Monets in the Art Institute Author(S): M
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The Art Institute of Chicago Monets in the Art Institute Author(s): M. C. Source: Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago (1907-1951), Vol. 19, No. 2 (Feb., 1925), pp. 18- 21 Published by: The Art Institute of Chicago Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4113949 . Accessed: 10/03/2014 16:09 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The Art Institute of Chicago is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago (1907-1951). http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 198.40.29.65 on Mon, 10 Mar 2014 16:09:43 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 18 BULLETIN OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO the proper blending of the colors by dis- tance, he met instant opposition and ridi- cule. With due regard to the fact that Monet and his followers were greatly influenced by Manet, it is granted that it was Monet who first attempted to record by broken color momentary phases of light and atmosphere. Light he considered the prime factor in every painting, since it originated the im- pression made on the eye. The title "Impression" was given by Monet to one of his early works, exhibited in 1874. Critics fell upon the word. It became the current jest. But in 1876 Monet and an uncompromising group of radicals held an exhibition under the name which had been forced upon them, "Les Impressionistes." Monet's disclosures have become the commonplace of painting. He has lived to see his apostles form new sects with strange creeds, but their point of departure is Impressionism, which he may fairly be said to have founded. PORTRAIT OF MONET. ALBERT ANDRE He has remained an independent, exhib- at the Salons, and MONETS IN THE ART iting everywhere except living apart from Paris. From his succes- INSTITUTE sive homes on the Seine, Argenteuil, PAINTING in the open air was funda- V6theuil, and Giverny, he has gone occa- mental to the theories of realism which sionally to the sea-board and to London and were maintained by the young Claude Venice. An important group of five paint- from the Monet (1840- ). Tradition had painted ings in the Art Institute dates and we landscapes in the studio, and the corollary residence at Argenteuil (1868-78), to this practice was the blackening of have four from the Vetheuil period (1878- shadows to suggest the contrast between 86). None of these, however, were painted in our light and shade. Monet saw light and at that spot. The "VWtheuil" gal- color within the shadow, and attempted to give to it the proper value. Flooding his whole canvas with high color, he immersed even silhouettes against the sky in reflected light. In an added effort to realize out-of- door brilliancy, he tried to increase the vibration of his colors; by laying on only the colors of the spectrum (to which he added white and black), hatched across or laid close to one another, he formed a com- posite of more brilliancy than can be se- cured by a mixture of pigment. The inves- tigations of Chevreul, Helmholtz and, in America, of Rood, gave him scientific con- firmation for this practice; but as he forced the observer away from the canvas to get ARGENTEUIL. MONET. PALMER COLLECTION This content downloaded from 198.40.29.65 on Mon, 10 Mar 2014 16:09:43 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions BULLETIN OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO 19 leries was painted later, in 1901. Soon after Monet settled in Giverny (1886), he began his paintings in series; successively Hay- ricks, Poplars, Lily-ponds, Mornings on the Seine, Rouen Cathedral, the Thames, and in 19o8, Venice. Of these series, nine paintings are here, and the remainder of our group were painted after the artist had begun to develop his garden at Giverny, of which we have a glimpse in the painting of 1900oo, "Garden at Giverny." Nine paintings belonging to the Art Institute are notably supplemented by sixteen repre- sentative canvases lent by Martin A. Ryerson. FRUITS. MONET. RYERSON LOAN COLLECTION The earliest work shows Monet ground- ing himself in composition and form but "Fruits" of I88o is a remarkable study of already using color powerfully. "Argen- form, but the painter more feelingly teuil" (1868) belongs to the school of records the intricate reflections of each Courbet, but Courbet never reached this object on its neighbor and in the hundred clarity. In the "Garden at Argenteuil," in mirrors of the crumpled cloth; the color, in the Ryerson loan collection, a child plays short, of light, on these objects, in