Garden at Sainte-Adresse by Claude Monet

Before the 19th-century, art was based on realism, which was a movement that came into existence in response to Romanticism. Romanticism was an idealized form of art, whereas Realism was a depiction of real subjects and scenes. However, in the 19th century, a new movement called Impressionism started, which had a similar concept to realism, but was different in the sense of colors and shadows. This art movement was carried by Claude Monet a French painter, who used a brush stroke technique to create patches of unblended colors. Most of Monet’s artwork like Garden at Sainte-Adresse were made in fresh air, to depict real life and the changing color patterns of sunlight. The Garden at Sainte-Adresse by Claude Monet promoted freedom of artistic expression through its use of contrasting colors, natural perspective and the brush stroke technique. (“19th-century response”)

According to historians, the roots of Impressionism belong to French painters because they were the ones who stood up for themselves, even after being rejected by their official academy of arts. But later, with time, their artworks were accepted and respected because of the growing knowledge of modern art (Homage 23-37). I believe the ideas of Monet had a great impact on the artistic society because it gave people the freedom to explore without the fear of rejection.

Claude Monet was born in Paris on November 14th, 1840 during the era of King Louis Philippe. After five years, his family moved to Le Havre because of his father’s food business with the French Navy. Monet started his education at the Lycee School at Le Havre, where he learned arts from the famous French artist, Jacques-François Ochard. However, he never liked school and said that they were prisons because they took him away from nature. In 1860, Monet left for Algeria, where he lived for two years with his friend’s Danish Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro and French Realist painter, Gustave Courbet. During this time, he learned the technique of creating shadows, which he thought made him a better artist. In 1891, Impressionism was officially accepted by the art community and at that time Monet sold his series of Haystack (fifteen pictures) in three days, which was a great success for him. He died on December 5th, 1926 and was buried in the cemetery at the Giverny (Homage 23-37).

Monet’s painting Garden at Sainte-Adresse was made in 1867, to show us natural light and its calming effect on people. Monet made this artwork with oil on canvas and it is about 98.1 cm x 129.9 cm in size. This impressionist painting was bought by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1867 because of its growing popularity (Salinger 1-4). The artwork Garden at Sainte-Adresse is full of bright pure colors that reveal a reflection of sunlight by the sea. Monet used brilliant colors that completely contrast with each other. Such a painting is complex and spacious with the garden taking up most of the space of the art piece, making it dominant. Monet’s painting is a mix of both cool and warm colors. The colors in the garden are mostly warm; yellow (sunlight and sunflowers), red(roses). However, the seaside is full of elegant cool colors like blue (sea and sky), gray (smoke of the steam engine). Blending both shades creates an environment for a sunny winter day. Such variety of tones show a moderately strong contrast.

Although sunlight is present in the painting, the actual sun is not depicted. Monet creates a relaxing but exciting mood in the minds of the observers. It feels relaxing because of the bright sunlight and the calming environment full of beautiful flowers and greenery. However, the seaside and the ships build excitement for the observers, since the water shows us the windy curves and the cargo ships gives us a depiction of active city life. Most of the ships have three triangular sails on them; therefore, shapes are repeated throughout the painting.

The perspective of this art is aerial, an in-depth painting that includes all aspects of the subject, because of the distance we observe between the garden and the ships. This horizon helps to express the sun rays in the painting by displaying the shadows of people relaxing on the chairs and of the garden. Most people think that the person sitting on the seat is Monet’s dad because of the white beard that makes him look old. The main interest of this aerial painting is near the garden and is revealed without any illusion. Monet’s artwork was called a Japanese painting by his friend Renoir because of the block-prints he used in his painting and their association with Japanese art. However, Monet thought it was more like a Chinese painting with flags (Monet, “Garden at Sainte-Adresse”).

Monet’s ideas in making art is considered quite different than other painters of his time because of his brush stroking technique. In Monet’s technique of brush, we observe mostly aggressive strong strokes, instead of using the old perspective of smooth stroking. However, to make the Garden at Sainte-Adresse, Monet combined both soft and harsh stroking to show sunlight. This method of painting was similar to the style of artists like Vincent Van Gogh and Georges Seurat. In the garden painting, we could clearly observe that as we come close to the horizon the sky becomes dark blue (Heaston, “Monet”). This contrast in the same color was only possible to make because of Monet’s freestyle art, which I believe is extremely valuable for the art society. Monet played an important role at his time as he introduced paintings with shadows and contrasting colors, which I think was the reason behind his success.

The main function of this painting was to show us modern life through modern art and concurrent leisure time people spent at a beautiful seaside-garden. Monet’s art was opposed by many artists of his time because of his modern impressionist ideas, but later people came to know his importance (Isaacson 429). I think Impressionism introduced by Claude Monet was a great improvement for the art society because it increased the intensity of pleasure received by viewers of art, by not mixing colors into each other. I consider Impressionist paintings to be great for our societies because they are a true depiction of real life because most of these works were made outside close to nature. I personally love Monet’s unique idea of artwork because it includes shadows by changing the light colors. I think we as humans should not only rely on facts but should also discover new facts through our own ideas. All of us as individuals play our own separate roles in our communities, that make our lives interesting. Imagining a world where everyone is just alike, there would be nothing exciting about living such life. That is the reason behind our need for new opinions, which ultimately also help us grow and live a healthy and happy life.

Works Cited

C., A. “Homage to Claude Monet.” The Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly, vol. 51, no. 2, 1957, pp. 23-26. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/stable/4120394.

Isaacson, Joel. “Monet in Chicago.” The Burlington Magazine, vol. 117, no. 867, 1975, pp. 429-429. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/stable/878065.

Salinger, Margaretta M. “Windows Open to Nature.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. 27, no. 1, 1968, pp. 1-4. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/stable/3258395, doi:10.2307/3258395.

Monet, Claude. “Garden at Sainte-Adresse, 1867 – Claude Monet.” Www.wikiart.org, 1 Jan. 1867, www.wikiart.org/en/claude-monet/garden-at-sainte-adresse.

Heaston, Paul. “Learn from a Master: Monet Painting Techniques.” The Craftsy Blog, 1 Dec. 2017, www.craftsy.com/art/article/monet-painting-techniques/.

“19th c. 2nd Half – Short Response.” Quizlet, quizlet.com/20758324/19th-c-2nd-half-short-response-flash-cards/.