#Claude monet impression sunrise medium series#

To do this he chose simple matter, making several series of studies of the same object at different times of day or year: haystacks, morning views of the Seine, the Gare Saint-Lazare (1876-78), poplars (begun 1890), the Thames, the celebrated group of Rouen Cathedral (1892-94), and the last great lyrical series of water lilies (1899, and 1904-25), painted in his own garden at Giverny (one version, a vast triptych c.1920 Mus. In his later works Monet allowed his vision of light to dissolve the real structures of his subjects. Eliminating black and gray from his palette, Monet rejected entirely the academic approach to landscape. He often showed natural color by breaking it down into its different components as a prism does. Monet's representation of light was based on his knowledge of the laws of optics as well as his own observations of his subjects. Rather than copy in the Louvre, the traditional practice of young artists, Monet learned from his friends, from the landscape itself, and from the works of his older contemporaries Manet, Corot, and Courbet.

Monet soon began to concern himself with his lifelong objective: portraying the variations of light and atmosphere brought on by changes of hour and season. He and several of his friends painted for a time out-of-doors in the Barbizon district.

In Paris, Monet formed lasting friendships with the artists who would become the major impressionists, including Pissarro, Cézanne, Renoir, Sisley, and Bazille. After two years (1860-62) with the army in Algeria, he went to Paris, over parental objections, to study painting. He adhered to its principles throughout his long career and is considered the most consistently representative painter of the school as well as one of the foremost painters of landscape in the history of art.Īs a youth in Le Havre, Monet was encouraged by the marine painter Boudin to paint in the open air, a practice he never forsook.

Claude monet impression sunrise medium