this with a hoop on a shaded gravel path, the interior, on this day. sunlit garden in the background. Neither After I88o Monet rarely combined fig- composition nor aerial perspective is sac- ures with his landscapes, wishing not to be rificed, but more interest has gone into retarded by details of drawing. "Etretat," giving the exact values of color, partic- dated 1883, shows his emancipation. The ularly where it shines through the shad- greatest marine painter of his half century ow of the gravel path. Atmosphere and begins to show his full power. In the earlier palpitation, rather than exact form, char- landscapes brush strokes had followed the acterize the "St. Lazare Station, Paris" of contours; in the "Fruits" vigorous dabs of 1877. The arrival of a train smothered in divided color were rained on the canvas; steam is seen in silhouette from within the here the strokes are blended in the smooth shed; the contrasts are accomplished by the beach, but they are thick, virile, catching forceful execution of the light-saturated the light in the beating waves. steam rather than by the use of black. The The paintings that follow, revealing the emotion aroused in Monet by vivid color, are masterfully executed, and brilliant in tone: "Antibes," "Bordighera" on the Mediterranean, and "View from Cap Mar- tin" (Ryerson Loan Collection), all of 1884; "Boats in Winter Quarters, Etretat" (1885), "Figures in Sunshine" (1887), "Field of Flowers in France" and "Mountain Torrent, Dauphine," undated. The "Tor- rent" runs between transparent blue and lavender. The " Boats in Winter Quarters" is conspicuous for striking design and for the cold green of the water, emphasized by sails of reddish-violet, and the shore and covered in a scale of The ST. LAZARE STATION, PARIS. MONET. RYERSON boats, descending purple. LOAN COLLECTION cone-shaped sheds projected against a light This content downloaded from 198.40.29.65 on Mon, 10 Mar 2014 16:09:43 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 20 BULLETIN OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO Painted with casual, leaping strokes, they unveil the very heart of reflection and atmosphere. The releasefrom convention is complete. Vision and craftsmanship have been perfectedsince the paintingsin serieswere begun. Otherpaintings, intervening, disclose the steps of this slow sturdy growthin artistry and power. The "Field of Flowers in France" is akin to the work before 189o. The "Poplars at Giverny; Threatening Weather," belongs to another series. In successive summers, 1896 and 1897, the artist sat at the same point on the beachto paint the cliffsat Pourvillein differentlight The are the Art Insti- WESTMINSTER. MONET. RYERSON LOAN COL- effects. paintings in LECTION tute and the Ryerson collections. Monet painted also repeatedly the coast-guard's groundform a motif that appearslater in hut at Varengeville,looking down on its the "Hayricks" and the "Coast-Guard's red roof against shining water. One of Shack." these sea views, of 1897, is in the Ryerson For the paintings in series Monet kept collection. It is in high coloring,dabbed on several easels in daily use, workingon the with a brush fat with pigment. Another same subjects at all of them, but at each seriesis representedin this collectionby the registeringa different play of light, and "Morningon the Seine,"of the sameyear. runningfrom one to another as the light Misty branches droop over misty reflec- changed. By these severeexercises in vari- tions, a marvelin high key. One clearcolor ations he practicallyovercame limitations is hatchedover another,but smoothedover to his ability to express the most fugitive with the knife. It is a dream,a reverysoon aspects of light. As designs they are to pass. The "Gardenat Giverny"of 1900oo rhythmical,if unconventional,and selected reaches Monet's extreme of daring color. with exquisite care. They are purely In 19o0 we have the "Vetheuil," in the objective but touched with the poignancy Ryersoncollection, very differentin its free of beauty captured,wild and restless, and as objective transcriptions form a con- vincing argument for the methods of Impressionism. Two of the Hayricks series are in the Palmer collection and the Ryerson Loan collection. Both belongto the late winter of 189I. At this time Monet began also to paint his "Paysages d'Eau" in the water- gardenwhich he had made near Giverny. The serieswas continuedfor years. In 1907 he hung a whole room at Durand-Ruel's gallerieswith Lily-ponds. Ourexamples of 19o6 and 1907hang in the RyersonLoans CHARING CROSS. MONET. RYERSON LOAN COL- and the Kimball Collection respectively.