Today is the birthday (14 November, 1840) of one of my favorite artists – Claude Monet. Along with Camille Pissaro, Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and Édouard Manet he was one of the founders of French Impressionism. Indeed, the movement was named after the above painting – Impression, Sunrise.
Monet was very interested in how changes in light affected what he saw and he often painted the same scene many times to capture the changes. He and other impressionists focused on using broken color and rapid small brush strokes painting en plein air to capture the effects of light.
He may be best known for his paintings of water lilies which he painted some 250 times during the last years 30 years of his life. He suffered from cataracts during part of this period.
One of my favorite Monet paintings is this one of Waterloo Bridge, which hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.
I also like this painting of his garden with his son. I think the colors look particularly vibrant.
Both of these paintings are at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. Go and see them next time you are in Washington.
Beautiful! Thank you.
These are great Tom, appreciate your insights…
Thanks, David. I know next to nothing about art, but I know what I like. I visited the NGA a lot when I was in DC.
One of my favs as well. Thanks for the post.