Monet
He left behind 500 sketches in his lifetime
More than 2,000 oil paintings and 2,700 letters
Footprints stretch from the Avenue de Paris to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea
From France to London, Venice, Norway,
Traveled around the world to sketch and left countless works.
【1】
Lunch on the Grass
Monet, 25, painted a 20-foot-long masterpiece in Shei, "Lunch on the Grass" (4.5 ×6 meters). At that time, Courbet was also painting in Shei, and he liked Monet very much, often visiting him and suggesting changes to "Lunch on the Grass". After the painting was completed, Monet regretted listening to Courbet's opinion, was very dissatisfied with the work, and decided not to send it to the salon for exhibition. When he left Shei, he mortgaged the painting because he could not pay the rent, but unfortunately the house was damaged due to the dampness of the house. The "Lunch on the Grass" we see today is actually a "draft" created by Monet to complete a huge oil painting, but even if it is a "draft", it is still 1.3 meters high and 1.8 meters wide. Judging from the subject matter and composition of this painting, it must have been inspired by Manet's "Lunch on the Grass", or it may have been intended to compete with Manet.
In 1865, Monet first met Carmey and asked her to be a model for a giant oil painting he was planning at the time, Lunch on the Grass. The first woman on the left side of the picture is drawn with Kamei as a model.
The painting was done outdoors, so compared with Manet's Lunch on the Grass, it is indeed more vivid in depicting the vividness of the outer light and the true nature of the scene. In the painting, the sunlight sprinkles on the figures and the ground scenery through the trees, which is transparent and brilliant, which is refreshing.
Monet used impressionist light and shadow techniques to depict gentlemen and ladies idling in the meadow. The painter uses the dark shade of the trees as a background to set off the men, women and food on the white cloth in the foreground, reflecting the holiday lunch of summer leisure. A couple in the back was about to get up and leave, and the green leaves in the strong sunlight appeared unusually translucent, not only pointing out the hot summer season, but also adding color to the picture. The scenery and characters are very vivid and moving. The use of external light brings colorful and fresh and refreshing effects to the picture.
Monet's 1865 Lunch on the Grass is a tribute to Manet's 1863 work of the same name. In order to truthfully depict the effects of light and shadow, he dug a large pit in the ground and created in the pit. Although the work has an accurate depiction of the characters, the real color is the leaves in the background, which appear transparent green in the backlight, and the layers from yellow-green to dark green are extremely rich, and Monet explains that each leaf in this painting is a model's face for him
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【2】
"Sunrise impressions"
Sunrise Impressions France Monet Oil on canvas 48× width 63 cm Collection of the Mamonda Museum in Paris
The painting depicts Monet of the port of Le Havre: the sea is orange-yellow or lilac under the shroud of the morning sun. The reddish red of the sky is rendered by various color blocks, and the waves of water are composed of thick and thin brushstrokes of different lengths. The three boats appeared blurry in a mist of thinly painted dots of color. The people and things on the boat can still be faintly distinguished, and they can also feel the boat swaying slowly. Factory chimneys in the distance, cranes on big ships... All of this is something that the painter sees from a window and paints it. With his brisk and jumping brushstrokes, Monet shows the impression of water and light and smoke waves.
Monet painted many paintings on water subjects, the most famous of which is this painting depicting the rising sun and the misty harbor. The painter depicts a foggy morning in the port of Le Havre. The red sun refracted by the morning fog forms a world of gray-green sensation, which is real and illusory, it changes with the sunlight every moment, and the painter uses a magical brush to perpetuate this momentary impression on the canvas, making it eternal. The painting was exhibited in the first "Independent" exhibition on April 15, 1874, and leroix, a journalist for the magazine "Noise", wrote a review article on the painting, from which "Impressionism" got its name. Monet loved nature, and the vast fields, the babbling water, and the ever-changing sky were all objects of his paintings.
【3】
"Water Lilies"
Water Lilies France Monet Oil on Canvas 89 × 92 cm in the Denver Museum of Art
After settling in Giverny, 43, Monet built a pond in the courtyard and bred water lilies in the pond, which became the main object of his depictions in his later years. This "Water Lilies" is an early small work by Monet when he was 64 years old.
One of Monet's most important works in his later years was the rendition Of Water Lilies. It is a magnificent epic, the most brilliant "Ninth Symphony" of his life. After 1880, Monet became estranged from other Impressionists and built a small garden in Giverny where he lived to paint. He likes to combine water with air and a certain mood with an artistic mood, which produces the "Water Lilies" group painting. Along the water, the beautiful water lilies expand into the distance of the lake, and the painter uses the reflection of the tree to set off the layers of flowers, which is a very creative idea. Monet threw his whole body and mind into the pond and his water lilies, which became the subject of his later depictions. He hardly left the subject for the next 27 years.
