Impressionism and the History of Artists behind It
Grant Meger 7th December 2018
Abstract
This document contains the content of both pages about Claude Monet, Biography and Paintings.
Contents
Contents i
List of Figures ii
1 Biography 1 1.1 Early Years ...... 1 1.2 Middle Years ...... 2 1.3 Later Years ...... 2
2 Paintings 2 2.1 Water Lilies ...... 2 2.2 The Sea at Le Havre ...... 3
References 5
i List of Figures
1 Photo of Claude Monet in 1899 ...... 1 2 Water Lilies ...... 3 3 The Sea at Le Havre ...... 4
ii Figure 1: Photo of Claude Monet in 1899 (Tournachon 1899)
1 Biography
1.1 Early Years
Oscar-Claude Monet was born in Paris on November 14, 1840 and moved to the coastal city of Le Havre around age 5. He was fascinated by the nature, sea and changing weather and found inspiration for drawing at a very young age. In high school, Monet studied drawing with Jacques-François Ochard, a local artist, specializing in boats, landscapes, and caricatures. At age 16, Monet’s mother died and his aunt helped support him, but he left school. By 1856, Monet’s caricature drawings went on display in a local frame shop and soon after met Eugène-Louis Boudin, the son of a sailor. Monet traveled with Boudin to Rouelles for painting in the open air, where Monet learned to capture sub- jects quickly. At age 18, Monet went to Paris exploring galleries and studios, and worked at the Académie Suisse. Monet and his fellow students Renoir, Sis- ley and Bazille, from the studio of Charles Gleyre, begin to take the first step into professional status: entering paintings into the Salon to receive money, a long and difficult process. Two landscape paintings were accepted, after afive year wait (Morris 1999, 12–23).
1 2. Paintings
1.2 Middle Years
In December of 1871, Monet moved to the town of Argenteuil, France, just down the river from Paris, feeling depressed about the death of his father. However, he felt a growing sense of excitement after selling a handful of paintings within the next two years. In 1874, Monet and his friends changed the course of art history with one decision: to completely stop trying to have paintings entered in the Salon and launch their own exhibition. The show was met with a large amount of press coverage, with one critic calling Monet ‘the cleverest and most daring’ of the group. Despite the Impressionist’s first exhibition being finan- cially unsuccessful and none of Monet’s works having sold, Monet became en- thusiastic that he may have been making a difference in the world of art (Morris 1999, 47–57).
1.3 Later Years
In the 1890s, Monet constructed a garden at his home in Giverny, with a studio and decorative bridge across the pond of water lilies. By the dawn of the new century, Monet began painting his water garden on large scale canvases and opened an exhibition in 1909. After a trip to Venice, Monet’s second wife, Alice and eldest son, Jean both passed away which lead him into mourning. As the first world war bean in 1914, Monet refused to evacuate as he became interested in the idea of a gallery specifically for the water lily paintings. From 1923to 1926, Monet paints while dealing with health and vision problems, and at one point abandons the project. After his 83rd birthday, improvement in Monet’s sight and confidence helps him to complete the project in February of1926, consisting of 23 canvases. Claude Monet died on December 5, 1926, and was buried in Giverny. The project, the Grandes Décorations, opened in 1927, and this grand finale of Monet draws thousands today (Morris 1999, 95–109).
2 Paintings
2.1 Water Lilies
“Water Lilies” is part of a large series of paintings with the same name. The garden at Giverny and the paintings of it created Monet’s meditative world
2 2.2. The Sea at Le Havre
Figure 2: Water Lilies (Monet 1914–1917) of peace and quiet (Gerstein 2004, 132). The large amount of green used in the painting’s background represents the tree that must have been over the segment of pond the artist had been focusing on. Most of the lilies on this section which represents the concept of reflection being shown. The cool hues of green, blue and purple evoke a sense of calmness and silence as one would feel near a real pond. By painting with these colours depicting the gentle side of nature, Monet presented the environment he sought to be enriched in during his older age. As Monet himself replied to friend and critic Gustave Geffroy, “These landscapes of water and reflections have become an obsession. Itis beyond my aging powers but I want nonetheless to succeed in rendering what I feel” (Gerstein 2004, 132).
2.2 The Sea at Le Havre
Monet’s family lived between their Le Havre residence and Sainte-Adresse sum- mer house in 1866, 1867, and 1869. Monet represents a scene without people, buildings or any specific event. The intention of this work was to convey the sensation of nature’s rapid change. He used bold and forceful brush strokes presenting the constant, often drastic changes of the sea and sky, andhow their shape is never exact or permanent. The rough waters, cloudy sky and shoreline convey the features of nature. The overcast day shown through the grey-blues and whites represents the effect of light during this weather with
3 2. Paintings
Figure 3: The Sea at Le Havre (Monet 1885) lights and darks evenly distributed (Gerstein 2004, 118). Monet’s admiration of nature has been shown in this work by presenting the irregularity of the natural world. The ever-changing sea, sky and land dominant in this painting signify Monet’s understanding of their behavior and his desire to touch what he wanted to bring to his viewers. “The painting is equally an artful and calculated creation, a product of rehearsal, memory, imagination, and intelligence that ex- presses both the acuity of the artist’s response and something of the elemental force and mutable grandeur of nature” (Gerstein 2004, 118).
4 References
References
Gerstein, M. S. 2004. Impressionism: Selections from Five American Museums. New York: Galahad, September 1. isbn: 978-0-88365-871-0. Monet, C. 1885. Claude_Monet_The_Cliffs_at_Etretat.Jpg (1600×1279). Accessed November 24, 2018. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ commons/d/da/Claude_Monet_The_Cliffs_at_Etretat.jpg . Permission granted to use, share, or modify according to Google Advanced Image Search. Converted to .png and modified for use here. . 1914–. 1917. Claude_Monet_-_Nympheas_en_fleur.Jpg (3200×2818). Ac- cessed November 24, 2018. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wiki pedia/commons/2/2c/Claude_Monet_-_Nympheas_en_fleur. j p g . Permission granted to use, share, or modify according to Google Advanced Image Search. Converted to .png and modified for use here. Morris, C. 1999. The Essential Claude Monet. First Edition edition. New York London: Harry N. Abrams, October 1. isbn: 978-0-8109-5802-9. Tournachon, F. 1899. Claude_Monet_1899_Nadar_crop.Jpg (2021×2694). Accessed November 27, 2018. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ commons/a/a4/Claude_Monet_1899_Nadar_crop.jpg . Permission granted to use, share, or modify according to Google Advanced Image Search. Converted to .png and modified for use here.
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