Claude Monet

sunrise

Impressionist Artist
Born: 14 November 1840 Paris, France Died: December 1926

Impressionism art is most advent to modern photography as it captures human vision as it is.
the late 1800s when the Impressionist ventured out of their studios into nature to investigate and capture the effects of sunlight and different times of days on a subject The Impressionists relaxed the boundary between subject and background so that the effect of an Impressionist painting often resembles a snapshot, a part of a larger reality captured as if by chance.
Fishing Boats of Pourville 1882

Monet, The Beach at Trouville, 1870

Impressionist Art Impressionist recreated the sensation in the eye that views the subject, rather than recreating the subject as Renaissance art did. These artists abandoned the traditional landscape palette of muted greens, browns, and gray's and instead painted in a lighter, sunnier, more brilliant key.

Woman with a Parasol, 1875

They began by painting the play of light upon water and the reflected colours of its ripples, trying to reproduce the manifold and animated effects of sunlight and shadow and of direct and reflected light that they observed.

the studio boat(1874)

In their efforts to reproduce immediate visual impressions as registered on the retina, they abandoned the use of greys and blacks in shadows as inaccurate and used complementary colours instead

 Pure black is rarely used by the Impressionist painters. Monet obtained an appearance of black by combining several colours: blues, greens and reds. He eliminated almost completely black from his painting, even in the shadows. In the Red Boats, Argenteuil, shadows are purple.

Impressionist Artist
Prior to the Impressionist movement painters tend to do portraits as well as landscapes had usually been painted indoors. The Impressionists found that they could capture the momentary and transient effects of sunlight by painting en plein air. Painting realistic scenes of modern life, they portrayed overall visual effects instead of details. en plein air is a French expression which means "in the open air", and is particularly used to describe the act of painting outdoors. Painting realistic scenes of modern life, they portrayed overall visual effects instead of details

Boats, buildings, incidental figures, and the pebble beach are swiftly brushed in as flat colour patterns, with little attention paid to their weight or solidity. The picture was evidently painted on the beach and not in a studio. Grains of sand and shell have got mixed up in the oil paint. The picture is almost comparable to a family snapshot: an informal recording of a private moment in time, never intended

Sand in the oil paint, showing that this work was executed on the beach.

Impressionist techniques
Short, thick strokes of paint are used to quickly capture the essence of the subject, rather than its details. The paint is often applied impasto. Colours are applied side-by-side with as little mixing as possible, creating a vibrant surface. The optical mixing of colours occurs in the eye of the viewer. Grays and dark tones are produced by mixing complementary colours. In pure Impressionism the use of black paint is avoided Painting in the evening to get effets de soir - the shadowy effects of the light in the evening or twilight.

Complementary Colors

Renoir's The Skiff (Ya Lole), he places an orange boat against cobalt blue water. Orange and blue were understood to be opposite one another in the color spectrum, and by placing them next to each other, each looked deeper and brighter

Monet, Lavacourt Under Snow 1878

Landscapes, and scenes from modern urban and suburban life painted in bright, pure colours are typical. Forms in their pictures lost their clear outlines and became dematerialized, shimmering and vibrating in a re-creation of actual outdoor conditions. And finally, traditional formal compositions were abandoned in favour of a more casual and less contrived disposition of objects within the picture frame

Monet, The Water Lilly Pond, 1899

Monet was plainly not trying to reproduce faithfully the scene before him as examined in detail but rather attempting to record on the spot the impression that relaxed, momentary vision might receivewhat is seen rather than what is known, with all its vitality and movement.

Process of the Human Mind

Monet,Bathers at Grenouilere, 1869

Even more significant to the Impressionists was an interest in the way in which the human mind processes what it sees. When we look at a landscape, or a crowd of people, we do not instantly see every face, or leaf in detailed focus, but as a mass of colour and light. Impressionist painters tried to express this experience.

Composition & Light

As he was getting older his paintings became more and more interesting, because he started to experiment with the light and water. He liked painting water reflecting light, and often he painted the same object many times in different hours of the day, as the light changed. Monet worked on "series" paintings, in which a subject was depicted in varying light and weather conditions. His series exhibited as such was of water lilies at his pond in Giverny , painted from different points of view and at different times of the day

Water lilies, 1897-1899 Water-Lilies, 1914-1917 White and yellow Water Lilies, (1915 -1917)

Water Lilies, 1920-1926

Water Lilies, 1904 Water Lilies, 1916, Water-Lily Pond, c.1915-1926,

 He was using the short brush strokes, which often looked rather like spots of paint, not lines. For this reason his paintings seemed to some people messy and unfinished. When you looked at his painting from a short distance you couldn't see what it was, but if you stepped away you could see a beautiful scene. This was a completely new way of painting that became the mark of Impressionism.

Claude Monet Paintings

left to right, top to bottom order:

Studio boat 1874 Jean Monet 1872 Blue House Zaandam 1871 Spring Flowers 1864 House Of Parliament Sunset 1901 Stormy Seascape 1867 Sailing Argenteuil 1874 Bathing at La Grenouilerre 1869 Storm of the Belle Ile coast 1886 Robec stream Rouen 1872 Sunset Lavacort;winter effect 1880 Windmills Zaandam 1871

Claude Monet ,The Cliffs at Etretat, 1885

Monet, Sisley, Morisot, and Pissarro may be considered the "purest" Impressionists, in their consistent pursuit of an art of spontaneity, sunlight, and colour

Camille Pissarro The Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning, 1897