"Monet & Architecture"
Claude Monet is famous for his paintings of the natural world. His series of paintings of water lilies in his garden at Giverny is internationally famous as his his series of haystacks in a French country field. However, in “Monet & Architecture” the National Gallery points out that man-made objects, particularly buildings are present in Monet's works throughout his 60 year career. The museum has brought together some 75 paintings both from its own collection and from other museums, to demonstrate the various ways in which Monet used architecture in his works.
Born in 1840 in Paris, Monet grew up in Le Havre. It was there he met Eugene Boudin, who taught him about oil painting and plein air painting. After a brief period serving with the army in Morocco where he became interested in the effects of light, Monet returned to Paris to study art. Dissatisfied with conventional art training, he gravitated towards a group of like-minded young artists who were taking a different approach to art. In 1874, they banded together to put on an exhibition. Taking the title from one of Monet's paintings, a critic scoffed that it was the “Exhibition of the Impressionists.”
The Impressionists did not find immediate success. Nonetheless, Monet continued to pursue his art. He and his family moved around France as well as to England and the Netherlands. However, by the 1880s, Monet had become successful and was able to purchase a house and grounds for a garden in Giverny. While Giverny remained his base until his death in 1926, Monet continued to take journeys around France and to England in search of subjects for his paintings.
Particularly, in his early career, Monet was interested in the picturesque. For example, in the Netherlands, Monet was interested by the windmills and the colorful houses. Pictures with attractive buildings hopefully would be easier to sell.
Buildings also played a more subtle role in his paintings. A building could provide geometric shapes or colors that contrasted with the natural shapes and colors in a painting. It could also provide scale and add a human touch to a scene that had no figures.
The Impressionists and their friends were also interested in depicting modern life. While Manet and Degas may have had a stronger interest in this than Monet, it clearly surfaces in Monet's work. For example, in 1877, Monet did a series of paintings of the Gare St-Lazare railroad station with its cast iron girders and its steaming locomotives.
Monet's primary interest, of course, was in depicting the effects of light. Buildings and man-made structures presented vehicles to explore this interest as Monet sought to capture how the changing light and atmospheric conditions altered their apperance. “Other painters paint a bridge, a house, a boat … I want to paint the air that surrounds the bridge, the house, the boat – the beauty of the light in which they exist.”
To this end, Monet painted numerous canvases of the facade of Rouen Cathedral showing the varying colors and contrast that the changing light. Similarly, he painted numerous views of the Houses of Parliament in London at different times of day, in different weather conditions, and with different levels of fog and pollution. The identities of the buildings becomes irrelevant, it is only the colors and the abstract shapes that matter.
The exhibition highlights the diverity with which Monet incorporated architecture into his art. Architecture ranges from an aid in composition to a mere stage for presenting the play of light. By pointing out this aspect, the National Gallery gives us a new perspective on Monet's works.
Furthermore, even if one has no interest in the thesis of the exhibition, the exhibition is still very worthwhile. It brings together a tremendous number of masterpieces, some famous, others less well-known. It is enjoyable just to view them.
Art review - National Gallery (London) - "Monet & Architecture"