【4】
The Garden of WeiteImonet
Waite Imone Garden
【5】
"Kamei in Japanese Kimono"
Compared with many of Monet's previous and even later works, the style of "Kamei in Japanese Kimono" is unique and even very different. Monet's Impressionist landscape paintings, with the color changes under the outdoor natural light as their main pursuit effect, so some people call it the "outer light painting school", and this "Kamei Monet in Japanese Kimono" is obviously completed indoors, the reliable light source on the whole painting, mainly from the window on the right, lacks the previous direct sunlight from the outdoors. Second, in general, due to the non-direct light, the color of the indoor painting is more neutral, and the color of this painting is extremely thick and violent, indicating that this is the effect that the painter deliberately pursues. Third, unlike Monet's previous treatment of the details of the work, this painting is very meticulous in its treatment of the characters, the pattern of the clothes, and even the details of the fan in the background, which is also inconsistent with Monet's previous style. Fourth, and more importantly, the exotic themes that the painting deals with are more abrupt in Monet's entire painting tradition. Japanese elements such as kimonos, Japanese tuan fans, folding fans, tatami mats, ukiyo-e katsuhimes, and Noh grimaces constitute the main content of this painting.
【6】
"The Woman Holding the Parasol"
The Woman with the Parasol is a 1886 painting by Monet in memory of his deceased wife, Kamei. The figure is very blurry, even the facial features and expressions can not be seen, but with the direction of the stacking of brushstrokes, you can feel the breeze blowing on the grassland and the pulsating sunlight on the woman's silk scarf. When Camey died of illness in 1879 at the age of 37, Monet painted The Dying Carmey in the same year, which conveyed the sadness of losing his beloved wife with melancholy tones and chaotic brushwork. But I always felt that Monet loved painting more than women who loved herself. He once described his feelings when he painted the painting: "In front of the hospital bed of my dearest woman, I found myself instinctively wandering around this muran face, looking for the color brought by death, observing the distribution and layering of color, I have taken the initiative to meet the collision of color. "When his wife died, he was able to deconstruct and analyze so calmly.
【7】
The Capitol in Winter
The Houses of Parliament in winter
【8】
Poplar Trees on the Banks of the Uput River
(View the poplar trees on the banks of the Uput River from the Marshlands)
The scene in Monet's vision is innocent and natural, expressing the true feelings of the heart; the fusion of objects and images in his writing reflects that all things have an aura, even if a tree and a stone are not lacking in vitality, and every line can penetrate the movement of human life. In short, painting is the trace of the heart, And What Monet pursues is an artistic artistic conception of natural beauty and natural beauty, a realm from appreciating beauty to understanding beauty and finally transcending beauty.
【9】
"Elephant Trunk on the West Side of Elephant Trunk Mountain"
(Cliffs of Etretat)
Elephant trunk on the west side of Elephant Trunk Hill (Cliffs of Etretat)
Also known as The Cliffs of Etretat, the lime cliffs of Ettat stand on the coast of Normandy and have been represented on canvas by many painters of the eighteenth century because of the tallness and strangeness of its image. Among the many oil paintings on this scene, the Impressionist painter Monet's "Cliffs of Etelta" is the most famous.
From the composition, it is a banner work, with a massive arched cliff occupying two-thirds of the width of the upper left of the frame, and the left rock wall is cut vertically along the left end of the canvas. The cliff thus shows a strange, huge visual impact and a distinct sense of sublime.
From the perspective of color shaping method, the painter uses freehand brushwork to express the long-range image of the sky and the sea, and uses realistic brushwork to express the back of the cliff and the close-up image of the sea. To set off the backlit surface of the cliff and the powerful real scene of the near-view sea surface.
The painter chose the backlit surface of the scene to represent the scene, showing its color expression ability. In the backlit surface of the large area of cold tones, the colors are rich and thick, and the brushwork is neat and rigorous, giving people a sense of solemnity and sedimentation, and you need to hold your breath and be nervous when appreciating. Against this backdrop, the sunlight-exposed cliff colours are warm and warm. Scenes in the sun and waves in the near sea are rough, jumping and passionate with pens, in stark contrast to the expression of the rigorous sky and backlit cliffs. The performance of this part makes the whole picture image rich and vivid, rich in color and full of beauty.
