FAKULTI FILEM, TEATER DAN ANIMASI (FiTA)

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA (UiTM)

KOD / NAMA KURSUS:

FTA111 / ART HISTORY

NAMA PENSYARAH:
MOHD SAAD BIN OMAR

TAJUK TUGASAN:
PENULISAN ESEI (TOKOH CATAN)

NAMA PELAJAR DAN KAD METRIK :

AMEERA AINA BINTI ZAMRI

PROGRAM / KUMPULAN:
CAFF113 / FTA1111A

TARIKH PENGHANTARAN
WEEK 8
1. Artwork analysis

1.1 Introductions

Claude Monet was born in Paris, France on November 14, 1840 (Monet Biography.
(2017). He died of lung cancer on December 5, 1926. He is the person who invented
impressionist style. Impression is a movement in paintings, capturing the exact moment
in terms with lights and colors changing (Tate. (2017). Impressions is a fine art. It is a
short brush strokes of bright colors to portray the fluorescence on objects.
He has been drawing since he was a boy because he wants to become an artist rather
than go into family grocery store business like his father told him to (Monet Biography.
(2017). When his family moved to Normandy, he becomes known among his teachers
and people living in town for making caricatures and selling them. At some point in the
future, Monet met Eugene Bodin, a landscape artist who became his mentor and taught
him to use oil paints.
Claude Monet is famous because most of his artworks is about outdoor landscape and
nature. The reason behind why I chose this famous painter is because his artwork
Water Lilies is one of my favorites. He began this series towards the end of his life for a
long period of time. He is really dedicated to paint nature even though he was fighting a
lung cancer. This reason made me appreciate his work even more.
1.2 Artwork analysis 1

Impression, Sunrise

The famous painting, Impression Sunrise was performed from a scene in the French
harbor. Monet portrayed a mist which gives a foggy background for a morning
atmosphere to the specimen, and it is slightly distinguish what seems to be sailboats
docking in Le Havre Port (Impression Sunrise by Claude Monet, 2022). He painted
oranges and yellow tones to discriminate warmly with the other darker colors which
brings every little detail to be sticking out like a sore thumb. The boats getting smaller
indicates they were being prompted by the waters which is outstandingly excellent work
to shows there is a movement in the masterpiece. Strikes of oranges on the waters
represents reflections of sunrise in the morning. Other than that, separate brushstrokes
in darker tone on the waters shows dramatic color ‘glittering’ on the sea.
Impression Sunrise were captured from a hotel window at Le Havre in 1872. Monet is
very likely did it in one sitting. The painting became more popular when it was stolen at
a gunpoint raid on 27th October 1985 from the Musee Marmottan Monet in Paris. Five
years later it was recovered undamaged and was put back at the museum in 1991.
1.3 Artwork analysis 2

Water Garden

‘I must have flowers, always, and always.’ Claude Monet was very well known for his
works to be about outdoor landscape. For an extended period of time, he decided to
only paint water and lilies which started Monet’s Water Lilies series. This is personally
one of my favorites of all his artworks. He produced the water landscape at his home in
Giverny between 1897 and his death of lung cancer in 1926.
He highly thought of his own flower garden which then becomes his muse for most of
his series. The flower garden featured a water garden, a small pond and a Japanese
footbridge ranged across on it. I love how the reflections of trees is in between all the
flowers on the surface of the pond. It is a very detail work and hard to master with oil
paintings. The late afternoon sun cast light on the bridge which we can see from the
right side of the bridge, Monet used pale green contrast to blue-green. Furthermore,
lilies are usually white, but Monet’s lilies are not just white, they are breed in pink and
purple. The afternoon sky reflected on the small pond which he adds with dark blue
shade.
1.4 Artwork analysis 3

