Claude Monet Essay, Research Paper

Claude MonetIn 1840, Claude Monet was born in Paris. Throughout his life since childhood Monet was in love with Mature. A quote from Monet himself, During my youth I was a vagabond: it is as if I were born undisciplined. Even when I was a small boy I could never be made to obey a rule. The little I learned I learned myself (Rouart and Rey 9). As a young boy, drawing was very appealing to Monet and was encouraged by his aunt. Soon he was well known all over Le Havre as a caricaturist. He was very good caricaturist. Shortly after his name got around, Monet received a commission for his portraits. He then began to price his paintings to start making money off of his work finally. He met a girl named Camille Doncieux, whom he was quite fond of. They began a relationship shortly after meeting. In 1867 she became pregnant and gave birth to Jean Monet, Claude Monet s first son. Finally in 1870, Claude and Camille wed in Paris in the summer time. Eight years later the couple s second son was born, Michael. The couple now had two healthy boys, but Camille s health wasn t in as good of shape. She became very ill and passed away in 1879 (House 5). Monet decided to paint portraits in the area in which he lived. Monet s exceptional decade was 1880 (House 12). Over time his interests and subjects changed a lot. He became very interested in man-made landscapes. These were absolutely fascinated by Monet. He showed great interest in his new ideas. Pure nature was the one new fascination he came about in 1880. He was concentrating on a concept of painting. Effects of light and the atmosphere gained his complete attention. A decade later in Vignolo 21890, this became his main concern. Physical objects in is scenes were subordinated to the ever-changing envelope of colored air which surrounded them and brought them to life in his work. His new obsession dominated his thinking in his work. Monet s first important painting of 1864-5 shows today s popular conventions(House 15). A great artist differs from an ordinary painter in that, at sometime in his life, often after a period of doubt and uncertainty, he is reborn, instead of going on in the same way that won him an audience, success, or celebrity (Rouart and Rey 91). This is a quote that I find very true and interesting. It s almost like the change from high school to college in a sense. Many people that I know are so much different now than from in high school. They have in a sense gone through a rebirth, and found a different direction than the one that made them popular in high school. I don t really know if this is a great example of an analogy in regards to Monet, but it is something that jumped into my mind. That is what I think made Monet so great is that it didn t matter if he changed his style that made him so popular, he felt happy and creative with the change and that is all that matters. His ability to stay true to himself is what fascinates me. Water Lilies is shows Monet s idea of rebirth probably better than any other portrait. Monet in my mind is the painter that illustrates the idea of rebirth the best. His first Water Lilies appeared with the new century ( Rouart and Rey 91). This painting and Monet s creativity is what drew my attention to him. Each portrait is so simple it seems and yet very different.

Impressionism lets one truly see the surroundings of the world you live in. The senses play an important role and must be maximized. Monet was one of the most Vignolo 3visual painters ever to have lived, but he didn t look at things indifferently. He painted what he love to see, and his work really is a statement of his love for the world and life around him (Rouart and Rey 40).I wanted to find out more about impressionism to add to Monet, so I found some more interesting ideas. The term impressionism is in itself an ambiguous and problematic one; it was originally coined in reference to a rapidly sketched painting by Claude Monet first exhibited in 1874 which bore the title Impressionism, Sunshine (Katz and Dars 17). This idea labeled Impressionism stuck and carried on to characterize a group of Paris artists, some of whom were developing a technique that would take strokes of color to convey the unmediated visual impression of the scene before them (Katz and Dars 17). Monet and Renoir in 1869 both painted in a place named La Grenouillere. The paintings which came from there is where one can see the true Impressionist style to emerge. They started the major movement of Impressionist paintings. Some would argue that Impressionist painting wasn t quite in terms with Modern life yet, from a technical aspect, but it was also a question of redefining its relationships with the past. Colour, brushwork, and composition is some of the innovative qualities of Impressionism (Katz and Dars 9). One reason for impression being popular today is because it is accessible (Katz and Dars 7). There has been a shift recently in appreciating Impressionism art away from individual lives of artists or formal analysis of their work. Vignolo 4New research is directed towards the context of Impressionist painting in an attempt to discover the people and the places in the paintings (Katz and Dars 8).

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