{"id":358,"date":"2022-10-24T21:46:30","date_gmt":"2022-10-24T21:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1023moderncivilizations\/chapter\/__unknown__-24\/"},"modified":"2023-03-20T21:24:05","modified_gmt":"2023-03-20T21:24:05","slug":"__unknown__-24","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1023moderncivilizations\/chapter\/__unknown__-24\/","title":{"raw":"4.4 IMPRESSIONISM - MONET","rendered":"4.4 IMPRESSIONISM – MONET"},"content":{"raw":"
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Claude Monet<\/h2>\r\n

Claude Monet (1840-1926) was the son of a grocer, and spent his youth in Le Havre, Normandy. His father wanted him to go into the family business and did not want him to become an artist, but his mother was more sympathetic. She died when he was only sixteen and he was sent to live with an aunt. Monet attended the Academie Suisse where he learned the basics of painting but was not noticed for his first works. He spent two years of military service in Algeria and he later said that the bright light and color of North Africa strongly influenced his later art. He began painting large outdoor canvases in the early 1860\u2019s and was influenced by the works of Corot and J.M.W. Turner.<\/p>\r\n

Monet\u2019s early work used thick pigment applied with a flat brush and he left that thick paint visible on the surface of the canvas. He used color in both the bright and shaded areas of his canvas. He used a rainbow palette and disliked black. His works were a moment in time and he sought to capture the essence of light and color and to cause forms to dissolve in light. His work Women in the Garden<\/em> was an attempt to paint portraits in the open air. He was so interested in working out of doors that he had a trench dug in the garden and lowered a huge canvas into it with a pulley. He could then move the canvas up and down so he could reach the top of the canvas when painting it. Monet\u2019s model for all four women was his model Camille, but his focus was not the women but the play of light on the fabric of their dresses. When Monet left in the fall of 1866, probably to escape creditors and life with his family, he left behind 200 paintings which he made sure to mutilate to prevent them from being sold. This picture he took with him to finish in the studio. In 1866 Monet had a child with Camille, which was probably another reason he left his family home. The couple married in 1870 and eventually had two sons. In 1870 Monet traveled to London to look at the works of Turner and study the effects of light and haze in his works. In 1871 Monet moved to Argenteuil near Paris and it was in Argenteuil that Monet painted some of his most famous paintings.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"325\"]\"Oil 4.45 Claude Monet, Women in the Garden<\/em>, oil on canvas, 1866, 100x81\u201d, Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay.1<\/a><\/sup>[\/caption]\r\n

The harbor, bridge and water at Argenteuil offered many opportunities for Monet to experiment with his new found love of the effects of light on water. He wanted to portray the instantaneity of the moment and see the water, light, and color in a single sparkling image. His small dots of color are vibrant and without form. In fact he wanted his forms to dissolve into light. If you stand very close to one of his works all you see are daubs of paint. It is not until you step much further back that the forms come together into a recognizable shape. His canvases are luminous and the colors seem to dance on the surface of the water. The Regatta At Argenteuil is a juxtaposition of blue and orange, red and green, which creates tension.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"590\"]\"Oil 4.46 Claude Monet, Regatta at Argenteuil<\/em>, 1872, oil on canvas, 19x30\u201d, Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay, Paris.2<\/a><\/sup>[\/caption]\r\n

Bridge at Argenteuil<\/span><\/a> 3:25<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

If you receive an error with the link above, use the following link\u00a0https:\/\/www.khanacademy.org\/humanities\/becoming-modern\/avant-garde-france\/impressionism\/v\/monet-the-argenteuil-bridge-1874?modal=1<\/a><\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"574\"]\"Oil 4.47 Claude Monet, Impression Sunrise<\/em>, 1872, oil on canvas, Mus\u00e9e Marmottan Monet, Paris, 19x25\".3<\/a><\/sup>[\/caption]\r\n

It was at Argenteuil that the Impressionist technique was born, but the term Impressionism was applied in a derogatory description by art critics. Monet\u2019s work Impression Sunrise<\/em> was a study of light, mist, and their reflections on water. The critics said it was unfinished and unworthy to be shown in the official Salon. Artworks shown in the official state sponsored Salon were selected by a jury, and many of the artists with new ideas were not chosen to show their work. So instead of waiting, they banded together and set up their own show. They collected money, rented a studio, and advertized their own exhibition. They called themselves the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, and Printmakers. Their work was shown each year from 1874 to 1886. Monet\u2019s Impression Sunrise<\/em> was painted at Le Havre, Normandy near his family home. Notice that the brushstrokes are flat and highly visible. There is not an attempt to justify the paint into recognizable forms. This is not about painting a boat or a sunrise; it is about capturing the momentary light and the atmosphere of the scene.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThe critic Louis Leroy was the first to emphasize the term \u201cimpression\u201d in relation to the new painting, adopting it from Monet\u2019s Impression: Sunrise<\/em> in a satirical dialogue entitled \u201cExhibition of the Impressionists\u201d that was published in the popular illustrated magazine Le Charivari<\/em>. Leroy found Monet\u2019s use of \u201cImpression\u201d in his painting\u2019s title particularly appropriate because it suggested that the work was unfinished according to Academic conventions of representation; that is, it represented a mere impression of the scene, rather than a fully structured and completed work of art. Leroy repeatedly emphasized the term \u201cimpression\u201d in the dialogue and described many of the paintings by Monet and his fellow exhibitors as sloppy and slapdash, going so far as to compare Monet\u2019s Impression: Sunrise<\/em> see<\/strong> figure 4.47<\/strong>, to embryonic wallpaper and Pissarro\u2019s Hoarfrost<\/em> to paint scraped off of a dirty palette.\u201d4<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\r\n\r\n

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So what are the basic tenants of Impressionism? In its purest form it includes the following:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

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