Impressionist Visionary Claude Monet, the master of serene imagery, worked in a time of political turmoil, massive social change, and constant upheaval in technology and the sciences.
Early on, his work was considered by some to be unfinished – even immoral. He experienced serious bouts of self doubt and depression. He had creditors at his back. His paintings were rejected by the French Academy for inclusion in the Paris Salon. Still, he held to his path and became one of the most famous artists of all time, leaving us more than 2,000 luminescent works.
In his early 70’s, after decades of unprecedented success, Claude Monet slipped into a deep depression. But just when he thought his productive years were over, the darkness of WWI sparked him to produce a new wave of luminous works.
Even people who aren’t familiar with Monet know his work. Of course his originals are exhibited in museums worldwide. But reproductions weave through our daily lives, appearing on everything from coffee mugs to clothing and cruise ships.
Following are a few broad brushstrokes that illuminate the life of Impressionist Visionary, Claude Monet.
He Bucked Rigid Rules From His First Brushstroke
The son of a grocer, Claude Monet (November 14, 1840 – December 5, 1926) was born in Paris and raised in Le Havre. He was still in his teens when Eugene Boudin sparked his lifelong passion for painting from nature.
Studying in Paris, he was disillusioned with traditional art taught at universities. He entered the studio of Swiss painter Charles Gleyre in 1862. Gleyre granted free rein for those in his studio in both process and aesthetic. It was there that Monet met other free-thinking painters including Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley Frédéric Bazille and Edouard Manet.
While each of the painters who emerged from Gleyre’s studio had a unique approach, they shared some similar revolutionary techniques. Among them were:
“…loose brushwork, vibrant colors, and an emphasis on capturing the transient effects of light and atmosphere. They often worked en plein air, painting outdoors to directly observe and capture the changing nuances of natural light.” (France Channel)
One Summer Two Great Artists And A Frog Pond
In the summer of 1869, Claude Monet and Pierre Auguste Renoir were both starving artists. Monet was living in poverty with his mistress and their son in a town off the Seine. Two of his works had been rejected that year at the Paris Salon. Renoir was living nearby with his parents. He frequently brought table scraps to feed the young Monet family.
La Grenouillére Frog Pond was a trendy destination on the island by the same name on the Seine (1850-1930). It attracted a fashionable crowd of revelers with more free time and money to spend.
Inspired by the exquisite light and vibrant colors of the resort, the friends painted side by side. Capturing the exuberance of the Grenouillére Frog Pond they worked in the bold new style of Impressionism. As an extra bonus Monsieur Fournaise who owned La Grenouillére exchanged food for works Monet and Renoir created that summer.
The resort offered subject matter they hoped would appeal to buyers and judges at the upcoming Salon of 1870. As it turned out, the judges of the Salon only accepted the traditional subject matter and style of formal Academic Art.
It is worth noting that in a letter date June of 1868, Monet wrote to Frédéric Bazille that he had attempted suicide by jumping into the Seine only a year before this great summer at the Frog Pond. (Giverny.org)
“Rejects” Of The Official Art World Expanded Human Experience
The Paris Salon had been the official yearly showcase of French art for more than a century, with the conservative French Academy choosing its judges . Acceptance in the Salon could make an artist’s career, while rejection could ruin one.
As the traditional champion of orthodox style, the jury leaned almost exclusively toward conservative Academic Art. Techniques and colors were formal. Subject matter typically depicted biblical, mythological or historical stories on broad canvases.
Innovative style and content of the Impressionist Visionary and his peers were excluded and sometimes ridiculed.
In response to public outrage for this conservative attitude, Emperor Napoleon III stated:
“…works of art which were refused should be displayed in another part of the Palace of Industry.”
The Salon des Refusés launched in 1863.
But it was on April 15, 1874, that the Société Anonyme des Artistes Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs, etc. opened its first exhibition.
Art Historian and Author James H. Rubin writes for The National Endowment For the Humanities (NEH):
“An important reason for the Impressionists’ decision to mount their own exhibitions, beginning in 1874, was the increasingly conservative cultural policies of the post-Commune government. MacMahon claimed not only to restore order to the nation, but to restore morality.”(NEH)
Claude Monet’s Impression, Sunrise was included in the exhibition.
Conservative critic Louis Leroy panned it as an unfinished sketch or “impression,” not a finished painting. Progressive critics praised it for its innovative style.
In 1876, art critic Edmond Duranty called the work of the imprssionist visionary and his peers “a revolution in painting.“
The group of artists resisted being united as a school or movement, but from this time forward, they became loosely known as the Impressionists.
Emerging Chemistry Offered Bright New Palettes
While Academic Art was characterized by dark, sober colors, the Impressionists generally worked with pure, bright shades.
The Industrial Revolution spawned major advances in synthetic pigment chemistry. Turner’s Yellow appeared in 1781, followed by Chrome Yellow in 1797. Cobalt blue emerged in 1807. In 1831, a new golden yellow pigment called Aureolin was first synthesized in Germany. With it came a cascade of bigger, brighter yellows. In 1838, Viridian (Spring green) appeared.
