1 Second Grade Print Les Arceaux Fleuris, Giverny, 1913 (The Flowering Arches) By Claude Monet (1840-1926) Technique: oil on canvas Size: 36 ¾” x 36 ¼” Collection: The Phoenix Art Museum Art Style and Genre: French Impressionist-landscape OBJECTIVES: ✦The students will be introduced to the work of Claude Monet. ✦The students will be introduced to Monetʼs vital role in the development of Impressionist art style. ✦The students will describe how Impressionist artist visualize the effects of light and atmosphere on natural forms. ✦The students will describe how Monetʼs garden at Giverny inspired his work. ✦The students will analyze Monetʼs use of complementary colors to add visual interest in the landscape. ✦The students will create an outdoor garden scene that demonstrates Impressionistic technique. ABOUT THE ARTIST: Claude Monet was born in Paris, France, in 1840. He moved with his family to the port city of Le Havre in 1845. By age fifteen, he had established himself as a local caricaturist. It was during this time that he attracted the attention of French landscape artist Eugene Boudin. From Boudin, Monet was introduced to plein-air (open air) painting and the pure beauty found in nature. His aspiration to pursue a life as an artist confirmed, Monet left for Paris against his familyʼs wishes. At age twenty, Monet served in the French army and requested duty in an African regiment. Exposed to intense light and color while in North Africa, the artist once remarked that they “...contained the germ of my future researches.” In 1862, Monet convinced his father of his commitment to painting and obtained his permission to study art in Paris at the atelier (studio) of painter/teacher Charles Gleyre. In 1865, the artist earned admission into the Paris Salon (an annual government sponsored art exhibition) with two seascapes paintings. In the latter half of the 1860ʼs, Monet became the key figure among a group of colleagues whom he met at the Gleyreʼs studio, including Frederic Bazille, August Renoir and Alfred Sisley. In 1870, the artist left France for London, due o the Franco-Prussian War. In London, he met Paul Durand-Ruel, who became his art dealer for the next fifteen years. Frustrated and discouraged by the frequent rejection of submissions to the Paris Salon, Monet and these fellow artists organized the Societe Amonoyme des Artistes Peintres, Sculpteures etc., and held an independent exhibition. The comments made by art critic Louis Leroy about one of Monetʼs pictures, Impression, Sunrise, inspired the name for the new movement - Impressionism. By 1876, Monet sought new patrons and collectors for his work and accepted the commission of Ernest Hoschede, a financier. The artist enjoyed some financial success in the 1880ʼs and announced his independence from the Impressionist the group. 2 In 1890, the painter bought land and a farmhouse in Giverny (pronounced Zhee-vare-ney), France (forty miles northwest of Paris), and began to transform his property into fertile gardens. The gardens at Giverny served as an outdoor studio for the remainder of his life. Failing eyesight made work difficult for the artist and by 1908, his eyes began to weaken. With a diagnosis of a double cataract condition, Monet stopped painting. The regime of prescribed medication, however, motivated the artist to resume painting and at age seventy-five he began a monument in France. The monument, known as the water lily (Nympheas), focused on the interrelationship of colors resulting in abstract forms. The large panels were installed and dedicated in the Orangerie, in Paris, in 1927, one year after Monetʼs death. ABOUT THE ART: Subject of the Painting Monet moved to Giverny, France in 1883. Ten years later, he begun excavating a large pond. His pond, like his canvases, was deliberately designed and executed to be a curvilinear pattern of water lilies - random and natural. Les Arceaux Fleuris, Giverny depicts an arching bower of pink roses reflected in the water of the pond. Technique and Style Claude Monet painted primarily outdoors on unprimed, white canvases and used long, flexible brushes. Les Arceaux Fleuris, Giverny reflects the artist use of complementary colors and a limited palette - barring black from his canvases. He painted using a brush loaded with pure color from a tube. He would lay the colors down side-by-side, carefully juxtaposing and layering rather than mixing the hues. Typically, Monet would sketch out a preliminary composition onto his canvases in charcoal, and develop the artwork directly with his oil paints. A painting session lasted as long as the effect the artist wished to capture lasted - sometimes an hour, often less. The Impressionistsʼ goal was to record impressions of observed phenomena, essentially illustrating the expressive and conditional qualities of an object. In the latter stages of his life, Monet became increasingly interested with tonal harmonies and color and less with observed fact. *Note that there is a Venezia Series biographical book on Monet. You may check it out fron the library for use during your lesson. the book should NOT leave the Tarwater campus. You can use the book as a read aloud, but most likely you will only have time enough to use selected pages to enhance your lesson. *Additional posters of Monetʼs work will be available in the supply tub. QUESTIONS AND POINTS FOR DISCUSSION: ✦Ask the students to describe the a scene depicted in the picture. What time of day has Monet illustrated here? ✦Notice that the artist has placed the viewer within the pond; we do not witness the waterʼs edge in this scene. ✦Discuss the complementary colors Monet utilized in the painting like red and green (a color wheel is a helpful visual aid for this discussion). What effects do they have on the viewer? ✦Ask the students to imagine an outdoor environment that they could design themselves. What types of elements might they include - a bench, a bridge or perhaps a small stream? Would their “garden” be formal and precisely groomed or meandering and natural? Discuss some possibilities with the students. 3 Art Terms: Abstract - Characteristic of art in which objects are not rendered in a naturalistic or representational way, but instead, are simplified or distorted to some extent, often in an attempt to convey the essence of form. Complementary Colors - Hues directly opposite one another on the color wheel and therefore assumed to be as different from one another as possible. When placed side-by-side, complementary colors are intensified. Composition - The organization of lines, shapes, colors and other art elements in a work of art. Impressionism - An art style of the late nineteenth century, principally in France, in which artist tried to capture in paint the fleeting effects of light, shade and color in natural forms. Plein-air - Out-of-doors or open air painting. PROJECT: The students will create the impression of a flower garden in collage style with torn bits of brightly colored paper. Each student will receive a white sheet of paper (6 x 9) for a background. Groups of students may share sheets of colored paper. Show the students a sample of the project, and remind them to tear small pieces of each color to create an impressionistic look. Looking at some flower garden photos from a magazine or book will help generate ideas for flower choices and garden arrangements. First, the students should tear “fingernail-sized” or smaller bits of colored paper. Then they can arrange the bits of paper into various flowers before gluing. The students should try to fill most of their white papers with the bits of colored paper, but they can also fill in white background areas with crayon when they have finished the collage. Each studentʼs artwork can be mounted on a 9 x 12 sheet of colored construction paper. Have the students sign their artwork. The artwork can be displayed or filed into the studentsʼ portfolios. SUPPLIES: 6 x 9 sheets of white paper Scrap sheets of colored construction paper Glue Crayons (optional) 9 x 12 sheets of construction paper (optional).