【10】
The Women in the Garden
The women in the garden
The unexpected success of The Woman in Green led the young Monet to be ambitious and determined to paint another large-scale oil painting, The Woman in the Garden (2.55 × 2.05 meters), in which the images of the three women were modeled by Kamei. It is said that in order to paint this oil painting, Monet dug a trench in the garden, erected a huge picture board in the trench, and then stood on the edge of the trench and painted with his pen, which showed the scale. Unfortunately, Monet's painting was not adopted by the annual salon exhibition at that time, and the reason for this is difficult for us to understand today.
In 1866, Monet created The Woman in the Garden, the most important piece of this period. The creation was carried out in the courtyard of the rented house. Because of the large size of the painting, in order to facilitate the stroke of the brush, he dug a trench in the courtyard and lowered the canvas. The 4 women in the picture are all filled by a model, so to constantly change her attire, hairstyle, and posture, the painter needs to sketch separately in advance and then combine them together. The model was Camey (later Mrs. Monet), whom she met monet in 1864-1865.
In order to paint in the same sunlight as possible, sometimes the painter had to stop and wait for the opportunity. In order to highlight the four beautiful women in light-colored dresses and make them more gorgeous, a large amount of dark green is used on the screen, especially the woman sitting on the ground in front of her with a white skirt and a parasol, on her body there is both the sunlight from the forest and the shadows of the trees, which is indeed a true reproduction. Although quite novel, the work was not selected by the Salon of 1867.
"Woman in Green (Kaméj)" is a figure painting done in a studio; "Church of St. Germena Ou zehua" is a landscape painting painted in outside light. The painting "Women in the Garden" combines these two methods of observation. The picture here is basically arranged according to a photograph, which shows that Monet did not mind subordinating the composition to the contingency of natural scenes. The photograph should have made Monet think of the far-reaching effects of space, but Monet didn't mind it either. All that interested him was the contrast between plane and color. It is precisely because the figures in this painting do not have a sense of three-dimensionality and undulations that the colors can shine and fully display their diversity here. The floral ornaments on women's dresses, the flowers on the lawn, the leaves that protrude in the midst of large thick greens, the sky revealed from between the gaps in the leaves, the light that penetrates the shadows, all this creates the effect of a colorful mosaic. But the painting lacks a tonal effect: light and shadow fall on the same plane that the figure occupies, so that light cannot penetrate the human body and cannot become a physical entity. Large patches of intrinsic color play too much of a role. All of these together are not so much a true representation of what is seen as a formula, but this formula is precisely a program of unprecedented boldness. As soon as the formulaization of this program disappears, the light will seep into the middle tone, life will penetrate every stroke, and the unity of the whole will be formed, at which time art will become a flower, and Impressionism will be fully mature.
【11】
"The Woman with the Umbrella in the Seaside Park"
Woman with an umbrella in a waterfront park (Kamei)
The composition of this painting is on the upper side, and the little boy on the left and the woman with the umbrella form a triangular composition, which plays a role in balancing the picture. With green, blue and brown as the main colors, the color is fresh and bright, the color of the characters' clothes is unified with the background, there is no clear shadow and contour line, the brush strokes are bold and casual, and the skirt and grass are full of movement.
The whole picture gives people the feeling of a hazy dream scene, and the author uses the size ratio and the method of covering the occlusion to cleverly distinguish the spatial relationship between women, children, and the sky, and the expression is very good. He has captured light and shadow and the momentary impression sensations in his paintings very well. The woman's face and upper body are painted in darker colors, indicating that they are under the shadow of the parasol, and the shadow areas on the entire parasol, face, dress and grass contrast with the light and shadow on the light side of the woman's dress (the same is true for the younger son), and the woman's swinging turban and the crepe pleats on the long skirt also enhance the dynamics of the picture.
More than any painter, Monet focused on capturing fleeting scenes and did not pay attention to the contours of the objects themselves. He said, "Light is the protagonist in the painting." He also described how he tried to paint "the beauty of the air ... But this is impossible." Monet devoted his life to painting things that could not be painted, and in this painting there were floating clouds in the sky, and we could almost feel the breeze blowing the floating clouds.
In 1875, this painting is actually the most widely known of all of Monet's paintings about Carmey. At that time, Monet was probably also in the most "comfortable" time of life, with a wife and young children, young and powerful, although his career was not successful, but he had been moving in a very promising direction, although life was not rich, but the pressure was not very large, so Monet's paintings in this period were invariably full of sunshine, flowers, anger and vitality. The development of things, it seems that always like to joke with everyone, today, your life is smooth, you probably feel, maybe you can continue like this, but suddenly there is a change, there are ups and downs, not to mention, the pain is that sometimes it often becomes very miserable. Who would have thought that this sunny young woman in the picture, only four years later, would suddenly lose her life due to illness, and fate likes to torture people like this. Therefore, as the most insignificant of all sentient beings, each of us should have more sense of distress, when you feel happy, even plain, think more about the ups and downs and misfortunes that may occur in life, maybe your feelings of happiness at the moment will be deeper. That being said, who can really afford to remove the ladder in time to leave the spring on the roof of life when the spring is intoxicated?
