Claude Monet ( 14 November 1840 - 5 December 1926) is one of the most well-known and
representative figures in impressionism. Monet was a French painter who worked
throughout the latter half of the 19th century and until his death in 1926.
Monet's work is characterized by his interest in color and nature. His
paintings feature the same subject at different times of day.
Impressionism
The
primary characteristic of Monet's work is his commitment to impressionism its
basic characteristics, such as a focus on texture, light and brushstroke.
Monet's focus changed from the subject (such as a boat, landscape or person) to
the way that paint works on a canvas. Monet's art seeks to capture what the eye
sees and the dynamic change of landscape depending on perspective and light.
Nature
Monet's
work primarily focuses on scenes in nature. Even in his early work, which
featured human forms, the natural world received as much attention as the human
figures. His most famous paintings, such as his haystack series and water
lilies, are exclusively depictions of nature. Monet also had a lifelong
interest in water, which he painted in all its forms, from turbulent rivers to
the placid surface of his own lily pond.
Use of Color
Monet's
paintings are distinctive in that he did not use the traditional chiaroscuro
method, which creates a three-dimensional effect using shadow and light.
Instead, Monet used unbroken blocks of color in unexpected ways to create
vibrant, but flat landscapes. For Monet and other impressionists, color was not
intrinsic to an object, but instead determined by the quality of light thrown
on it. Monet also avoided distinctive lines in his painting, instead using dots
and patches of color to indicate forms.
Repeating images
Monet
is also well-known for his repeated paintings of the same object at different
times of day, reflecting the changes of color and light. One of his best-known
series is of haystacks in a field, painted throughout a day and over several
days in different qualities of light. Monet also painted series' of poplar
trees and the Rouen Cathedral. Toward the end of his life, Monet devoted his
time completely to painting his own lily pond throughout the year.
The best works.
This painting of “Camille” (“The Woman in the
Green Dress”), features Claude Monet’s young wife in a full-length portrait.
The painting was done in haste, with a Salon deadline looming, but it gained
great attention for the then-struggling artist.
Water
Lilies is a series of approximately 250 oil paintings by Claude The paintings
depict Monet's flower garden at Giverny and were the main focus of Monet's
artistic production during the last thirty years of his life. Many of the works
were painted while Monet suffered from cataracts.
The
Woman in the Green Dress is my favourite picture of this particular painter. I
like it most of all, because The woman is dressed in a dress striped in green
and black, with a train and of a rather light fabric - that looks like silk,
but considering the financial situation in which it was painted it is not that
likely the original was made in.
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Here are some interesting facts about the artist:
ReplyDelete1. At school Monet was seen as a rebel. Instead of working he would draw caricatures of his teachers and friends. Outside of school he would draw caricatures on demand for locals and by fifteen was making good money selling them on the street. Despite his interest in caricatures, Monet was never very interested in painting until he met his future mentor Eugene Boudin, who encouraged him to paint in ‘plein air’, outdoors. He enrolled in the art school ‘École des Beaux Arts’, but his attitudes towards school and discipline still hadn’t changed and he disliked their attitudes towards art, so he left to study elsewhere.
2.Many of Monet’s paintings feature the same woman, Camille Domcieux, who he met whilst working with Charles Gleyre. She posed alongside Bazille in Monet’s ‘Dejeuner sur L’Herbe’ and modelled for ‘La Femme à la Robe Verte’ and many others. In 1867, Camille gave birth to Monet’s first son Jean and they married in 1870. But it was not without event. In 1878 Camille was pregnant again and gave birth to their second son Michel, but already ill, the pregnancy weakened Camille and she survived barely a year before dying of Tuberculosis in 1879. His son Jean died in 1914 aged 47.
3.Claude Monet died of lung cancer in 1926 aged 86. Right up to the day he died, he was still painting, often re-painting some of the canvases he’d done before his cataract operation. Monet’s garden at Giverny was more often than not the scene of his last paintings, especially around his water lily pond. He had attempted suicide by throwing himself into the Seine shortly after his son was born because his financial burdens were getting too much for him. His father had disowned him after getting Camille pregnant out of wedlock and he hadn’t been selling many paintings. Thanks to several commissions from Edouard Manet and Ernest Hoschede and support from Camille, Monet managed to get back on his feet and put it all behind him.