By the 1850s it was available to artists and with that came a new wave of yellow paintings. Impressionism was in swing by the 1860s, with many of its greatest painters using lighter, and more vivid colors that were newly available. Among them were French ultramarine, zinc white and cobalt violet.
According to Blick:
“In “The Art of Landscape Painting in Oil Colours” (published in 1863 by Winsor & Newton), Aureolin was lauded as “… one of the latest and most important contributions of science to the Artist’s palette… ranks in importance with Genuine Ultramarine.” (Blick)
Without these scientific developments, would the Impressionist Visionary have been so prolific?
The Painter-Gardener Created A Living 3-D Studio
In 1883, Monet moved to Giverny, forty miles from Paris in the valley of the Seine. It was there that the Impressionist Visionary created his own garden and water environment that inspired his work. He was 43 and would spend the next 43 years of his life in that oasis he created
According to Giverny Gardens, Monet made a garden full of perspectives, symmetries and colours. He did not like organized, controlled gardens. Instead, he combined flowers according to colors he loved and encouraged them to grow freely. He also integrated common flowers like daisies and poppies with the rare varieties.
By1890 Monet was prosperous enough to buy the house, the surrounding buildings and the land.
“With the passing years he developed a passion for botany, exchanging plants with his friends Clemenceau and Caillebotte. Always on the look-out for rare varieties, he bought young plants at great expense. “All my money goes into my garden,” he said. But also: ‘I am in raptures.’”(Giverny.org)
A few years after he purchased the farmhouse, he bought a strip of land with a pond near his property where he built a Japanese water garden.
“With the support of the prefecture, Monet had the first small pond dug ; even though his peasant neighbors were opposed. They were afraid that his strange plants would poison the water.” (Giverny.org)
Eventually he enlarged the pond o its present day size.
Water Lilies 1909 Created An Immersive Experience
Monet painted his Water Lilies (The Nymphéas) series from the late 1890s until his death in 1926. His famous water lily pond inspired almost 300 paintings, more than 40 of which were in large format.
The exhibition of 48 of his Water Lilies painted between 1903 and 1908 was held at the Ruel Gallery in 1909. It was an overwhelming critical success.
In these early versions of his Lilies, the Impressionist Visionary focused on water and flowers . He all but eliminated the sky to create a sense of experiencing his gardens first hand. The viewer stands near the pond or perhaps peers beneath the Japanese bridge.
Monet’s desire for total immersion in his paintings escalated over time.
Art Historian James H. Rubin writes for The National Endowment For the Humanities that Monet increased the scale of his paintings for the show in 1909. This enhanced the illusion of complete immersion in his environment, as if it was a massive aquarium.
“Monet had created a complete environment, both landscaped and painted. Others claimed to experience the cosmos through his pictures, an infinite dream realm, or something supernatural.” (James H. Rubin-NEH)
Although he painted with both feet in his natural surroundings, the Impressionist Visionary “was at the same time said to arouse thoughts both intimate and universal of peaceful contemplation.” (James H. Rubin-NEH)
By the 1890s, many people embraced the concept of decorative public art, believing it could help “smooth over differences by providing the kind of experiences all human beings could share… There was a consensus among progressive social thinkers that, thanks to their visionary capacity, artists belonged to a vanguard of social leadership” (James Rubin/NEH)
Monet Believed His Time Was Over
The year was 1914. At 73, Claude Monet felt his world was in decline. His eyesight had been failing from cataracts since his late sixties. His second wife Alice Hoschedé, died in 1911 followed by his eldest son in February 1914. With the last Independent exhibitions of the Impressionists held in 1886, Monet saw the popularity his work giving way to more avant-garde modern styles.
The Impressionist Visionary believed he was nearing his end.
In the midst of these profound personal challenges, Germany declared war on France on August 3, 1914. The brutal conflict was less than 50 miles from Monet’s lily ponds. Tens of thousands of French soldiers were lost during the first month. Among them were Monet’s friends and neighbors.
Rulers promised the war would end quickly, but it was soon evident they were wrong.
In early September 1914, a defiant Monet decided to stay in his home so close the front.
“I shall stay here regardless…and if those barbarians wish to kill me, I shall die among my canvases, in front of my life’s work.”
In his book, Mad Enchantment Ross King writes that Georges Clemenceau (1841 to 1929 ) long time journalist and French Prime Minister during WWI, was instrumental in prodding the Impressionist Visionary into action. Friends since the 1860s, Clemenceau visited Giverny in 1914 to pull Monet out of his depression. (Ross King)
In response, Monet spent the next few years producing the next phase of Water Lilies. The result was 300 feet of canvas.
On November 12, 1918, the day after the Armistice was signed, Monet offered his panels to President Clemenceau as a gift to France.
“Clemenceau gladly accepted his donation, but Monet, plagued with self-doubt, set about reworking his panels; slashing and even destroying some. Encouraged by Clemenceau to complete the project. Monet persevered, painting his dreamy panels of infinite blues, greens and mauves before his sight left him altogether.” (France Today)
The Musée de l’Orangerie houses 8 panels of the Impressionist visionary’s great Water Lilies. These compositions are the same height but differ in length, so that they can be hung across the curved walls of two egg-shaped rooms.
The collection remains of the most monumental creations in painting made in the first half of the 20th century.
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