【12】
Haystack on Winter Mornings
Haystacks on winter mornings
Impressionists believe that reality is a fleeting visual impression, breaking through the previous painting stereotypes and directly using color to express vision. "Haystack" uses the technique of juxtaposing solid color points that Monet is good at, so that the viewer can obtain a unique visual experience of color mixing and oscillation. Haystack is part of Monet's thematic painting series, which records the color of haystacks in light at different times of the day. Impressionist painters emphasized the visual impression of the moment, and their paintings expressed the impression of a glimpse, contrary to the previous concept of painting that pursued precision and realism. If you want to find a realistic side in Impressionist painting, look at it from a distance. But what appeals to Impressionist painting is its hazyness and subtlety of color changes. Haystack, its light and shadow effect is very beautiful, in fact it is a color impression, at first glance, it seems to be a five-year-old child's letter pen graffiti. No details. Doesn't mean it's really graffiti! Monet was not content only to be able to paint what he saw and to paint in the way he saw it; he wanted to create a unique effect that seemed impossible in painting.
In fact, the theme of "Haystack" has been thought of as early as 1888. This kind of scenery is only available in autumn. So he painted from autumn until early spring of the following year, constantly observing the changes in its light. A total of 24 paintings were painted before and after. There are both single-frame and grouped ones. The angles are also different, manifested in the image of the haystack under different time hours and changes in different lights. The picture seems monotonous, and in the face of several piles of hay, the painter has a deep sense of color. At first he thought that it would be enough to paint this pile of hay with two canvases, one for cloudy days and one for sunny days. However, because the light was constantly changing on the haystack, he had to go home again and again to get a new canvas. The reason why he was so enthusiastic about the change of light on this object was, in his own words, to record "the true impression of a particular natural landscape, rather than to go out and paint a general landscape." From Monet's painting "Haystack", it can be seen that the source of inspiration for the impressionist painter's entire painting, that is, the change of light and color inspired his artistic enthusiasm. He once wrote to a friend: "The sun is setting so fast, I can't catch up with it." ”
The protagonists of this painting are not mountains, not fields, not even haystacks, but those brilliant and bright lights. Claude Monet, the founder of Impressionism, especially liked to paint light, and even spent his whole life looking for ways to reflect the beauty of light and air. More than any painter, Monet loved capturing fleeting scenes and then recording them with magical brushes. It's like this painting Haystack. At the moment when the sun shines, what is the sky, the mountain, the house, and the haystack? Through his own meticulous observation, Mernay painted the changes in these objects. He does not pay attention to the contours of the object itself, because light is the protagonist.
【13】
Venice Grand Canal
This is Monet's classic work of using Impressionist techniques to express the misty reflection of the water city of Venice.
【14】
The Waves
Monet represents the cascading tumbling and changing of the waves on the Coast of France, with strong colors and dynamics, while forming a contrast with the floating clouds above" and "combination of dynamic and static".
【15】
Saint-Lazare Train Station
in Saint-Lazare Train Station
Painted in 1877, the "Gare Saint-Lazare" is a painting depicting the Paris railway station, which is an actual "impression" of a scene of daily life. Monet was fascinated by the effect of light shooting through the glass roof into the vapor smoke clouds, and the shape of the locomotives and carriages that emerged from the chaos. Monet believed that the miraculous effects of light and air were paramount, and he cleverly balanced the tone and color of the painting, which was an excellent representation of power, space, contrast and movement.
Everyone who studies the development of Monet's creative activity will find that if the original fate contributed to Monet's development trend, then it was he who later created his own destiny. The reason why Monet became the founder of the "Impressionism" style and was recognized by his friends as the "head of the class" was because of Monet's unshakable strong will. As we all know, Impressionism means a change in the way we feel and see, it changes not only painting, but also sculpture, music, literature, and even today, it has not lost its influence and still changes us.
【16】
《Nihonbashi》
Nihonbashi
A Japanese-style arched wooden bridge painted green spans the pond, which surrounds and protects the pond with water calamus, lily, ornamental plants of the rhododendron family, and hydrangeas. Pink water lilies float on the surface of the water. Willows and wisteria cascade straight into the water, making the water darker and bluer. It was not until 1895 that Monet painted the first paintings of ponds and Nihonbashi. From 1898 onwards, he painted several different versions of the same subject, more than a dozen of which were exhibited in an exhibition of his new works at the Durand-Luell Gallery.