Monet's Impressions
1874 AD
1874 1874
01.05E49.25N
ART

LeHAVRE, FRANCE
	In reviewing Claude Monet's painting "Impression, Sunrise," journalist Louis Leroy cuttingly called it an example of "impressionism," meaning that the art was nothing but an impression of nature.
	Though Leroy intended to be insulting, Monet's pictures, and those of the other impressionists, do indeed have that quality, and initially the public was no more impressed than Leroy. The fuzzy-images seemed to indicate that the pictures weren't done, or were slapdash. Artists objected that they were anti-intellectual, mere snapshots of everyday life rather than carefully planned scenes.
	But the impressionists' ideal was not history or carefully-drawn images, but light and color captured at a particular moment. And few artists did that as well as Monet.
	Monet began his artistic career drawing caricatures in the French city of Le Havre, but met painter EugŠne Boudin, who taught him the importance of first impressions and painting on the spot.
	To maintain this first impression, Monet went so far as to dig trenches for his big paintings, so he would not have to climb a ladder and change his perspective. In 1874, to demonstrate the effects of different light, he painted about 40 pictures of the facade of the Rouen Cathedral during different hours and seasons.
	Monet loved light and the effects it had on rivers, smoke, crowds and landscapes. He even admitted to a friend, "When it gets dark I feel as though I'm dying." And even as his wife lay dying, Monet was shocked to find that he continued to examine the colors of her face.
	In the 1890s Monet created a water garden at his home. The garden -- and especially the water lilies -- became his main subject for last 25 years of his life.
	Monet's brilliant colors became even brighter toward the end of his life, but at the expense of form. One critic said Monet had reached the point of "illuminating nothingness with sumptuous color."