Monet: The Late Years at the de Young Museum, San Francisco

Wow, I can’t believe it’ has been so long since my last blog post! Before talking about the Monet Exhibition, I’ll give you a brief update. I have had a lot of irons in the fire this year.  If you subscribe to my newsletter, you know in January, after working on the Board of Directors of the Florida Watercolor Society for four years, I’m officially President for 2019.  It takes a substantial amount of time to plan for an Annual Exhibition, Convention and Trade show attended by 600 people!  That is all taking place in Orlando September 19-22.  Everyone is invited!  If you would like more information, head on over the FWS web site.  We are also offering four workshops prior to the big Convention, taught by Carol Carter, Carrie Waller, Steve Rogers and Vladislav Yeliseyev.  Check those out too and come join the fun!

I’ve also been teaching a few workshops, and  squeaking some painting time in here and there.  Last March I had eight lovely students join me in my home studio for a “How to Achieve Texture in Watercolor Workshop.”  If any of you have taken a workshop in my home studio, you can vouch that I spoil and pamper you the whole time!  Contact me if you would like to be added to my “Advanced Notice List” for workshops or subscribe to my newsletter, which will always let you know where I will be teaching.  

The Artist's House at Giverny 1912-1913

I’ve  sent work out to some amazing exhibitions that I was honored to be chosen for.  The Fallbrook International Signature Watermedia Exhibition in Fallbrook, California  and The American Women Artists 25 Museums in 25 Years, show this year at the Steamboat Art Museum in Steamboat, Colorado.  I’ll be heading out there in June for the opening.  I’m currently in a show at the Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens  in Winter Park, Florida, called “Precious Pollinators,” with the Central Florida Watercolor Society.  It’s a great show focusing on a worthy cause,  making us aware of the current plight of the bee population! 

Corner of the Water-Lily Pond 1918, 1919

Corner of the Water-Lily Pond 1918, 1919

One of the highlights of the year was attending the Plein Air Convention, in San Francisco last April.  More on that event in the next blog post!  My husband, also a plein air painter joined me and we arrived a couple of days early to take in museums.  As luck would have it, Monet: The Late Years was going on at the de Young Museum!  If you are a follower of my blog you may have read a series of posts I have done on Monet, prompted by reading Mad Enchantment by Ross King.  Welcome, if you are new and happened upon this post! If you would like to read that series of posts start here.  This show at the de Young focused on the exact time period as King’s book.  The show closes on May 27, if you are in the area it is worth a visit.   

It blows my mind how prolific he was in the latter years of his life, painting the whole time during World War I, trying to overcome his difficulty with cataracts and the death of his wife.  The body of work, in the show was from museums across the globe, and many were from private collections. I always think when I see a painting from a private collection how lucky I am to have the chance to see it and study it.  Talk about living in the moment! In the span of 16 years from his 70’s to his death at age 86, he painted bigger, bolder, and more abstractly focusing on a limited subject matter, his gardens at Giverny, most notably the water lily pond.  

Water Lilies 1914, 1917

Water Lilies 1914 1917, Detail

Water Lilies1914, 1915

Water Lilies 1914, 1915, Detail

Water Lilies 1921, 1922?

Water Lilies 1921, 1022?, Detail

It is believed by the curators that many of the works in this show are studies for the “Grand Decoration,” the momumental works in the L’Orangerie in Paris. This exhibition was such an inspiration!  I hope at that age I have the health to continue to do what I love to do, and the freedom to play and experiment to my heart’s desire!   Do you have a favorite Monet painting or museum moment?  I would love to hear about it.  

Links to Other Monet Articles:

Part 1: Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies by Ross King

Part 2: Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies by Ross King

Musée L’Orangerie: A Peculiar Visit

Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet & the Paintings of the Water Lilies

Today is the first post in a series on my blog about Claude Monet, Giverny and other French musings.

My favorite thing to receive as a  gift is a good book.  When I discovered Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Paintings of the Water Lilies by Ross King, I couldn’t get it in on my Christmas list last year fast enough.  King is also noted for Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture, and Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling.  King’s books are extremely well researched and Mad Enchantment is no exception.  Focusing on the latter part of Monet’s life at Giverny, and his series of water lily paintings, including the “Grande Decoration”  that would be the large paintings eventually ending up at the Musée L’Orangerie in Paris, it delves into his obsession with creating such an enormous oeuvre  for an artist at his age.

