Claude Monet

Rouen Cathedral, The Portal (Sunlight), 1894

Metropolitan Museum of Art New York City

(click image to enlarge)

In 1892-93 Monet painted more than thirty views of Rouen Cathedral.Moving from one canvas to another as the day progressed, he painted the facade with highly textured brush-strokes that convey the aspects of
sculpted stone and also make the atmosphere and light palpable. The series records not only the cathedral's appearance at different times but also the artist's subjective experience of light and atmosphere. He
finished the works in his studio at Giverny,carefully adjusting the canvases both independently and in relations to one another.

In 1895 Monet exhibited twenty cathedral paintings at Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris.  This one was entitled Le Portail (Soleil).