Claude Oscar Monet was the second son in the family and was considered to become the merchant as his father. However, young Oscar, as all in the family called him so, had a huge desire to become an artist. Being a child, he already knew that would devote all his life to art. After the death of his mother, Monet stays at Le Havre with his aunt and starts to take first art lessons at Jacques – Francois Ochard’s studio. Later on, he meets his best friend and future mentor Eugene Boudin, who taught him how to use oil paints in a plain air techniques. Boudin and Monet were influenced by the work of the Johan Barthold Jongkind. The environment helps to forget about the tragedy, except the loss and go further.
Claude Monet is one of the brightest representatives of the Impressionism movement, which developed mainly on the main values of the classicism and represented a new vision on the art. The movement started around 60th of the 19th century and lasted in its initial form for about twenty years. The inspiration impressionists ladled out from the nature. The forerunner of the Impressionism is Johan Barthold Jongkind, whose main idea was to get closer to the nature.
Within the time artists became ready to go out of their studios to the countryside and paint en plein air. According to Edouard Manet there are no lines in nature, only areas of color, one against another. He was the first who tried to show the art from different perspective. Nevertheless, the influence of the Old School had a chance to emerge in the paintings of Claude Monet. Despite this the ideas, which Claude Monet implemented, became a subject of discussion for the following generation of the artists. The approach in understanding the art started to change. A real artist Monet made a trip to Paris with one purpose to visit the Louvre. During that visit, he mentioned that almost all the artists are copying old masters. Instead of following their “example”, Monet is painting sitting by the window. In 1858 Monet finished View at Rouelles, Le Havre. This paintingcan be considered as a classical piece of art; however, the Impressionism is present. In 1862, he became a student of Charles Gleyre. The style of the painting starts to change. Paintings seem to be affected by broken color and are characterized by rapid and uneven brushstrokes.
Historically there were few premises for development of the Impressionism. First of all it was provoked mainly by the inventions of photography and improvement of the train. The first was expressed the idea that you can catch the moment, while the second invention destroyed this illusion. For impressionists, photography was a symbol of the moment, which every artist tries to fix in the memory. The improvement of the train gave the deeper understanding of the time. Moreover, Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Pissarro and other artists felt the transience of time and impossibility to catch the moment in order to make it fixed. The great example of implementation of both ideas of the moment and time fully is observed in the painting Train in the Snow, 1875.
As a result, in 1974 inParis, all future impressionists established a new, powerful, and not excepted at that time salon. Artists choose the studio of Felix Nadar. Here all the participants of the Societe Anonyme des Artistes Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs, etc. exhibit their works (Wolf 2011). Among present artists were Monet, Renoir, Cezanne and Pissarro. At the salon a famous critic Louis Leroy was present. He was impressed by the Monet’s painting Impression: Sunrise. After the salon, everyone used the word Impressionism to express ideas, which created the image of blurriness.
On most of his paintings, Monet featured his wife Camille Doncieux. In 1866, one of the first paintings of Camille made him recognizable. It was The Woman in the Green Dress or Camille. However, one of the most recognizable painting isThe Stroll, Camille Monet and Her Son Jean (Woman with a Parasol), 1875. It depicts two people, whom Monet loved very much: his beloved wife Camille and their son Jean.
The painting is very interesting itself. If to look at it from the close distance, it seems that you are facing a spot. Some parts of the painting seem flecking, while the others are covered with the blur. The intensity of the color makes the one feel dizzy. Another interesting thing is that, you can easily look at the picture, when the light is mild. As a result the light helps to avoid a rush and color effects on the eyes. If I step a little bit away from the picture, I can somehow distinguish the silhouettes. In addition, what is interesting, not lines, but the combination of the colors that helps to do that. The absence of clear, measurable and reasonable lines help to feel the main purpose of the picture that impresses. The picture highlights the main idea of the Impressionism of “the glance”. The light reflecting on the cloud gives the feeling of vanishing presence. It seems that the author tried to hide Camille’s emotions. The picture has a well-balanced color spectrum. This is why there is a feeling of presence, when you step away from the picture. However, the figures that merge with the sky almost dissolve in it. Nevertheless, the slight intensiveness of the green color helps to re-discover the featured figures in the intensive sunlight.
Picture creates the impression of presence, but at the same time, you cannot be certain that it is not illusion or play of the mind. The Stroll, Camille Monet and Her Son Jean is glance in the real life at moment, which we usually do not mention because of the time.
