A master of color and nuance, he believed the eye should look beyond the superficial to the mystery of nature and the universe. Composition should be less about objects and more about the light surrounding the object. In this way he could establish a motif that defied cold realism and went to the heart of existence.
The artist spent most of his working life in Giverney, France, building a garden that remains intact today. Approximately a hour from Paris, the house and garden stand as a testament to a refined sensibility and an unerring eye. Tourists visit by the bus load, all longing to absorb the beauty that was the everyday life of the artist. For both artists and gardeners, he is the sublime example.
Two Impressionists of the nineteenth century are today considered the masters of modernism; Claude Monet and Paul Cezanne. Both continue to be revered by contemporary artists, emulated and studied. Both lived a long life in the countryside, painting what was familiar to them, not with anything remotely mannered, but with a fresh idea that held the future in its sight.
Monet was a solitary man and indeed, said nothing mattered to him but his paintings and perhaps a few flowers in his garden. He did not frequent cafes or hang and discuss artistic theory among his peers. He had little use for Paris. His life is what he painted and he painted what was his life. He wanted only to immerse himself in color. He said color pursued him relentlessly, even in his sleep.
His series of twenty paintings of Rouen Cathedral sum up his vast knowledge of color and form. Rendered at all times of day and night, each acquires a transcendent motif that belies objective viewing. In this he created a realm of diverse perception. While the building remains solid, the air around it shimmers with changing hues that defy the eye to perceive complacently. Perception is transformed.
The Impressionists were able to grasp the fleeting nature of weather. They painted a spectacle derived from a heightened awareness. Though his subject may have been nothing more defined than the sun, it was the effect of sunlight on an object as simple as a haystack that was the real subject. The earth was rendered in its ever-changing great mystery.
While others rendered trees, fields, buildings and paths, Monet painted the air surrounding the scene. It frustrated him at times; this subject could never be completely captured. In this way he moved toward abstraction and away from exact realism. What he was attempting could probably not be mastered with paint on canvas. He did not care; it was the process that enthralled him.
Monet lived to 86, and never stopped working even with fading eyesight. Despite painting certain subjects repeatedly, he never grew bored or formulaic with his interpretations. His paintings were startling in their size, ambition and scope. The genius of Claude Monet paintings is not in their tricks of realism, but it the ephemeral vision that remains today, fascinating, miraculous.
Source: http://aae4u.blogspot.com/2013/01/claude-monet-paintings-rendered-then.html
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