CLAUDE MONET, THE COUNT OF IMPRESSIONISM

 

Impressionism emerged in France in the middle of the 19th century with Oscar Claude Monet (1840-1926) one of the chief pioneers of this revolutionary art movement. Monet painted some of the world's greatest Impressionism masterpieces. His work has been very well received by critics and people alike.

Impression Sunrise

So, what is impressionism? It is a style or movement in painting originating in France in the 1860s, characterized by a concern with depicting the visual impression of the moment, especially in terms of the shifting effect of light and colour. An excellent example is Monet’s Impression, Sunrise (1872). This painting is famous for giving a name to the Impressionist movement and it has now become a quintessential symbol of the movement. To begin with, it was not well taken by critics and the term Impressionist was coined in satirical fashion by an art critic and painter Louis Leroy after seeing a work by Claude Monet at the First Impressionist Exhibition in Paris in April 1874. However, the Impressionist movement became so popular that it spread to music and literature as well. The subject of this painting is the harbor of Le Havre in France. It's noted for its very loose brushstrokes that suggest rather than define it. Monet uses color as the main way to capture the very essence of the scene.

 

Early impressionists were considered radicals in their time, because they did not follow the rules of academic painting. Constructing their paintings from free brushed colours, and depicting the natural appearances of objects by means of dabs or strokes of primary unmixed colours in order to simulate actual reflected light, the impressionists like Monet and Auguste Renoir and Camille Pissaro created their magic.

 

San Giorgio at Dusk

 

San Giorgio at Dusk (1908-1912) is another Monet masterpiece of impressionism. Monet didn't intend to paint anything when he took a visit to Venice in 1908 as it had already been painted by so many other artists. However, during his stay, he was entranced by the sights in the city and he couldn't help but start painting. He began a series of preliminary works which he completed much later when he finally returned home. Among those was this painting, which is also known as Venice at Dusk and which became most popular. It is noted for its thin, light brushstrokes, and masterful depiction of light and the movement of water.

 

Houses of Parliament

 

Houses of Parliament Series (1900-1905): During his stays in London between 1900 1nd 1905 Monet painted this series whose subject was the Palace of Westminster, home of the British Parliament. All the 19 paintings in the series are the same size and depict the same scene from the same viewpoint - but they show a variety of weather conditions and times of the day. One of the paintings from the series fetched a whopping 20 million dollars at auction in 2004.

 

Other Monet paintings like Le Bain (1869), Woman with a Parasol (1875) in which he painted his wife and elder son, Poplar Series (1891) of 24 paintings in which he painted Poplar trees along the banks of the Epte River, Haystack Series (1890-1891), of 24 farmland scenes, Rouen Cathedral series (1892-1893) of 30 paintings of the French cathedral and Water Lilies series (Nympheas) (1896-1926) established Monet and his impressionism as a cult. The Water lilies series has almost 250 paintings and they depict dazzling complexity of color and light and it opens our eyes to the incredible diversity of nature and to the depth and mystery of the life it sustains. An amazing thing about these pieces of art is that Monet's eyesight was badly deteriorating due to cataract when he painted most of these masterpieces.

Water Lilies

 

The exceptional achievements of Monet’s prolific youthful period can be measured in works completed between 1865 and 1870, before he had begun to fragment his brushstrokes into the characteristic broken touches that were to become the hallmark of Impressionist style. Monet was plainly not trying to reproduce faithfully the scene before him as examined in detail but rather attempting to record on the spot the impression that relaxed, momentary vision might receive—what is seen rather than what is known, with all its vitality and movement. So the impression changed with the time of the day, the seasons, the light and the shade.

Impressionism broadly viewed, was a celebration of the pleasures of middle-class life; indeed, Monet’s subject matter from this period often involved domestic scenes featuring his wife, son, and garden. Monet found subjects in his immediate surroundings, as he painted the people and places he knew best. His first wife, Camille and his second wife, Alice, frequently served as models. His landscapes chart journeys around the north of France. He transformed French painting in the second half of the nineteenth century. Throughout his long career, Monet consistently depicted the landscape and leisure activities of Paris and its environs as well as the Normandy coast. He led the way to twentieth-century modernism by developing a unique style that strove to capture on canvas the very act of perceiving nature. He painted the same site again and again, recording how its appearance changed with the time of day. That is how he produced the painting series!

 

His popularity soared in the second half of the 20th century, when his works travelled the world in museum exhibitions that attracted record-breaking crowds and marketed popular commercial items featuring imagery from his art. In the 1910s and 1920s, Monet focused almost exclusively on the picturesque water-lily pond that he created on his property at Giverny. His final series depicts the pond in a set of mural-sized canvases where abstract renderings of plant and water emerge from broad strokes of colour and intricately built-up textures. The French government installed his last water-lily series in specially constructed galleries at the Orangerie in Paris, where they remain today. If you are interested in the magical art of Monet I suggest you visit this site: https://www.claudemonetgallery.org/the-complete-works.html?pageno=1