Monet: Break Up of the Ice
Monet: The Break Up of the Ice
In 1879, Europe had one of its coldest winters and Monet was living in Vetbeuil to experience this winter. When the Seine thawed, the ice flooded the countryside and damaged bridges. Monet took advantage of these conditions and began a series of motif paintings in which he would paint the same scene again and again under different light conditions. The ice and water landscape were perfect for this type of painting because they were able to better capture the reflections of the scene and refracted light. This style of his can be seen forming as early as in the 1860s, though he didn’t paint his series of the winter flood, The Break Up of the Ice, until 1880.
In 1885, Monet began work on Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe, a painting of bourgeois leisure. We can see his start in playing with light in this painting. Manet’s painting of the same name two years early focuses on the shadow of the scene, but in Monet’s it is possible to see his great work in accentuating the light of the scene. Another difference between the two paintings is that Manet incorporates the viewer into the work. The nude woman in his piece looks out at the viewer in a confrontational way, in order to contradict the usual way that women are painted at this time, as docile and passive as possible so as for men to be able to look them. In Monet’s Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe, the viewer is an observer in the scene and just the players on the canvas are interacting. Instead of letting the viewer participate in the scene, he visualized it and took it in, something that we see Monet doing throughout his career. To Monet, painting was very subjective. He didn’t paint the “familiarity” of the streets, but instead what it looked like in paint (Harrison). He wasn’t interested in painting exactly what he saw, but instead how to capture what he saw and turn it into a painting. The idea of “being an observer” instead of an actor in a scene that we see in his Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe is
In 1879, Europe had one of its coldest winters and Monet was living in Vetbeuil to experience this winter. When the Seine thawed, the ice flooded the countryside and damaged bridges. Monet took advantage of these conditions and began a series of motif paintings in which he would paint the same scene again and again under different light conditions. The ice and water landscape were perfect for this type of painting because they were able to better capture the reflections of the scene and refracted light. This style of his can be seen forming as early as in the 1860s, though he didn’t paint his series of the winter flood, The Break Up of the Ice, until 1880.
In 1885, Monet began work on Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe, a painting of bourgeois leisure. We can see his start in playing with light in this painting. Manet’s painting of the same name two years early focuses on the shadow of the scene, but in Monet’s it is possible to see his great work in accentuating the light of the scene. Another difference between the two paintings is that Manet incorporates the viewer into the work. The nude woman in his piece looks out at the viewer in a confrontational way, in order to contradict the usual way that women are painted at this time, as docile and passive as possible so as for men to be able to look them. In Monet’s Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe, the viewer is an observer in the scene and just the players on the canvas are interacting. Instead of letting the viewer participate in the scene, he visualized it and took it in, something that we see Monet doing throughout his career. To Monet, painting was very subjective. He didn’t paint the “familiarity” of the streets, but instead what it looked like in paint (Harrison). He wasn’t interested in painting exactly what he saw, but instead how to capture what he saw and turn it into a painting. The idea of “being an observer” instead of an actor in a scene that we see in his Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe is