Oscar-Claude Monet: The Impressionism Movement

Born in 1840, Claude Monet began to show promise in the arts as a young boy. Although discouraged by his father, Monet made enough money to support himself through art school by selling caricatures. At the age of 15, Monet’s name, amongst the people, became well known for his talent. Although he never finished school, he established himself and initially chose to concentrate his paintings on still life. His first large work, “Dejeuner sur l’herbe”, however, would not depict the scenes for which he would later be known; for example, his landscapes and sights from his garden at Givenchy. He started painting scenery as a result of the influence of a co-worker named Boudin. While at Givenchy, Monet is captivated by his garden. He spends the remainder of his life there and paints his Japanese footbridge a great many number of times.

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte, painted by Georges Seurat in 1884-6, and La Grenouillère, by Claude Monet in 1869, are both works that are on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, originally painted in France during the Impressionism period. These works are recognized today for the modernity embodied in their impressionistic painting styles as well as their depiction of leisure in modern life.

Impressionism, in contrast, strove not to capture the toils of society in a moralistic setting like Realism did, but to evoke a general mood in the viewer. Painting was transformed from the idea of capturing a moment on canvas to creating a moment on canvas; painting was reduced to its own surface, “no longer transparent means but opaque ends” (Schneider 43). This was exemplified by Manet’s own ideas of painting not as “sight” but as “insight” into the human condition, driven by an artist’s intuition. Manet and the impressionists began painting en plein air, outdoors in the fresh air where they were closer to their subjects and captured the light of fleeting moments like sunrises and sunsets with quick brushstrokes intended to evoke general mood in the viewer based on the capture of light and tones in the painting, leading to the namesake “impression” left by the movement.

Claude Monet is one of the most familiar and best loved of all Western artists. His images of poppy fields, poplar trees, water lilies and elegant ladies in blossoming gardens are familiar to people who have never seen the original paintings and may never have visited an art gallery. Monet's works have won a place in the affection of the general public that seems almost without parallel. (Rachman, 4) In the decades since his death in 1926, Monet's work has been intensely studied by a variety of art critics. However, none of his works have been as deeply studied as those done in Giverny, in the early twentieth century. During this time Monet's paintings, which focused on specific subject matter from various viewpoints,

Monet spent a great deal of his youth in Normandy, growing up in a suburb of Le Havre, where this view was painted. Even though this painting was completed very early in his career, Monet must have thought greatly of this piece, as he showed it in an exhibition held in Paris in 1876.

Claude Monet's Grainstack (Sunset) is the painting I chose from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Monet was an impressionist painter in France, and did most of his work at his home at Giverny. Impressionism got its name from a painting that Monet painted, Impression Sunrise. Impressionist paintings are put into a category based on characteristics such as light that draws attention to objects, rough textures, and visual pleasure that the viewer receives upon looking at the paintings. Impressionist paintings are art for arts sake and focus on leisure and nature. These paintings are generally the most well known and popular paintings because of their attractive appearance.

French history is filled with an amazing culture that consists of beautiful architecture and delicious food. One aspect of French culture that stands out is its Art. Among the famous artists that have contributed over the years, one artists name stands out among the rest, Claude Monet. Claude Monet is known for being one of the influential artists to introduce impressionism. In a style not previously before painted, impressionism depicted a landscape or scene by creating illusion through the use of shading and coloring. Traditional painting was produced in an art studio, but impressionism was a unique. It allowed the artist to shed the use of a studio and step out into nature. Monet and other famous artists launched this new style of art that challenged traditional painting and would forever change French culture and influence art for many years to come.

His audience especially supported him on his road to fame in the late 1880’s and 90’s after his waterlilies series of artworks. During an exhibition in 1874 critics viewed Claude’s work ‘Impression Sunrise’ and dubbed painters who do such artworks as ‘Impressionists’. This was intended to be insulting as the critics thought the works to be more like unfinished drafts rather than a complete artwork. Claude on the other hand quite liked the term and embraced it fully as it fit his style quite well. During his lifetime Claude’s works were displayed in the Salon and by the Société Anonyme des Artistes, Peintres, Sculpteurs, and Graveurs in Impression Exhibitions. Currently, his works are displayed all over the world with most in Paris but many others in Britain, the USA and other European

Claude Monet was an impressionist who used and changed art conventions such as the Salon des Refusés and the world as a source of ideas to create artworks such as “Impression, Sunrise”. The impressionists of the late 1800s wanted to capture the ephemeral moment in time. The artists had a major focus with the light and colour of the moment than with the details of

The painting Impression: Sunrise, or Impression: Soleil Levant, was what brought Monet his greatest success. “It hung in the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874 and is now displayed in the Musée Marmottan-Moret, Paris” (Biography 2). Even though this was not his first or best painting it is the one that has left the most mark, for it was the initial spark for Impressionism. It was this success that earned him and other fellow artists the title of the “Impressionists.” Monet began to earn great amounts of money and was able to move out to his dream home in Giverny.

Claude Monet, An Analysis on Art Specific Purpose: To inform the audience on the significance and formation of Claude Monet’s work. Thesis: Claude Monet’s work did not just become popular because of his unique use of color; but also because of his use of subject matter.

In the year of 1840 little did France, let alone the world, know that it was a year to be put in the history books. On this beautiful year a man of great recognition in the art world was born. The founding father of Impressionism, Claude Monet. He had been a painter of a new style. One of his paintings titled “Across the Meadow” was simply one of the art pieces among a multitude of other phenomenal impressionist works he had completed.

Claude Monet was an artist born in the 19th century. He was well known for being one of the founders of the art movement know as impressionism. Monet created many art series in which he would paint one object multiple times, one of his most famous series being waterlilies, which was created towards the end of his life. The painting I will be talking about today is one of his many waterlily paintings, painted in 1904, ‘Waterlilies’ or ‘Nympheas’ was just one of 250 paintings in this series. The medium is oil paint on canvas and depicts a relaxing scene with waterlilies on a lake. This piece of art was part of an art period where where it defied social standards in France and was

Claude Monet was born in Paris in 1840 and would become known as one of France’s famous painters. Monet is often attributed with being the leading figure of the style of impressionism; but this was not always the case. Monet started out his career as a caricaturist, showing great skill. Eventually “Monet began to accompany [Eugène] Boudin as the older artist . . . worked outdoors, . . . this “truthful” painting, Monet later claimed, had determined his path as an artist.” Monet’s goal took off as his popularity grew in the mid 1870s after he switched from figure painting to the landscape impressionist style. William Seitz supports this statement through his quote, “The landscapes Monet painted at Argenteuil between 1872 and 1877 are

Impressionism as an historical art period is best described as a shift in thinking and focus. This paradigm shift, away from realism and toward individualism, began a centuries long transformation of self-expression in art as a whole. Impressionism is generally considered a French movement and is typically defined as spanning from approximately 1867 to 1886. Impressionism is best embodied by and was perhaps initiated by Claud Monet in such world-renowned works as Impressions: soleil levant which lent its name to the style and subsequently the art period as a whole.