For a while I've been obsessed with the work of Monet just like probably most people are, but also probably like most people, I never really went beyond enjoying the piece by its looks alone. But I just decided it was time to make it the next subject of my studies.
Through a variety of articles online and my faithful collection of art books I've recollected
some of my favorite facts about Monet and some of his method and technique that inspired and made me want to run and grab a paintbrush.
Ok, let's start with the basics. Claude Monet was an impressionist French painter whose work redefined the genre for half the nineteenth century. His family were usually his models for his paintings but, as made evident in most of his paintings, landscapes and nature were the main focus of his art. In some cases, people were represented by no more than a couple dots of color in between the beatifull trees and bright skies he painted.
Something interesting to notice is how Monet's art never reflected any of the struggles of his life. His family was going through a hard time, yet his portraits of them were colorful, happy portrayals. For example, in his painting "The terrace at Sainte-Adresse" he painted a beautiful happy painting of a family that was currently going through hard times, only focusing on what he wanted, how he felt.
His art faced criticism because of one of his favorite motifs; fog. Specially after his painting "impression, sunrise". A quote from the book "Impressionism: 50 Paintings You Should Know" says: "Those poor blind people want to see everything clearly in the fog!" A critic explained to him that fog was not a motif for a painting... This lack of understanding provided an irresistible instigation for Monet to paint something much more foggy”.
And this criticism only made no, want to paint more fog, so he found his next landscape to paint, Saint-Lazare Train Station. He said: "I've got it- Saint-Lazare! When the trains pull out, the clouds of smoke are so thick that you can hardly make anything out. It's magical, just like a fairytale come to life." It's beautiful how he managed to find beauty in the mundane, the way he found a train station with it's fog and busy scenes to be something out of a "fairy tale". And it's something worthy of being immortalized, how real everyday scenes can be so magical when romanticized.
But fog is not an easy motif to paint, with the change of weather, light and time of day, he had to constantly chase for the right moment. One day, the writer Guy de Maupassant followed Monet when trying to find his motif. "In reality, he was no longe a painter, he had become a hunter. He walked, followed by children who carried his canvases - five or six canvases which showed the same scene at different times and with different effects. He took one after the other, laying them aside as the sky changed. The painter lay in wait in front of the subject, on the lookout for sunshine and shadows, caught a ray of sunlight or a passing shadow with a few brushstrokes and, disdainful of anything false or common, transferred them to his canvas with great mastery."
I love this parallel of the plen air to be like hunting, trying to find the perfect moment and weather to go ahead with his move. It's something I would personally love to experience as well, which made me understand the need to experience painting plen air, which I've been putting off for so long.
After studying Monet's work, I a, so ready to go grab a paintbrush and some canvases and try to experiment with different lights and shadows outside. This is why I love art history!🌷