ARTISTS
Claude Monet: An Impressionist Genius
Ask someone to name a single artist, let alone an Impressionist one, and many will answer, 鈥�Monet鈥�. Few artists have made such a singular impact as the impressionist painter Claude Monet. This special display explores how and why Monet became the artist he was and the impact he made.
The display opens with L鈥橝ncienne rue de la Chaussee, Argenteuil an early painting by Monet depicting the town of Argenteuil. 1872 was an important year for the French Impressionists as it was shortly before the first of their eight exhibitions took place and the genre鈥檚 identity took form. In fact, the piece of art that gave Impressionism its name, Impression, Sunrise, was painted in the same year as this Argenteuil painting.
Coup de vent, created in 1881, shows a more assured painter. Painted from the Normandy coast, where gusts of wind race through town ten months of the year, the title Coup de vent (鈥淕ust of wind鈥�) shares that Monet painted this scene on yet another blustery day. Seeing the easterly sway and lean of these windswept trees, it is no surprise that the wind almost always sweeps through this region from the west.
鈥淥ther painters paint a bridge, a house, a boat鈥� I want to paint the air in which the bridge, the house and the boat are to be found 鈥� the beauty of the air around them, and that is nothing less than the impossible.鈥� 鈥擟laude Monet
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Ask someone to name a single artist, let alone an Impressionist one, and many will answer, 鈥�Monet鈥�. Few artists have made such a singular impact as the impressionist painter Claude Monet. This special display explores how and why Monet became the artist he was and the impact he made.
The display opens with L鈥橝ncienne rue de la Chaussee, Argenteuil an early painting by Monet depicting the town of Argenteuil. 1872 was an important year for the French Impressionists as it was shortly before the first of their eight exhibitions took place and the genre鈥檚 identity took form. In fact, the piece of art that gave Impressionism its name, Impression, Sunrise, was painted in the same year as this Argenteuil painting.
Coup de vent, created in 1881, shows a more assured painter. Painted from the Normandy coast, where gusts of wind race through town ten months of the year, the title Coup de vent (鈥淕ust of wind鈥�) shares that Monet painted this scene on yet another blustery day. Seeing the easterly sway and lean of these windswept trees, it is no surprise that the wind almost always sweeps through this region from the west.
鈥淥ther painters paint a bridge, a house, a boat鈥� I want to paint the air in which the bridge, the house and the boat are to be found 鈥� the beauty of the air around them, and that is nothing less than the impossible.鈥� 鈥擟laude Monet
Artists on show
