Currently, I’m sitting in a florescent lit room with plenty of windows so I can appreciate the buzzing of the light bulbs and the general grayness of outside. It is kind of depressing – especially since the last few days were so nice. And now I have been staring at On the Bank of the Seine, Bennecourt b y Monet, so now I feel like going on a sunny walk, having a picnic, or, at the very least, not doing homework. Thanks Monet. Kind of ruined my day with your sunny painting. You make me want to relax, take a holiday. Jerk.
The first thing that stops me about this painting to make me want a vacation is the cropping. That sounds like a stretch, but cropped images make me feel like the image is an experience I am viewing. You do not see everything all at once in reality, and, in real life, things do not align themselves so that they fit within a neat little box or frame or window or whatever. When I see a cropped image, my immediate response is to feel as though I am taking the time to stop, relax, and calmly look out a window. Window equals relaxing. We can see the tree and the buildings and the water and the sky all go to beyond our vision. The painting seems to be a little window that you could just pop through to fully experience the calm little setting.
Secondly, the colors and tones send me off to a summery day. Darn you Monet. The saturation, temperature and color selection (greens, blues, yellows) give the effect of warm, natural sunlight and pleasant weather. The view is outside on a nice, spring or summer early afternoon. Maybe we are having a picnic. Or a super quaint little tea party. Being outside in nice weather equals relaxing.
To add to this, there is the light. Monet, being interested in recreating the visual effects of light, uses shading and highlights much differently than previous western painters and all them academics. It’s mostly darkness in the foreground, and it is lighter in the distance. Well, the colors are not “lighter” which would sort of give an atmospheric sense of perspective. Both foreground and background are fairly saturated, so instead of giving an incredible sense of depth, I just feel like we the viewers are placed in the shade, while the stuff beyond our tree is more lit. Shade equals relaxing.
Then there is the solid blue sky. Bright blue sky equals relaxing. And it is not a sweltering, cloudless sky. I think I can see a few wispy clouds hiding behind the trees. Calm floating clouds equals relaxing. Monet also devotes quite a bit of the space in the painting to create a reflection. The water , reflecting the same saturated, warm colors, doesn’t seem to be disturbed at all. Still waters equals relaxing. Actually, water in general equals relaxing, unless it is cold and raging.
Meanwhile, the angle of our view suggests that we are near-ish to the ground. We see mostly up and out so we must be down low, sitting or lying down. Not standing equals relaxing (especially when we are in the shade on a sunny day).
And what’s right in the middle of this composition? Leaves. Nature. Nature is relaxing. That is what is important in this painting: a big tree covering up the village or town, and sitting under the tree. The composition does not allow the viewer to be involved with that other stuff. Not important. Neither is homework.
This painting takes the viewer, who if they were in an academic painting mindset would not have been looking for a chance to stop and relax, and forces them to enjoy the little experience the painter had on the bank of the Seine. It makes the viewer’s life seem undesirable. If an academic painter, or historians like ourselves, looked at this painting and then proceeded to not feel like they ought to be out enjoying summery weather instead of analyzing a painting, then they must not have looked at it for very long. Although if you are looking at the painting right now and alternating it with my blogs background, your emotions may get somewhat confused.
The cropping of this work makes me think of it as a view from the window of a nearby cottage. I want to get closer to the window and look around the corner at more of the scene.
ReplyDeleteI had two field trips this week, Monday and Tuesday for my Biology classes. The Ecology field trip involved going up into wind farm property and measuring the distribution of two species of sagebrush. We also discovered blooming violets and buttercup and horned lizards. The weather was quite fine. It was also nice on Tuesday when my Plant Taxonomy class went out to the hills above Vantage and identified a couple different species of phlox and many other plants. We also saw some scorpions and no one got any ticks. Next week: measuring crawdads and another trip out to observe plants. The crawdad trip will be down by the river and I wonder if there will be a view. There are some scenes from my Biology classes that I hold in my mind with the look of an impressionist painting, the bougainvillea in the greenhouse is one. Any converts to a Biology major yet?
I like how you've gone as far as to point out the position of the painter. From the perspective of the cropped painting, it is clear to see that Monet was in the shade of the tree as well, enjoying his own "relaxing" summer day. He captures the scene in front of himself without flaw. There is a warmth and comfort that comes with viewing this work, and all the elements that you name are the reasons for this.
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