Amanda Curtis 07/11/14 Color and Design Claude Monet The Four Trees Claude Monet’s The Four Trees is an oil painting which encompasses the very roots of impressionism. This specific movement occurred in the 19th century, with Monet, along with Pierre Auguste Renoir and Camille Pissarro, at the frontlines of its creation. The term impressionist was coined many years after the beginning of the movement when a newspaper criticized Monet’s Impression: Sunrise (1872) and called artists of the movement “impressionists”. While impressionism caused a shift away from principles that began in the Renaissance period, it was born from illusionist values. Illusionism was composed of pieces of art that were similar to windows, in order to view the natural world. It eventually evolved into an almost anti­illusionist style of art: there was a focus on a two­dimensional perspective that embraced its flatness. Monet’s art draws attention to this radical shift in art, leading to the evolution of modern art. On November 14th, 1840, Claude Monet was born in France, where he lived for five years. His family relocated to Le Havre where he had become known as a caricaturist at the age of 15. It wasn’t until he met his mentor, Eugène Delacroix, that he began to focus on landscape, reluctantly at first. Gardening soon became a part of Monet’s life, which was reflected in his paintings. While Monet was painting his Poplars series, including The Four Trees, the village decided to sell the trees at a local auction. In order to complete his paintings, Monet paid a local lumberman to make sure the trees were not cut down until after he finished, Monet’s service in the military from 1860­1862 led to experimentation and variety in his work. It also allowed him to make connections with other artists, such as Renoir. Subject, content, and form­ the three components of art­ are easily identifiable in this impressionist painting. As the title describes, the subject is the four trees along the Epte River in Giverny. The trees begin in the midground, drawing the eyes attention. The content of the painting focuses of a tranquil, relaxing mood. The cool colors, instead of evoking a more dismal reaction, create a sort of peacefulness. The painting expresses Monet’s love for nature and his passion and joy he finds from botany and the natural world. The form consists of the basic elements of art: line, texture, color, shape, and value. Monet uses thin lines, with only some of them being more defined. The trunks of the trees have sharp, clear lines, causing an emphasis on the subject and creating a defined shape. However, the trees in the background have more blurred lines, lessing their importance. The reflection of the grass and trees in the water also have blurred lines, giving an illusion of ripples in it. The way Monet applied paint on the background trees and the grass gave texture to the two­dimensional piece. Monet used a majority of cool colors, using mostly different intensities of the same hues (blue and violet) with a touch of warmer colors. Monet did not use very many different values since there were no shadows in the painting, an impressionistic component which makes the painting seem more two­dimensional. Amanda Curtis 07/11/14 Color and Design Claude Monet The five elements of art are organized in seven principles of organization. The Four Trees is a mostly harmonic painting. The cool colors all work together and appear to blend with one another, creating unity in the image. The grass is composed of many colors, including greens, blues, and violets, but the individual colors do not pop out, making the whole scene appear more natural. The entire painting has a blue violet tint to it, with even the trunks having blue violet as a main color. This harmony is what causes the calming mood expressed by the painting. There is a little bit of variety in the painting, however. The trees in the background are mostly values of yellow and red, which are complementary to the violets and the faint greens. The colors push each other apart, causing the background trees to pop out, creating some depth to the image. The Four Trees has an asymmetrical balance. While the four trees initially create an illusion of symmetry, they are not mirror images of each other and the background trees are unbalanced. Dominance and proportion go hand in hand in the painting. The four trees in the midground are a much larger scale than the trees in the background. This highlights the importance and the significance of the four main trees as well as creates more depth. There is a clear path or movement in the image. The eyes are instantly drawn to the trees in the midground, causing vertical movement along the trunks and their reflections, and then they move horizontally along the river bank and across the top of the background trees. While the image overall is more two­dimensional, the depth created by the background trees shows the shift towards more modern styles of art. The painting reflects the serenity and complacency nature evoked from Monet. Works Cited Claude Monet. (1998). In Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale. Retrieved from http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?failOverType=& query=&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&display­query=&mode=view&displayGroupNa me=Reference&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighlighting=true&displayGroups=&sortBy=&searc h_within_results=&p=BIC1&action=e&catId=GALE%7CAAA000035233&activityType=&scanId= &documentId=GALE%7CK1631004606&source=Bookmark&u=nysl_me_labinmer&jsid=0686f8a 36f9a1e7ffc180549b5e06c81 Claude Monet: The Four Trees. (December 2010). In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works­of­art/29.100.110. Monet, C. (1891). The four trees [Painting]. Retrieved from http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the­collection­online/search/437121?=&imgNo=0&tabNa me=gallery­label .