Water Lilies 1919

A sunset was illustrated where the light is reflected on the pond water on Water Lilies
1919. Monet used various shade such as purple and red to shows the sunlight while the
water lilies become the highlight of the piece. There is blob of red on pale green which
probably represent small flowers that has been added on his flower collection. I noticed
that Monet will always have flowers in his series, I can really feel his love for flowers. I
have also picked up that Monet was not concerned about pictorial space when he made
this series. He seems to paint this piece from up close. He focused solely on the surface
of the pond, and its reflection. There are nothing separating the flowers and the waters,
which gives the painting a blurry look. Among the mass of water lilies, you can also see
the reflection of trees on the surface of the pond.
When Monet experimented with this radical innovative approach, he is already in his
70’s. He probably just wants to sit with nature and enjoy his old years. Under those
circumstances, people started to create a stir saying his art style has become messy
while some people defended Monet says his eyesight’s might affecting the way he
works on his masterpiece. This painting is currently on display at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art.
1.5 Artwork analysis 4

Woman With Parasol

The painting Woman with a Parasol-Madame Monet and Her Son belongs to a series of
paintings which Monet produced during the summers of 1875 and 1876. Monet has
stopped painting figures after he started to advert his focal point on painting landscape,
but then he comes back with a painting of Woman with Parasol in the 1880s. He is still
determined with his love for outdoor painting but this time he did a figure who are his
wife, Camille Monet and his son, Jean Monet. His skill as a figure painter is equally
evident. In this work, it feels like the family is going on a casual family outing in the field
of flowers. One can assume they are on a picnic, spending time with each other.
Monet painted the sky with bright blue and add smudges of white that look like cluster
of clouds. His son standing off in the background in the field. We can tell it is a windy
day from the way the woman’s dress flowing. This requires wet on wet technique and
Monet did an excellent work to capture the flowing subject. Whiten top of the parasol
indicates the sunlight is behind Camille. Moreover, the back of her dress has a bit of
white from the bright sunshine. The wildflowers which Monet paint with yellow softly
touches the hem of Camille’s dress. It looks like Monet paint the picture while sitting
because of the way Camille’s head tilting downwards. The grass is painted with comma-
like strokes. She also cast a shadow from standing in the sunlight which he paints with
light and dark tones. Monet probably done this piece in a single sitting which left me
questioning if he has a photographic memory from how fast he can capture and paints
the scene (Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son, 2017).

1.6 Conclusion

Taking everything into account, I understood why Claude Monet is one of the most
famous painters aside from Leonardo Da Vinci and Vincent Van Gogh. Everything in our
life is unique and beautiful because of art. From his quotes, ‘Everyone discusses my art
and pretend to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply
necessary to love’ we knew that people nowadays do not appreciate art as they used to
be. People would only see these paintings as something they can sell for a big money,
they do not care to just simply love it. This is why we must cherish artwork because we
might not going to find another raw talent like these painters have. Young generation
people should not be pressurized to not be artistic because without art, the world is just
a dull place with black and white. Art is more than just splash and brushstrokes of
colors. From up close it might look like one, but if you change how, you see it, it
changes how you see life.
Reference
1. Auricchio, Laura. “Claude Monet (1840–1926).” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History.
New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cmon/hd_cmon.htm%20(October%202004)
2. Claude Monet Paintings, Biography, and Quotes. (N.D). Impression,Sunrise
https://www.claude-monet.com/impression-sunrise.jsp
3. Impression Sunrise. (n.d). WIKIART, visual art encyclopedia
https://www.wikiart.org/en/claude-monet/impression-sunrise
4. Water Lilies, 1906. (n.d). Art Institvte Chicago
https://www.artic.edu/artworks/16568/water-lilies
5. Christopher P Jones. (Jun 9, 2019). How To Read Paintings: Monet’s Water Lilies
https://christopherpjones.medium.com/how-to-read-paintings-monets-water-lilies-
6533df305f31
6. Monet: The Water Lily Pond. (n.d). The National Gallery, London. Google Art &
Culture
https://artsandculture.google.com/story/monet-the-water-lily-pond/WgIS72lKcegxJQ
7. Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son. (2017). Nga.gov.
https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.61379.html#inscription
8. Claude Monet Paintings, Biography, and Quotes. (n.d). Woman with a Parasol, 1875
by Claude Monet
https://www.claude-monet.com/woman-with-a-parasol.jsp
9. Monet Biography. (2017). Claudemonetgallery.org.
https://www.claudemonetgallery.org/biography.html#
10. Tate. (2017). Impressionism | Tate. Tate.
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/i/impressionism