at Port-Domois (1886), Museum of Modern Art, Ibaraki Claude Monet - Belle-Ile, Rain Effect.jpg|Belle-Île, Effect of Rain (1886), Bridgestone Museum of Art Claude Monet Tempête sur les Côtes de Belle-Île 1886.jpg|Tempest on the Coasts of Belle-Île (1886), Galerie Kornfeld 'Port-Goulphar, Belle-Île', oil on canvas painting by Claude Monet, 1887, Art Gallery of New South Wales.jpg|Port-Goulphar, Belle-Île (1887), Art Gallery of New South Wales ==See also==