Claude Monet
In our second week of drawing practise we looked a range of amazing artists such as: Van Gogh, Hiroshige and Claude Monet. For this week I chose to research further into Monet because I am a lot more familiar with his work.
19th century French artist Monet is best known for his work that made an impact on the art movement Impressionism, impressionism developed in France in the nineteenth century and is based on the practice of painting out of doors and spontaneously ‘on the spot’ rather than in a studio from sketches. Main impressionist subjects were landscapes and scenes of everyday life. Other artists that were apart of this movement alongside Monet were: Pierre Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Berthe Morisot, Armand Guillaumin, and Frédéric Bazille, who worked together, influenced each other, and exhibited together.
The gallery below shows some example of paintings form the impressionism movement, I've not included Monet from this gallery because I will be researching into his paintings separately.
One of Monet's most recognisable from the impressionism era would be 1872's, 'Sunrise', as shown on the right. Sunrise a painting which depicts the port of Le Havre, Monet's hometown, and was first shown at what would become known as the "Exhibition of the Impressionists" in Paris in April, 1874.
In this piece, I can see how Monet has used negative space and colour to make the sun and its rays a focal point for an audience. The sea, sky and scenery surrounding the sun and its rays are painted with cold colours, in contrast to the sun's warm colours. However, there are some warm colours used in the sea and sky from the sun's ray, this helps leads an audience's eye through the piece helping us see the detail in the negative space.
Overall, I can see why this piece is one of Monet's most beloved, I really like how this piece has such a calming atmosphere, even with all the cold colours used. Even though the piece is nearly 200 years old, there is no trace of the time period this painting takes place in, making it somewhat recognisable to everyone.
Overall I really like Monet's work, the thick brush strokes give his pieces a bumpy texture, which is something I don't usually see on 19th century art.
