See “Monet in Focus” at the Cleveland Museum of Art

The towers and arches of France’s Rouen Cathedral are instantly recognizable. The Gothic structure is where the kings of France were crowned in the Middle Ages and has been painted by several famous artists, but none captured it quite like Claude Monet.

The French impressionist’s “Rouen Cathedral at the End of the Day, Sunlight Effect” is part of “Monet in Focus” on display at the Cleveland Museum of Art from March 31 through Aug. 11. The exhibition includes three oil paintings on loan from the Musée Marmottan Monet, a museum in Paris dedicated to the artist’s works, and two from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s permanent collection. All five were painted later in Monet’s career and examine how he used light in various ways in his work.

For “Rouen Cathedral,” Monet painted on as many as eight different canvases in a day, each designated for different times as the sun moved through the sky.

“He used the famous Gothic cathedral, through his own very personal lens, to look at the way light plays across the surface as the hours go by in a particular day,” says Heather Lemonedes Brown, deputy director and chief curator at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The result is a unique view of the cathedral that shows the upper portion of the building illuminated in late-afternoon sunshine while the lower third is in shadows. The painting contrasts with Monet’s “Gardener’s House at Antibes,” a piece from the museum’s collection that depicts a slant-roofed house surrounded by vivid greenery under a blue sky. The scene was painted under a bright southern sun and has a softer, warmer light.

The exhibition also includes a pair of contrasting water lilies paintings: “Water Lilies” from Paris and “Water Lilies (Agapanthus)” from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s collection. Both works depict close-ups of flowers and reflections on the pond at Monet’s home in Giverny, but with different lighting.

Also borrowed from the Musée Marmottan Monet is “The Japanese Bridge,” which shows a span arching over the pond at Giverny. Painted when the artist had cataracts, it has what Brown describes as a “moody” appearance.

“It doesn’t give you a great sense of space but instead a dense accumulation of paint and very intense colors,” Brown says. “He’s painting it both from what he’s able to see and also from memory and the feeling that the bridge and this site conjure for him.” 11150 East Blvd., Cleveland 44106, 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org