Claude Monet, "Woman With a Parasol, Madame Monet and her Son"

   It is a beautiful windy Spring day so I thought this wonderful image would be appropriate for this week.  Is there a period of Art more liked and more famous than Impressionism and its great founder, Claude Monet (1840-1926)?  With such a beautiful image as this, it is difficult to grasp why Monet and fellow painters had such a rough beginning.  But they did.  To Monet the way light fell and reflected color was everything, a revolutionary idea in his day.   He painted outdoors stressing air and the movement of it and our painting this week is a perfect example.

   When done in 1875 , Monet was still a struggling artist.  In our scene, it appears he is sitting down from his wife, most likely on a hill, as the son seems to be on the far side of the incline.  The sun is strong casting deep shadows in the tall grass.  

    So consider this a problem:  if you taught painting and directed students to paint the wind,  how would you guide them?  A study of our painting of the week would be perfect instruction.  Here, one can almost feel it.  It is blowing her skirts and her vail.   She maybe having difficulty holding onto her parasol.  Plus the broken, swirls of white clouds and the lack of detail in the tall, leaning grass punctuate what we already know: a very sunny, windy day.  

   Remember this is an Impressionist painting - impression!  Monet wants us to see the way he believes we actually do see, when we are out-of-doors and the world is moving by.   Not in exact detail.  

    I find the composition interesting.  The subjects are in the center, with Madame Monet turned enough creating an important space to our right.  Clearly the large foreground of grass and the huge sky become as essential to the artist's intent.  This is not a portrait of two people, but it is the solution to our classroom problem, perfectly and beautifully accomplished 

   Woman With a Parasol, Madame Monet and her Son was painted in 1875.  She is Monet's first wife, Camille Doncieux Monet and the son is Jean Monet, their oldest of two.   A year or so after this painting Camille became ill eventually dying in 1879 at age 32.  The painting is an oil on canvas measuring 3' 3" high and 2'8" wide.   It is part of the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.  

   Make Art a part of your life, it's a beautiful thing to do.