Harry B. Lachman American, 1886-1974

From 1892 to 1893, Claude Monet, the quintessential Impressionist, painted over thirty views of Rouen Cathedral, capturing the Gothic structure at different times of day and recording his shifting perception of light and atmosphere.

In response, Post-Impressionist Harry B. Lachman depicted Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet, a 13th-century Parisian church, from a side and slightly elevated viewpoint rather than the frontal perspective favored by Monet. Lachman simplified the church into geometric forms: a rectangular bell tower, rectory windows, elliptical buttresses, triangular pediments, and semicircular arches, set against rectangular sidewalks. The building’s mass appears so substantial that it extends beyond the canvas, emphasizing solidity and structure.

Unlike Monet’s luminous brushwork, Lachman rendered the forms in muted browns, beiges, and deep reds, with flattened light that diminishes atmosphere and highlights architectural permanence. Small figures, a lone carriage and a man talking to a passerby, are dwarfed by the monumental structure, reinforcing a sense of durability and stability. The painting celebrates both the enduring church and Lachman’s modern yet ordered approach, bridging the expressive freedom of Impressionism with the structural clarity of Post-Impressionism.