by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 19, 2020 / Updated on October 2, 2026
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000
A man in a pale suit sits on a grassy ledge at the lower left of this painting. Beyond him, the land drops towards a curved beach and a wide expanse of blue-green sea. The small figure makes the height of the viewpoint palpable, but the cliff, water and sky take almost all the space. The work shown on this page is Renoir’s Sur la falaise, painted at Pourville in 1879, according to the Christie’s catalogue for this exact canvas. [1] “Cliffs on the Coast near Pourville” is a descriptive English title retained in the local route.
This identification rests on more than a similar place name. The catalogue describes a lone, light-clothed man seen from behind on a grassy knoll, chalk cliffs descending to a cove, and Renoir’s dated signature at lower right. Those features appear together in the local image. The auction record also cites earlier publications under Les Falaises de Pourville, The Cliffs of Pourville and Cliffs at Berneval. The variation of titles makes the picture easy to confuse with other Normandy cliff paintings by Renoir or Monet; the composition and catalogue number provide firmer anchors.
Contents
- The painting at a glance
- Looking down from the cliff
- Light, colour and paint
- Renoir at Pourville in 1879
- How the painting was recorded and exhibited
- Distinguishing this work from other cliffs
- Why the figure matters
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Watch on YouTubeAt a glance
- ArtistPierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919)
- Catalogue titleSur la falaise
- Date and place1879, Pourville, as catalogued by Christie’s
- MediumOil on canvas
- Dimensions54.1 × 65.1 cm (21¼ × 25⅝ in.)
- Signature“Renoir.79.”, lower right
- Catalogue referenceDauberville, Renoir, vol. I, no. 150, as cited by Christie’s
- Documented statusOffered from a private Swiss collection; current owner and display location unverified
The measurements, inscription and catalogue citation come from the Christie’s lot entry. [1] Its description of a private collection is tied to the time of that sale, not a claim about the painting’s location today. The entry says the work will be included in a forthcoming digital Renoir catalogue raisonné; this is a statement of intended future inclusion and should not be treated as a published digital entry.
Looking down from the cliff
The viewing position is unusually high. Grass across the foreground forms a narrow ledge, then the land falls away to a pocket of pale sand. The shore curves into the distance, drawing the eye from the central beach towards the headland at the upper right. Darker vegetation clings to the face of the cliffs. Against it, broken strokes of cream and yellow-white suggest exposed chalk catching light. A thin strip of surf traces the boundary between land and water.
The seated man occupies little of the canvas, yet he supplies a human measure for the drop. His dark hat and pale clothing distinguish him from the grass. He turns away from us towards the sea, so the picture shows the direction of his gaze without telling us his thoughts. The older page called the painting a “drawing” and focused mainly on a generic coastal view. The exact-object record identifies an oil on canvas, and the figure is central to how its scale works.
The sea is comparatively smooth. It spreads across much of the left side in bands of blue and green, while light cloud sweeps across the sky above. The cliff edge, by contrast, is abrupt and uneven. The calm horizontal water makes the descent of the land feel steeper. Christie’s essay describes this contrast between the level Channel and the curling edge of the cliff. That is a useful way to look at the painting, although the surface itself remains open to different readings.
Light, colour and paint
Renoir uses colour to distinguish several distances. Deep blue at the far left gives way to greenish water near the beach. Chalk-white passages punctuate the ochre and green of the headland; a soft turquoise and grey sky sits above. The white line of breaking water is small but active, leading into the cove. The picture does not need a sharply outlined coastline to make its landforms legible.
The reproduction shows thin-looking passages in the sea and sky beside thicker or more broken touches in the cliff vegetation. Christie’s essay says Renoir thinned paint in this work to create luminous, almost watercolour-like veils. That catalogue observation is a useful guide, but a compressed image cannot prove the precise layering or pigments across the original canvas. Likewise, the pale sky and bright chalk do not establish a particular hour of day or a precise weather report.
The small figure’s clothes are pale like the cliff, but his dark hat and the darker ground around him keep him visible. His placement at the left foreground balances the much larger, heavier landmass on the right. Rather than place an object in the centre, Renoir lets the viewer move from one edge of the composition to the other: from watcher, over sea, along surf, and up the cliffs. The result is a view of a location and a picture about the experience of looking from height.
Renoir at Pourville in 1879
The Christie’s essay [1] places this painting within Renoir’s first extended summer around the estate of Paul Bérard, a patron he met in the winter of 1878. Bérard invited Renoir to his Château de Wargemont near Dieppe, and the artist spent July to September 1879 there. He painted portraits for the Bérard circle as well as landscapes drawn from the nearby Normandy coast. The dated signature and the catalogue’s place attribution connect Sur la falaise to that first summer.
The figure has sometimes been proposed as Jacques-Émile Blanche, a young painter Renoir taught during the stay. Christie’s presents that identification as a scholarly suggestion, not a fact established by an inscription or portrait likeness. Seen only from behind, the man is best described simply as a seated viewer of the coast. His possible name can add social context, but the painting does not depend on it.
