The artwork I selected is Vetheuil in Summer by Claude Monet. Claude Monet is a French artist. His active period was during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Claude Monet is the founder of impressionism, which became a core feature of modernist artwork. Claude Monet is a master at using colors, lights, and shadows in terms of expression. Monet experimented with the combination of light and color by depicting the same spot at different seasons and drawing a conclusion on the application of color in expressing impressionism.
Vetheuil in Summer was created in 1880. The artwork depicted the view of Vetheuil from the opposite side of the Seine river bank. The painting is a typical representative work of Claude Monet in terms of color and light depiction. Monet’s art focused on accurately recording the sensation of color and light in nature, which is a reputation of modernism in the visual arts. Modernism focuses on the reflection of society, nature, and the real lives of people in artworks. While Impressionism focused more on depicting light and shadow in nature, it emphasized conveying ideas from nature and ideas from humanity instead of only recording nature and human activities.
This painting is not my favorite work among Monet’s paintings, but it was the most outstanding to me during this visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The contrast of the indoor lighting at the museum and the sunlight outside made this bright painting of a sunny afternoon at the Seine River bank catch my attention. The painting illustrates the ideal sunny afternoon that’s always in my imagination. The combination of the blurry contour of objects and the use of bright color conveyed the feeling of being at the river bank instead of how it looks at the river bank. By looking at the painting, I can sense the warm breeze of early spring and the joy of a relaxing day.
Xiaolin, Is your final sentence unfinished? You left us hanging, wanting to know how the painting makes you FEEL. I really like this painting and think it’s a great example of how Impressionism works. In order to appreciate the scene, we need to step back and take in the whole canvas from a distance. And if we are close to the work, we are very aware of the brushstrokes and of the fact that this is a work created with paint on canvas.
I am sorry for the technical problem. The system somehow swallowed my last few sentences when I uploaded the picture, I just edited my post and it is now complete.