Claude Monet -Katie Yang

            Claude Monet was one of the most influential painters in the history of art. He was born on November 14^th, 1840 in Paris, France. Monet moved with his family to Le Havre, where he met Eugene Boudin. Boudin introduced him to plein air painting, meaning painting outdoors, which would go on to shape a large portion of Monet’s career. Monet moved back to Paris at the age of 19, and enrolled in the Academie Suisse. Despite receiving some critical acclaim, Monet struggled financially early on, and even attempted suicide due to his financial struggles in 1868. It was not until Louis-Joachim Guadibert became a patron of Monet’s work that he achieved financial stability.

           

Monet's early work (1866, Women in the garden) using a more classical style, with hints of his impressionist style

            Monet’s style of painting was first termed “impressionist” by critics who intended for the term to be derogatory. Despite the original intentions of the term, it stuck with Monet’s style of painting. Monet aimed to encapsulate the essence of nature in his paintings and used bright colors and short brushstrokes to do so. Although critics described his work as seemingly unfinished, Monet continued to be a huge influence on the impressionist style of painting.

            Monet’s personal life had some influence on his painting as well. Monet's first wife Camille Pissarro served as his muse for many of his first paintings, serving as both his inspiration and his subject. After Camille passed away, Monet painted the “Ice Drift” series, a very dark set of paintings. He later remarried to Alice Hoschede and moved with her and their children to Giverny. Monet installed a pond planted with lilies at his estate in Giverny, which inspired his most famous set of paintings. Monet painted a series of nearly 250 oil paintings, all depicting his flower garden at Giverny.

Monet's chilling depiction of Camille on her death bed

            Monet’s Water Lilies are the reason that I chose him as my research subject. While I was studying abroad I went to visit the Musee de L’Orangerie, where I saw Monet’s “Les Nympheas.” This set of water lily paintings stretch across the walls of the museum, and were incredible to see in person. When viewed up close, his paintings look like nothing more than smeared blobs, but when viewed from a distance, look like fluid and accurate depictions of his pond. I really admire Monet’s ability to convey the essence of nature, without needing to use the blending and evenness characteristic of more classic painting.

Part of Les Nympheas collection at the Musee de L'Orangerie

            

Rey, Jean-Dominique & Denis Rouart. Monet Water Lilies: The Complete Series. Flammarion S.A.: Paris. 2008. Print.

Tucker, Paul Hayes. Claude Monet - Life and Art. Yale University Press: New Haven & London. 1995. Print.

http://www.biography.com/people/claude-monet-9411771#synopsis

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1983.532

http://www.musee-orangerie.fr/homes/home_id24799_u1l2.htm

http://totallyhistory.com/claude-oscar-monet-famous-paintings/

Sir Francis Seymour Haden

The art of etching arose in the early 1500s in Germany by Italian artisans as means of armour or weapon décor. Currently, these first etchings are on display in the Real Armeria of Madrid. Soon after the earliest etchings were produced, the process of etching shifted to combine with the printing process, which involves the use of acid in order to create the etch lines and edges. One of the major figures known for his work using this type of etching is Rembrandt, who has produced over 300 etchings throughout his lifetime. His collection of etchings surpassed such great detail than any previous etchings that critics thought he had created a new, classified process. However, throughout history, the process of etching has fluctuated over time, with the diminishing of acid and the shift in use various types of material used for etching printers.

Sir Francis Seymour Haden was born on September 16, 1818 in Chelsea district of London. His true profession as he was getting started with etching was being a surgeon of obstetrics. While being a surgeon was his family legacy, one of his greatest hobbies was sketching. Throughout his first trip to Italy in 1843, he kept a sketchbook by his time at all times. Some of his earliest etchings were from sketches he took on his trip. Haden first began etching around 1845, but only entered an “amateur printmaking” stage and didn’t begin taking his work seriously due to a lack of use of true etching medium until about a decade after that. The majority of his work involves landscapes, mastering foliage, water and atmospheric effects. Later in his life, he founded the Royal Society of Painter Etchers, and spread the popularity of the medium to France, England, and the United States.

Kidwell Castle, 1859

Kidwell Castle is one of Haden’s earliest “professional” works of art, at which point his work was considered to be less “complete”. His lines were thinner and he left much of the space without any etches at all.  As we’ll see in the other two paintings I post, many of his etchings are from experiences in his earlier life. In the earlier stages of this work, Haden included birds in the sky in his sketches, and the church tower (left) was open at the top. In his final piece, the church tower has been covered and he no longer includes birds.

Sunset on the Thames, 1865

Sunset on the Thames represents a piece during the middle of his etching career. This piece was one of his earlier works in the Etudes a L'eaux-fortes, his first portfolio of etchings consisting of twenty five plates. This was Haden's only portfolio that he had ever published. Haden was able to view the Thames right around the corner from his house in Chelsea. As you can see, more of the area is filled up and his lines become less discrete in defining objects. Also, in the first two works presented, Haden takes a more symmetrical point in his paintings. However, after this portfolio was published, he starts to loose his horizontal lines and works on a more asymmetrical standpoint. 

The Complete Angular, 1877

The Complete Angular (1877) exemplifies Seymour Haden’s later styles, displaying deep, thick lines and vast gravities of shading. As mentioned earlier, this piece exemplifies Haden's shift to a more asymmetric viewpoint. Supposedly, this new interest in deep and thick impressions came about due to his new mindset of being “old, blind, and unhappy.” In response to his nostalgia, he composed an etch of one of his favorite pastime hobbies as a child – fishing.

References:

“Sir Francis Seymour Haden”. Chicago: Atlas Gallaries. Retrieved from  http://www.atlasgalleries.com/display/artists/artists_biography.cgi?id_num=10093 (February 27)

Drake, WR.  A Descriptive Catalogue of the Etched Work of Francis Seymour Haden. London: MacMillan & CO., 1880. Print.

Pointon, M. “Etching and the Languages of Art Criticism in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Journal of the Association of Art Historians 20(1). Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers, 1997.

Simmons, LC. “Haden, Whistler, and Pennell: Three Mater Printmakers in the Corcoran Gallery of Art,” Washington, DC: 1990.

Thompson, W. “The Printed Image in the West: Etching”. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000 - http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/etch/hd_etch.htm (February 27)