Artist Investigation: Opinion Essay on Claude Monet

“Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand when it is simply necessary to love.”

Introduction.

Claude Monet was born on the 14th of November 1840, in Paris, France and, unfortunately, passed away on the 5th of December 1926. Monet was a famous French painter, who had created the well-known art movement; impressionism. Throughout his life, his art career was conflicted, as he struggled to cope with depression, poverty and illness.

The Beginning.

At the age of 5, Monet despised being restricted to a classroom as he had gained an interest to the outdoors and also developed a love for drawing. Monet would constantly fill his sketchbooks with drawings of people, his teachers and caricatures. His mother, Louise was supportive of her son’s artistic abilities, whereas his father wanted him to be involved with the family shipping business, this caused Monet to become closer to his mother over the years, who had died when he was 12 (causing him to suffer greatly). In 1859, Monet decided to move to Paris to pursue his art career, enrolling into the Académie Suisse, where he had met the artist Camille Pissarro, who had become his close friend for many years. Monet decided to leave Académie Suisse to serve in the military in 1861, only to be discharged a year later due to health reasons. Claude Monet decided to return to Paris and studied with Charles Gleyre, who introduced him to several other artists, including Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and Frederic Bazille, forming a friendship group. He also received support and advice from Johann Barthold Jongkind, who was a major influencer on Monet.

In 1866, Monet had met his first lover (who he had married in 1870) Carmille Doncieux, who was a muse for him as she would let him paint her numerous times throughout her life. Claude and Camille suffered a severe fallout around the birth of their first son, Jean. Monet began to drown in terrible financial straits, his father not wanting to help him. One year after his son was born, Claude Monet had attempted suicide in 1868 by drowning himself in the Seine River.

In 1872, he decided to settle into Argenteuil to begin developing his own technique. Monet helped fellow artist form the Société Anonyme des Artistes, Peintres, Sculpteurs and Graveurs, as a substitute to the salon and exhibited their works together. As the result of Monet suffering from waves of depression and self-doubt, he would sometimes get frustrated with his work, destroying a number of paintings (which estimated to around 500 works).

His Art Career.

In 1874, Claude Monet sought to capture the essence of nature itself through the use of strong colours and bold, short brushstrokes, making himself and his contemporary art to drift away from the blended colours. Between the 1880’s and 1890’s, he had begun to paint the serial painting which had made him become well-known. Monet began to travel to popular destinations, including the Rouen Cathedral and the Thames River to find other sources of inspiration.

A year later, his wife had become extremely ill during he pregnancy with their second son, Michel. Before she passed away in 1890, Monet decided to move in with Ernest and Alice Hoschede, who were accompanied by 6 other children. After the death of his wife, Monet had started to paint a grim set of artworks (known as the Ice Drift Series). However, Monet quickly moved on as he grew an interest towards Alice, who eventually had become his lover. They got married in 1892, but, sadly, his beloved Alice passed away in 1911.

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The End.

Monet had become depressed because not only did his wife recently past, he was also developing cataracts in his right eye. Despite his push-backs, however, there was still a great deal of interest in his works. He had created a final series of 12 waterlily paintings, and later on decided to undergo surgery for ailment as both of his eyes were now seriously affected by cataracts.

On the 5th of December 1926, Claude Monet died peacefully in his home in Giverny, France. People Believed Monet had achieved far more than he thought during his life; he helped change the world of art by shaking off the settlements of the past, opening a door for further abstraction in art.

“my only merit lied in having painted directly in front of nature, seeking to render my impressions of the most fleeting effects.”

Artwork Analysis.

In Giverny, Monet loved to paint outdoors in the gardens that he had help create. The Japanese-style bridge and waterlily pond were the subject of several series.

In the artwork, you are able to identify a Japanese-style bridge that is surrounded by extreme vegetation. The artwork gives of a peaceful scenery with as the waterlilies in the pond stand out. The vegetation at the top of the painting appears to be lighter, indicating that the sun is shining onto the trees.

Waterlilies and Japanese Bridge | Oil Paint on Canvas | Canvas – 90cm x 90cm | Painted 1899

In this artwork, Monet compresses the space. He had used the Japanese bridge to anchor his composition, making the bridge appear as if it is levitating above the pond. The style of painting used in this painting is impressionism because in the upper half of the painting, he uses a range of greens, grey-blues and yellows to represent the vegetation, whereas in the lower half he uses an array of pale blues, greens and pinks to convey the waterlilies in the pond. The horizontal brushstrokes of the waterlilies and pads interfere with the vertical strokes of the greens, whites and yellows of the trees and vegetation in the reflection of the pond to make parts of it stand out and make it less confusing. Monet had created several other artworks of this Japanese bridge and waterlily pond. Despite the paintings sharing the same setting, they were all different as they showed the scenery in different times of day (such as sunset/rise and midday) and more. This had caused Monet to take an interest in the effects of light.[image: Image result for Artwork analysis of Claude Monet's Japanese bridge and water lilies materials used]

My Opinion.

The way the colours are used in this artwork and the technique he has used to paint is soft to the eye and comes across as relaxing. This artwork makes me feel peaceful and appears as unreal, like a dream. The way the trees reflect off the waterlily pond makes it seem as if it’s infinite. Both sides of the bridge are covered with bushes, so it comes across like it is floating above the water. The relationship between these things makes it seem like a fantasy.

I believe that Claude Monet was very successful in what he was trying to achieve in his works. As he said; ‘Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand when it is simply to love.’ He tried to get people to look at an artwork and discuss about what you love, not what you understand.