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Claude Monet was born in Paris on November 14, 1840. Monet’s family moved to La Havre, France in 1946. As a young man Monet displayed a natural talent for making caricatures. His friendship with local landscape artist Eugene Boudin was instrumental in Monet’s development as an artist. Boudin was a plein air painter who encouraged the young Monet to paint more landscapes. In order to train his eye as well as his hand Boudin took Monet outdoors to paint in front of nature. Monet would later describe the moment as a breakthrough that would set his destiny as a painter. Boudin was a mentor to Monet, teaching the young artist to see nature’s subtlety.
Monet moved to Paris in 1859. After a short stint in the military Monet would continue his studies against the recommendation of his father. Monet would study at Gleyre’s studio where he met Pierre Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and Frederic Bazille. Monet’s friendships with Johan Barthold Jongkind would also shape the future of his work. Monet was torn between formal studies and his natural instinct toward more spontaneous sketches. This inner conflict between intuitive outdoor painting and more crafted studio works would be a constant dynamic in Monet’s life, and would foreshadow the coming of Impressionism.
Art in France in the 1860’s was undergoing revolutionary changes. The Barbizon painters had declared that the beauty in nature was in itself a valid subject. Landscape paintings did not need contrived compositions or mythic subjects to tell a story. The Barbizon artists felt landscapes painted by a perceptive artist were not secondary to more traditional academic paintings, as many had previously contended.
In Paris, Manet’s “Le Dejeuner sur l’ herbe” and “Olympia”, along with works by Courbet, Monet and others were sowing the seeds of demise in the power of the Salon. Monet worked on two large scale canvases in response to the works of Manet, who he admired, yet hoped to surpass. In “Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe” and “Women in the Garden” Monet would push the limits of his growing talent. The Salon was France’s official annual exhibition of paintings. It had dominated the lives of artists of the time, but was under direct attack from this new generation of artists. Some of these artist’s works were rejected by the Salon. Many of them began proclaiming their independence.
Some of the artists rejected by the academicians of the Salon, later choose to exhibit their works independently at the Salon des Refuses. Monet along with Pierre Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, Eugene Boudin, Paul Cezanne, Berthe Morisot, Edgar Degas and others known as the Societe Anonyme would show their works at the various Salon des Rufuses exhibitions.
Monet married Camille in 1870. Monet painted “Impression: Sunrise” in 1873. This is the painting that would give a name to the style that Monet and his contemporaries were creating. While the term Impressionists was meant as a slight by the art critic Louis Leroy, nonetheless the label would come to be accepted by the artists and public alike. Both the critics and the public were becoming increasingly aware of the power of these so called sketches. Over time Impressionism would become one of the most accepted and respected art movements.
Many Monet paintings in this period included figures in the landscape. In 1870 Monet’s wife Camille dies, Monet moves to Vetheuil in 1878. In 1883 Monet moved to Giverny where Monet would paint his famous flower gardens and water lily pond. The play of light and shadow, the envelope of light that defines objects was the subject. Monet would progress towards painting more plein air landscapes. The seeds planted early on by Boudin, Jongkind and Courbet had come to fruition. Monet was now a master in his own right. In Giverny, his water lily pond and garden would complement his ever increasing obsession with color, light and reflections. His painting skills had been honed by decades of studying nature and painting in plein air.
In the 1890’s Monet would pursue excellence through the painting of series. He would paint the same view repeatedly in varying light conditions. He painted haystacks, poplars, mornings on the Seine and the Rouen Cathedral at different times of the day, in varying weather conditions and seasons. Focusing on fleeting atmospheric effects and the quality of light enveloping the subject. Monet sought to capture what he termed the instantaneity of the moment.
In the 1900’s Monet traveled to London three times to paint. He had been longing to paint along the Thames for some time. Monet found London’s fog to be intoxicating, decalaring “I love London in the Fog”. His paintings of the The Houses of Parliament, The Charing Cross Bridge and the The Waterloo Bridge would be among his finest works. In 1908 Monet would travel to Venice. His paintings of The Grand Canal and Palazzo Contarini are excellent examples of how Monet could simultaneously capture both the light and character of a location.
In 1911 Monet’s second wife Alice dies. Monet would return home to Giverny, where he would spend the balance of his life in his beloved garden. There he would paint outdoors on location, and then refine his works in the studio. This would permit the working of larger canvases as well. His Water Lily paintings would become ever more complex. They combined the external cues of light and form seen by the eye, as well as the complex inner workings of the mind. Monet had become a mature and enlightened artist. As Monet aged his eyesight would falter, but his increasing reliance on more cerebral content would continue to inform his work.
Abstract expressionists and other modern artists would later find inspiration in these works. The rapid, expressionistic brushstrokes, layering, textures and color combinations contained in these later works have an eternal quality that belies description and needs to be felt as well as seen. Only by direct experience does one have the opportunity to fully experience these works of art. Language by contrast is too rudimentary to translate the contents of the Water Lilies paintings, or any of Monet’s paintings for that matter.
The paintings of his flower garden, water lily pond and it’s Japanese bridge would become enduring symbols of an artist who dedicated his life to refining his perception of nature. We are all blessed to have these great paintings which reflect on the meaning of nature, beauty and light. Monet would pass on in 1926 at the age of 86, but as with all great artists, he lives on in his work continuing to enlighten us.
In a society increasing obsessed with isolated details, Monet reminds us that within the subtlety of light is contained a truth; nature and beauty unite us all on a deeper level.
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