Status Updates From Monet

“Monet expressly wanted an early lunch in order not to miss any of the afternoon sunlight”

“Monet was never an artist meticulous in his botanical detail. What he was after was the harmony of the whole, the overall impression. For Monet, flowers were bearers of light, and a feast for the eyes.”

monet moves to Giverny for the later half of his life. “This fellow Monet, who was supposed to be a modern painter, would stride off across the meadows at dawn, followed by an entourage of children carting his paint and canvases on a wheelbarrow, and set up in front of trees and grain stacks, which he then set down in higgledy piggledy brushwork on canvases he was forever exchanging.” tension with rural locals

monet in his travel era! wonderful to see how his journey led to the famous “houses of parliament”1904, such a transformation from his early “impression, sunrise” piece from 1873

with studies of haystacks and the cathedral, monet finally becoming recognized for his work. “deliberately introducing… effects of colour… analogous to what he has seen, rather than an exact record… The motif is shorn not only of all detail but also of its material, textural qualities. Stripped of anecdotal elaboration or contextual placing, the paintings seem to stand monumentally above and beyond time.”

wife Camille, his original muse (famous green dress painting), died at 32 due to abortion complications :( heartbreaking painting of her at her deathbed. money leaves Vétheuil and produces beautiful paintings of the sea

“An artist working in a studio could fall back on academic conventions and his own repertoire of mannerisms, but painting en plein air compelled continual response to the changing atmosphere and light.” new and revolutionary: to finish a painting outside

money pivots from figures as subject matter to light. water reflections as a way for him to transition into abstract representation. faked a separation from his lover Camille (even as she gave birth!) to earn money from his family