Revieww of Claude Monet
...roached things very scientifically. It was believed that if he was interested in a setting that he would spend up to eight months studying the effect of light from different times of the day and other things like spatial relationships and structure. Over time, Monet created his own personal niche within impressionism through doing paintings of the same setting during different times of the day to capture how light may effect the different elements of the painting. I had the opportunity to see one of these studies in light and atmosphere when I saw his painting “Haystacks at Chailly at Sunrise”. This painting was not big at all, in contrast to some of the works I found he had the reputation of producing. It was about 14” x 18” and was part of a series of Monet’s work that the museum had on display in the Impressionism Period display room. One of the first things I noticed was the excessive amount of paint that was on this canvas; it was as if he had gone over and over the painting hundreds of times looking either to capture a certain element correctly or to create a small amount of depth within the work, I’m not sure. This painting depicted a broad, expansive countryside and I believe was a good representation of Monet’s work, as he had the reputation of painting landscapes in his early years as a painter. There was not a wide range of color used, but I believe this made the work more accurate since not many landscapes do “light up” with colors at sunrise, rather they slowly wake up and fade into their brightness. What struck me the most were the sky and his i...