The French seaside which inspired the Impressionists – 150 years on

It is exactly 150 years since a group of painters on the fringes of the French art scene cobbled together an exhibition of their work in a photographer’s studio in Paris. It was the dawn of perhaps the most famous art movement of all time: Impressionism.

Yet, though the breakthrough happened in Paris, the style and the philosophy of these artists was shaped on the beaches and in the seaside resorts of Normandy, where Claude Monet had grown up 20 years earlier. Here, Eugène Boudin, a local painter from Honfleur, encouraged the young artist to set up his easel out of doors and paint spontaneously. The images of sky, cliffs, sea and beach which he conjured out of rapid brushwork and vibrant colours have become some of the most memorable and popular images in Western art.

However, it wasn’t just the luminous skies, and the changing moods of sea and light which drew Monet and so many other great 19-century French painters to this coast. It was the glamour of the beach resorts. Here the fashion for sea-bathing, imported from resorts such as Brighton and Weymouth, was radically altering the prettiest beaches and fishing villages of the Normandy coast.

Grand hotels were opening to accommodate tourists and new rail links from Paris meant that the bourgeoisie could reach the coast in a couple of hours and count themselves among the in-crowd on what became known as the “summer boulevard of Paris”.

While so many of their British counterparts have gone into decline, most of the 19th-century resorts around the mouth of the Seine have continued to flourish (only Le Havre, which took a heavy battering during the Second World War, has lost its essential charm). The coastline as a whole remains as alluring as the day Monet first set up his easel. Here are the highlights.

Honfleur

The scenic set piece of Honfleur, which overlooks the mouth of the Seine, is the Vieux Bassin, the old harbour that used to be enclosed by the defensive walls. Now it is a picturesque place to moor a yacht or enjoy moules marinères on the quayside. Beyond are backstreets lined by ancient timber houses and, in the marketplace, a highly unusual church, built in the 15th century after the English occupiers were kicked out.

The local craftsmen were shipwrights and had no stone, so they built the roof of timber in the shape of two upturned ships’ hulls. Monet and other Impressionists often painted here, staying in the Ferme St Siméon. Eugène Boudin was born here and this summer the local museum, which is named after him, is celebrating the bicentenary of his birth in 1824 with a special exhibition of his works, with others by his contemporaries including Courbet and Monet (musees-honfleur.fr).

Trouville

Trouville was one of the most fashionable 19th century resorts on the Normandy coast until it was slowly overshadowed by the development of its neighbour Deauville in the 1860s. It still has an air of prosperity, though its grand hotels have been converted to apartments. One of these was the Hotel des Roches Noires, famously depicted by Monet in 1870 with its flags stretched taut by the sea breeze. Many of Boudin’s scenes of holidaymakers gathering on the sands were painted here.

Le Havre

One Monet painting in particular, Impression, Sun Rising, was to prove especially important in the history of the movement. He made his hasty sketch of a brilliant orange sun burning through the mists of the busy harbour from the window of his hotel room in Le Havre in 1872, and gave it the title on a whim when it was hung in the exhibition. A critic reviewing the show seized on the word “impression” and it stuck.

You can still find the location, on what is now the Quai de Southampton, but the original buildings were destroyed during the liberation of France. Today, many tourists who come to Le Havre are fans of modernist architecture. Auguste Perret’s neat grids of apartment blocks are models of their kind, and the towering spire of the cathedral is surely one of the greatest buildings ever constructed in concrete.

Art lovers will be drawn to another modernist building – the Musée d’Art Moderne André Malraux, which, after the Musée d’Orsay, houses one of the best collections of Impressionist art in France. Most of the paintings were donated by the family of a local collector and include works by Boudin, Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Degas, Courbet and Corot. It celebrates this summer’s impressionist anniversary with an exhibition of photography in Normandy from 1840-1890 (muma-lehavre.fr).

Étretat

One of the smallest but most scenic resorts on the Normandy coast, the beach at Étretat is framed by two great limestone cliffs, each forming a spectacular rock arch. The famous Manneport arch, at the western end of the bay, was a favourite subject of Monet, who returned here again and again to attempt to capture the contrasting effects of light and weather on the sea-battered cliffs (the beach at nearby Fécamp also fascinated him). Courbet and Boudin also painted here, Pissarro, Manet and Renoir worked nearby and Maupassant, Offenbach and Zola all retained villas on the slopes behind the bay.

Dieppe and Pourville

Dieppe was the first town in Normandy to be developed as a beach resort, but was rather too windy for comfort, and was fast falling out of favour by 1830. It remains one of the prettiest ports on this stretch of coast, and is a great place to enjoy a plateau de fruits de mer, while the Château museum has paintings by, among others, Renoir and Pissarro, who both came here to paint. Monet also visited, though he preferred the rugged cliffs and quieter atmosphere at nearby Pourville-sur-Mer, where he took a house, and Varengeville-sur-Mer.

Rouen

One of Monet’s most famous series of paintings, made between 1892 and 1895, depicts the western facade of Rouen cathedral in different weather and at different times of day. If you can’t quite find the right angle when you visit, it is because he installed himself in the first-floor changing rooms of a ladies’ clothes shop (suitably screened off) in the building opposite.

One of 30 cathedral paintings is in the Musée des Beaux-Arts which has an impressive collection of old masters and Impressionists. This summer’s special exhibition features David Hockney’s images of the Normandy countryside (mbarouen.fr).

Giverny

Monet considered his greatest work of art not to be his paintings, but the garden he made at his country manor house in Giverny. He spent some 35 years planting and replanting, felling trees and diverting the river to form his lily pond, which in turn became the inspiration for his water lily paintings.

The only works still here are reproductions, but the house and garden are a must-see for Monet fans (fondation-monet.com).

Essentials

DFDS (dfds.co.uk) runs daily car ferry services between Newhaven and Dieppe. Standard returns from £87 each way (one car with two passengers).

Nick Trend was a guest of the Ferme St Siméon (relaischateaux.com), which looks out across the mouth of the Seine at Honfleur. It has deep connections with the Impressionists: Boudin often stopped to drink, eat and paint, and Monet was a regular visitor (staying in what is now room 22). This summer, the hotel has installed reproductions of more than 50 paintings by famous artists who stayed or painted here around the gardens. Double rooms from €250 (£215) per night, including breakfast.