Two Monet Paintings, Unseen For A Century, Resurface At Auction

(MENAFN- USA Art News) Two Long-Held Monet Landscapes Head to Sotheby's Paris, Led by a Newly Rediscovered 1883 Canvas

For decades,“Les Îles de Port-Villez” (1883) was known only from a black-and-white photograph. This spring, the Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926) landscape will reappear in color when it comes to auction at Sotheby's Paris, offered with an estimate of €3 million–€5 million (approximately $3.5 million–$5.8 million) in the house's Modern and Contemporary Sale on April 16.

Painted from Monet's studio boat, the work captures a stretch of nature that feels unclaimed by human presence. The composition turns on a billowing island and its mirrored shape in the water, built from brisk, generous strokes of green and blue. Above it, the sky dissolves into a pale haze, a quick counterweight to the density of the river's surface.

“Monet is like an explorer arriving in a new world and using his boat to be as free as possible,” said Thomas Bompard, co-head of modern and contemporary art at Sotheby's Paris.“He's saying: 'I am going to choose the part of the landscape that I want to paint, not the part that nature or some Impressionist code chooses.' He really becomes the master of his aesthetic.” Bompard added that the painting's color, technique, and intensity anticipate Monet's later immersion in water lilies.

The canvas was last publicly seen in the early 20th century at the Fifth Avenue gallery of Paul Durand-Ruel, the dealer who championed Monet early and helped stabilize his finances. Durand-Ruel even lent the artist 20,000 francs (roughly $130,000 today) toward the purchase of his two-story house in Giverny in 1890 - a home that would become inseparable from Monet's mature vision.

As word of the Port-Villez consignment circulated through French collecting circles in January, a second long-held Monet surfaced. It, too, will be offered in the same April 16 sale:“Vétheuil, Effet du Matin” (1901), estimated at €6 million–€8 million (approximately $6.9 million–$9.2 million).

Where“Les Îles de Port-Villez” suggests speed and immediacy,“Vétheuil, Effet du Matin” reflects a different Monet - famous, financially secure, and working with a broader sense of time. The painting depicts the village of Vétheuil across a wide sweep of the Seine, rendered with a pointillistic touch that breaks the scene into vibrating notes of color.

The geography links the two pictures: Vétheuil lies 18 years - and one long bend of the river - away from Port-Villez. But Monet's circumstances had shifted dramatically by the early 20th century. His studio boat was no longer his primary vehicle. Instead, he traveled by chauffeured car, a Panhard & Levassor described as the fastest thing on four wheels. The car expanded his range and offered relief from the oppressive heat of the summer of 1901, allowing him to decamp to Lavacourt, where he rented a house overlooking the Seine.

From a high perch on the bank, Monet painted the river view throughout the summer months. The compositions from this period open outward: farmland tones, sky variations, and the familiar drama of light on water all enter the frame. Details sharpen the pastoral calm - a boatman's oars, villagers' gardens - even as atmosphere remains the governing force.

The method changed, too. Unlike the alla prima directness of the 1883 Port-Villez canvas, Monet worked at Lavacourt across multiple canvases at once, adjusting each according to shifting light and mood.“Vétheuil, Effet du Matin” is the second in a series of 15.“Monet is doing an exercise and by the last one [in the series] it's deeper, richer and less precise,” Bompard said.“Here you have the right balance between an atmospheric feeling and details.”

Together, Bompard said, the two works are the most valuable Monet paintings to appear at auction in France since 2001 - a notable claim in a market where major Monets more often surface in London or New York.

At the top end of Monet's auction history, the benchmark remains the $111 million paid in 2019 at Sotheby's New York for the haystack painting“Meules” (1890). Another haystack from the same year brought $81.4 million at Christie's New York in 2016. Monet's late water lily paintings dominate his highest prices:“Nymphéas en fleur” (1914–1917) achieved $84.5 million at Christie's New York in 2018, and water lily pictures account for five of his 10 most expensive works.

The Paris sale, however, is less about record-chasing than about rarity and narrative: an 1883 river view returning from near-total obscurity, paired with a 1901 morning effect that shows how far Monet's practice - and his life - had traveled along the Seine.

MENAFN01042026005694012507ID1110931353