Pourville lies on the Channel coast near Dieppe. The site supplied steep chalk cliffs, coves and open water for artists working in Normandy. That geography helps explain the painting’s viewpoint, but the image is not a topographical diagram. The exact position of Renoir’s easel, the time spent outdoors, and any later studio work are not documented in the accessible lot record. What is secure is the catalogue’s attribution of a signed 1879 canvas to Pourville and the close match to the image shown here.
How the painting was recorded and exhibited
Christie’s provenance begins with the collector Victor Chocquet in Paris. After his death, the canvas passed to Marie Chocquet and appeared in her estate sale at Galerie Georges Petit on 1 July 1899. The catalogue then names Isidore Montaignac, Delasalle, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune and Hugo Nathan. It gives dated transactions for Bernheim-Jeune’s acquisition in September 1908 and Nathan’s acquisition that December. Later entries trace descent to Martha Nathan, a 1946 acquisition by Fritz Nathan, and descent within that family to the owners named at the time of the Christie’s offering.
This is an unusually detailed published trail, but it should be read as the auction house’s documented provenance, not as independent proof of every earlier transfer. Its strongest public anchors include the 1899 estate sale and the 1908 gallery records. The catalogue also cites exhibitions in Paris in 1900, Basel in 1931, Tübingen in 1996, and the National Gallery’s 2007 Renoir Landscapes 1865–1883 exhibition in London. The London exhibition used the title Cliffs at Berneval. It is a historical display record, not evidence that the painting is currently on view there.
Earlier bibliography has given this canvas several names. Christie’s cites illustrated entries titled Falaises, Falaises à Pourville, Les Falaises de Pourville and The Cliffs of Pourville. It also cites Dauberville’s 2007 catalogue raisonné as no. 150. These references explain why an English legacy route can refer to “Cliffs on the Coast near Pourville” while the sale catalogue heads its lot Sur la falaise. A name change in a book or exhibition does not make a new object.
Distinguishing this work from other cliffs
Normandy cliffs recur in Impressionist painting, and several similarly titled works appear in searches. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, for example, holds another Renoir painting titled Sea and Cliffs. [2] Monet painted the cliffs around Pourville in the 1880s as well. Neither a shared stretch of coast nor a similar English title transfers another work’s dimensions, date or ownership to this page.
Here the identifying features are specific: one seated figure seen from behind at lower left, a cove and curving surf below, light chalk cutting through the right-hand headland, and the dated “Renoir.79.” at lower right. Christie’s published the canvas under Sur la falaise with 54.1 × 65.1 cm dimensions. Those details support the page’s object identification much more securely than the generic word “cliffs.”
The work is also distinct from Renoir’s 1880 L’église de Varengeville et les falaises. That later picture places a tiny church on a sloping ridge and contains no seated cliff-top watcher. Both are Renoir Normandy landscapes, but they have separate catalogue entries, dates and compositions. Keeping them separate lets each painting’s setting and formal choices come into focus.
Why the figure matters
Without the seated man, the cove would still be a study of chalk, surf and changing colour. With him, Renoir makes the drop from clifftop to beach easier to feel. The figure is close to the viewer but faces away, giving us a place to stand in the scene without turning the work into a portrait. His small scale also leaves the expansive water and steep coast in command of the picture.
Christie’s essay relates this effect to the landscape tradition of the sublime: a human being pauses before a vast natural view. That interpretation fits the visual arrangement, but the painting does not record a named person’s private feeling. What a viewer can verify is simpler and stronger: Renoir made the land fall away around a solitary watcher, held the sea nearly level, and used bright chalk and surf to turn a quiet coastal scene into a strong experience of height.
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Questions about Cliffs on the Coast near Pourville
Christie’s calls this exact canvas Sur la falaise. Earlier publications and exhibitions have also used titles referring to the cliffs of Pourville or Berneval.
The canvas is signed and dated 1879. Christie’s catalogues it as painted at Pourville on the Normandy coast.
Christie’s records an oil on canvas of 54.1 × 65.1 cm (21¼ × 25⅝ in.).
Some scholars have suggested Jacques-Émile Blanche, whom Renoir taught during his 1879 stay. The identification is unconfirmed; the painting shows the man from behind.
Christie’s documented the work as coming from a private Swiss collection. A current owner or public display location has not been verified here.
Discussion
What do you notice when you return to Cliffs on the Coast near Pourville?
How does the seated figure change your sense of the cliff’s height?
Reader Insights
How does the seated figure change your sense of the cliff’s height?
Christie’s records this exact Pourville canvas as a signed 1879 oil, 54.1 × 65.1 cm.
Where does the curving shoreline lead your eye?
Join the Conversation
Share a close observation or a source-backed question about Renoir’s Pourville view.
References
- Christie’s, Renoir, Sur la falaise: exact-object description, dated signature, measurements, Pourville attribution, provenance, bibliography, exhibition history and essay View source.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Renoir, Sea and Cliffs: a separate Renoir coastal painting used only to distinguish similarly titled works View source.
- Lead image: inherited site image, owner-declared public domain; its composition matches the Christie’s exact-object reproduction.
