Städel Museum Exhibition Explores Monet's Normandy Coast and Tourism's Influence on Art

The Städel Museum in Frankfurt is presenting the exhibition 'Monet's Coast. The Discovery of Étretat,' which examines Claude Monet's work alongside the emergence of mass tourism in 19th-century France. The show features approximately 170 artworks, including a dozen paintings by Monet borrowed from various institutions, displayed in a rotunda as the exhibition's climax. It also includes works by Gustave Courbet, who painted at the same Normandy location a generation earlier, focusing on dramatic waves, and Eugène Le Poittevin, who depicted social conflicts between traditional fishing communities and new tourist economies. The exhibition argues that artistic production at Étretat was heavily driven by commercial demand from a growing bourgeois audience in Paris, facilitated by improved rail access that reduced travel time to four hours after 1890. Curators Alexander Eiling and Eva Mongi-Vollmer use Monet's name as a draw, and attendance has been strong since the opening. The presentation includes a section on early photography, featuring images by Alphonse Davanne that required long exposure times, contrasting with the instantaneous capture of modern devices. The show suggests that the picturesque cliffs of Étretat—specifically formations like Porte d'Aval, Porte d'Amont, and Manneporte—became a recurring motif that allowed artists to explore different stylistic approaches, from naturalism to impressionism, while essentially creating marketable souvenirs. The exhibition also notes the environmental impact of tourism, mentioning that the chalk cliffs are now eroding and access has been restricted due to over-visitation.