Aaron Holland Fine Art

Claude Monet
1840 – 1926
French

Art critic Louis Leroy coined the phrase ‘Impressionism’ when he wrote about Monet’s painting ‘Impression, Sunrise’:

‘when I beheld the work I thought that my glasses were dirty, what did this canvas mean?… The picture had neither up nor down… Impression! Of course, it makes an impression… Colored paper in his embrionary state is more complete than this sea-scene’.

Impressionism, like many movements, was a reaction against the movement of the day. It was also the result of the newly burgeoning plein-air scene (or painting outdoors on location).

The plein-air scene came about, at least in part, because of the advent of the lead tube which made artists’ oil paints portable.

Advancements in pigments and color, in addition to the invention of the lead tube, encouraged many artists to leave the somber hues of the studio and embrace the vivid colors of the outdoors in full sun. This had not been done before on any great scale, calling for a reassessment of painting.

Monet trained under the classical academic painter, Gleyre. Monet also learned from his friends, and from the landscape itself. It was around this time that he met other artists: Pisarro, Renoir, Sisley, Bazille, Cezanne and Manet, many of whom would later form the nucleus of the Impressionists.

These like-minded artists wanted to capture immediate and transitory effects that occurred in nature. To do so, they determined to paint direct from nature.

It is said that when Monet went to the Louvre to copy the masterworks, a traditional practice for young artists, he set up in front of a window and painted the landscape instead. This is an apt illustration of the disparity between the old school and the new school. This ‘departure’ from the tried-and-true forms of the establishment, was not a rebellion without cause.

Monet’s representation of light was based on his knowledge of the laws of optics as well as direct observations. He conveyed color by breaking it down into different components, much like a prism does. Up close the colors on a painting would look like a series of random strokes of different hues, but seen from a distance the colors would blend ‘optically’ thus creating the desired effect.

The resultant method of seeing and painting came to be recognized for a certain ‘broken color’ application and an optical mixing of the colors (rather than a blended color approach used by more traditional painters).

Modern colors enabled the artists to capture color combinations that were previously not possible. Monet further rejected the current approach to landscape painting by eliminating black and grey from his palette.

Audiences at first considered this new style to be ‘unfinished’ and an insult to public tastes.

Monet’s objective remained constant: portray the variations of light and atmosphere brought on by changes of hour and season. And, capture the immediate spontaneous impression to what was before him.

Monet’s early paintings were darker, and more simply painted. Eventually, he moved away from obvious dark/light contrasts and relied less on the heavy browns and blacks to support his paintings.

As he progressed, his colors brightened dramatically, to reflect a primary palette.

His maturity as an artist showed more and more refinement of color and sensitivity of handling, and subtlety of lighting and atmospheric effects. In later works Monet allowed his vision of light to dissolve the subjects in his pictures, enveloping them in light, atmosphere and reflected light.

Monet created several paintings of the same subjects in order to more closely study the effects of changing seasons upon the objects. He created multiple studies of the same object at different times of day or year: The Parliament House, Rouen Cathedral, The Seine, and Water Lilies are examples.

Gradually Monet painted smaller scenes on huge canvases, and moved away from painting huge scenes on smaller canvases.

Water-lilies was Monet’s last major series of paintings, made up of nearly 250 works. A lifetime of color mixing behind him made him prepared to paint what some call his masterpieces.

As the viewer, I feel like I was able to experience just a little bit, what it might have been like for Monet to discover the beauty of a world of color… and then to watch it slip away as he slowly lost his eyesight to cataracts.
I did not include them here, but several paintings near the end of the artist’s life show a definite change in color perception, with several colors being completely absent from his vision; It is a fascinating study in color and perception, as Monet himself reluctantly admitted.

Claude Monet’s entire life is a fascinating study of color and perception!