The Seine at Giverny

1. 1

   What is written

   One of four canvases of the Île aux Orties, all dated 1897, painted from Monet’s boat at the mouth of the Epte during the two summers of dawn work that also produced the Mornings on the Seine.

   • Begun in 1896, Monet’s Mornings on the Seine series was not completed until 1897 because of inclement weather.The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Morning on the Seine near Giverny, 56.135.4
   • pointe d'aube, en août, trois heures et demie. … s'engage dans les prairies toutes embuées de brumes, arrive à la rivière.Maurice Guillemot, “Claude Monet”, La Revue illustrée, 15 March 1898
2. 2

   Records of those days

   • Jeufosse and Bonnières rain gaugesDaily rain 4.2 and 5.7 km from the island, across the Seine; Jeufosse measured every day of June to September 1897 but kept no September 1896.
   • Pacy-sur-Eure and ÉvreuxDaily highest and lowest temperature 12 km away, and rain at both, for ranking the two summers against 37 to 40 years of record.
   • Paris-MontsourisDaily rain and temperature from 1873 to 2024, the long series that ranks each month against 152 years.
   • L’Impartial, Les AndelysThe twice-weekly paper of the district that includes Giverny, read for August 1897 and September 1896.

   Not found or not yet searched

   • The Columbia Museum of Art publishes no description of the painting’s sky or light, and no accession number or dimensions.
   • No station near Giverny recorded fog, cloud or wind in 1896 or 1897.
   • The image is the museum’s small web copy, 706 pixels wide, as shared on Wikimedia Commons.
3. 3

   Each claim tested

   • “not completed until 1897 because of inclement weather”, the Met on the Mornings series. September 1896 was the wettest September in 152 years at Paris (148.9 mm, against a modern 44.7) and in 37 at Évreux, and August 1896 had the third-coldest nights of 150 at Paris. The gauges nearest Giverny kept no September 1896.
   • “Un violent orage suivi de grêle et de pluie … samedi”, L’Impartial on Port-Mort, Saturday 7 August 1897. Jeufosse, 4.2 km from the island, read 49.0 mm on the morning of 8 August, its second-wettest day in 1,145; Bonnières read 36.0 mm.
   • “prairies toutes embuées de brumes”, Guillemot on an August dawn with Monet. Mist was not measured. The ground was wet: August 1897 was the wettest of 11 at Bonnières and the second-wettest of 38 at Évreux.
   • The day and the weather of the canvas itself. It is dated only to the year, and the museum publishes no reading of its sky.
4. 4

   Verdict

   Both summers Monet spent painting on the river at dawn were wet near Giverny. The first ended in the wettest September in 152 years of Paris records; the second brought the wettest August in 11 years at the gauge across the river. The mist Guillemot walked through was never measured.

   • Partially agrees“Inclement weather” in 1896 A cold August and a record wet September; the records cannot show which mornings Monet lost.
   • Partially agreesThe Port-Mort storm of 7 August 1897 The rain is in the gauge the next morning; hail and lightning were not recorded.
   • UnknownMist at dawn No record of fog exists near Giverny.
   • UnknownThe day painted The canvas is dated only to 1897.

What this cannot tell you. Guillemot gives no year for his August morning; published in March 1898 and writing “depuis l'été dernier”, it is most likely August 1897. Paris-Montsouris is 66 km away and Évreux 27 km; the nearest gauges are too short to rank. The Met ties the inclement weather to the Mornings, the series this canvas grew out of, not to the Île aux Orties pictures themselves.