Rouen Cathedral is the subject of a series of paintings by the Impressionist painter Claude Monet, who painted the same scene at different times of the day. Two paintings are in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; one is in the National Museum of Serbia in Belgrade. The estimated value of one painting is over $40 million.
Literature
* The character Erik, The Opera Ghost of Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera, was supposedly born "in a small town not far from Rouen".
* Rouen played a major part in the Flaubert novel Madame Bovary.
* Maupassant, a student of Flaubert, wrote a number of short stories based in and around Rouen.
* In book two of The Strongbow Saga, the Vikings invade and conquer Ruda, also known as Rouen, and make it their base in Frankia.
The Rouen area is an integral part of the work of French writer Annie Ernaux.
* May Wedderburn Cannan wrote of Rouen in her 1915 poem on World War I "Rouen".
Music
The British rock band Supergrass named their fifth studio album Road to Rouen, punning on an Anglicised pronunciation of the city's name
