Claude Monet and Impressionism (Coursework Sample)

Claude Monet and Impressionism Name University Claude Monet and Impressionism Born in Paris, France, in 1840, Claude Monet is considered the founder of impressionist style and philosophy in painting. Throughout his career, Monet portrayed consistence and prolific application of impressionism philosophy in his paintings, which emphasized on his perceptions of nature "as it is”. In fact, one of his early paintings, "the Impression Sunrise”, is considered the foundation of the impressionist movement. Monet believed that his work was based on scientific study of life and nature (Rewald, 2009). Therefore, most of his works were paintings of various aspects of nature, especially landscapes and real-life scenarios in nature. Monet's painting "The Water Lilies" is an example of his work that portrays how Monet viewed and valued his nature. This painting indicates that the painter appreciated his nature and sought to present the aspect of nature as it appears in the natural world. The painting, which was done using oil on canvas style, depicts a natural scene in a Pond somewhere in France. It shows an aesthetic scene created by light reflection by water and several water lilies on the water surface. According to analysts, Monet used his view of nature with an aim of appreciating the nature and inspiring human's appreciation of their natural world. Figure 1: Claude Monet's Water Lillies, 1919 (Rewald, 2009) It is most likely that Monet's target audience was the public in general. It was probably meant to show off the beauty of pods in Paris. The use of color in the painting indicates how the painter used different colors to depict nature. Light reflection by water under the water lilies is a major aspect of the painting. It provides an indication that Monet wanted to impress the audience with the beauty in their natural world. In fact, this 1919 painting was done during the last days of Monet's work and life, having painted for over seventy years. During this time, Monet had already developed his impressionist idea and had decided to be painting natural scenes throughout his remaining days. As aforementioned, Monet's Water Lilies painting belongs to the impressionist era. Therefore, it is worth reviewing the meaning of the19th century artistic style and philosophy. Impressionism comes from the French term Impression, which was derived from Monet's earlier work "Impression, soleil levent" (Impression, Sunrise). However, it is worth noting that Monet did not use this term to refer to his idea, but rather Louis Leroy, an art critic, used coined the term "Impressionism" to refer to the movement that was started by artists like Claude Monet (Rewald, 2009). In paintings, Impressionist style has a number of unique characteristics that are worth mentioning. For instance, they have a relatively small size and a small thickness. In addition, the paintings use brush strokes that depict visible scenarios using a mixture of colors. Normally, the paintings depict use of bright colors that are appealing to the viewer's eye, with an aim of attracting the human eye. The composition of the impression painting, as shown in The Water Lilies, is relatively open. In addition, these paintings emphasize on the use of light to show various aspects of the scene. The light fall on the objects on the surface, making it reveal the aesthetic aspect of the colors used. Colors are also applied side-by-side, a technique that was used to ensure a good mixing of colors to create an aesthetic and vibrant surface on a natural scene. Monet's work also shows how complementary colors are used to obtain dark colors such as dark and grey tones. It is worth noting that Monet avoided black paint, but mixed complementary colors to achieve gray and dark tones. Moreover, impressionism emphasizes on the subject matter. In this case, Monet's work depicts nature "as it is" and the beautifulness associated with it. In addition, Impressionism style in painting emphasized on time and space. Light was used to depict the nature as it appears during the day. Most impressionist painters avoided depicting scenarios at night (Denvir, 2010). This is one major aspect of impressionism, which Claude Monet has displayed in his Water Lilies painting. Apart from Monet, a number of other artists took advantage of the premixed paints available in the European market during the century. For example, Berthe Morisot's "Reading" was painted in 1873 and depicts a woman reading a book, probably a bible, while seated on grass in a natural field somewhere...