I discovered several things from the book that I never knew before about Monet.  One is he would work on several canvases at once of the same scene while painting plein air.  Essentially,  they were a series of the same view captured at the moments in time before the light changed.  As he was working on one canvas and the light had changed too much, he would grab the next one and work on that one for a while and so on. Sometimes even working on one for only seven minutes.  It wasn’t uncommon for him to work in all weather conditions shuttling canvases back and forth and when he went on painting outings he was followed through the fields by his children and step children carrying canvases for five or six paintings of the same subject matter done at different times and with different lighting effects. 

Georges Clemenceau & Claude Monet_  Photo:  Wikimedia Commons

He had a deep and long lasting friendship with George Clemenceau, the French Prime Minister during World War I. Clemenceau’s fortitude during the war helped the French get through it. Being one of the original architects of the Treaty of Versailles, he was instrumental in the war ending and getting reparations for the French from Germany. Clemenceau and Monet corresponded religiously.  Clemenceau was a huge support mentally, emotionally and physically for Monet and his work.  

         Claude Monet in his studio with the "Grande Décoration"  _Photo: Wikimedia Commons

So it was right before World War I that Monet had the idea for the the larger than life canvases, he called “La Grande Décoration,”  the series of water lily paintings that are now one of the most highly visited series of paintings in Paris at the Musée L’Orangerie.  He painted them during the war while he was in his late seventies.   While the enemy was close, on several occasions with their attacks on Paris and it’s environs, Monet never contemplated leaving. He would rather parish at his home with his work if it came to that.  It was through his connections that he was able to garner favors for gas, so he could continue to use his cars, (he was a car collector), cigarettes, which he smoked like a fiend, and wine, which no French man can live without, during the war.  Plus, he was aided with transport  for  all  of the art supplies that he needed for his “Grande Décoration, " which would be coming from Paris.

Hotel Biron, Musée Rodin, Original Planned Location for an Annex for Monet's "Grande Décoration"  His Donation to the State of France_ Photo: Wikimedia Commons

After Rodin donated his entire collection of sculptures and paintings to the French Sate on the condition that his workshop, the Hotel Biron and his home outside of Paris become museums, the seed was planted in Monet’s mind that he could too be honored in such a way by donating his “Grande Décoration” to the State, if they agreed to build a venue or museum to his exact specifications to house and display the series.

Clemenceau was instrumental in getting the ball rolling and Monet started negotiations with the French State to make his gift a reality.  But it was not smooth sailing and resulted in several tumultuous  occurrences that everyone involved, including Clemenceau, wondered if it would ever come to fruition. Monet would tumble into fits of rage and depressions due to dissatisfaction with his work.  He was known to take a knife slashing and then burning hundreds of canvases, not only  the water lily works, but to those done  through the course of his life. One panel in the collection of the L'Orangerie had to be repaired from the swipe of a knife.  It is estimated that in his lifetime he destroyed more than five hundred canvases. 

Painting at the Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris, Done while Monet had Cataracts_ Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Another obstacle was Monet's health.  He wondered if his grand project would ever come to completion due to his failing eye sight due to cataracts.  He had multiple surgeries on his right eye, with long difficult recovery times, plus trial after trial of prescription glasses that never seemed to work for him.  Eventually he found the right lenses with a new scientific  discovery, an instrument made by Ziess, that could map the surface of his eyes to create a lens that would be the best that he could get.  Even those at first didn’t meet his satisfaction.  He barreled down the rabbit hole into another fit of depression.  After having surgery and multiple treatments on his right eye, his left eye was getting worse, and he refused to go through another bout of surgery, having suffered enough on those with the right eye.

                               L'Orangerie, Paris, France  Photo: Wikimedia Commons

As he was finally adapting to his new way of seeing, he continued to work on the large water lily panels and was working with the architect on the design of the space that would eventually be their home.  Originally it was planned as an addition to the Hotel Biron, Rodin’s museum.  But when the architect fell out of favor for not meeting Monet’s specifications a new one was hired along with a search for a new location.  It was then that the L’Orangerie, the former shelter during the winter for the orange trees of the Tuileries Gardens, during the time of the Third Republic, was considered.  It had also been used for dog and agricultural shows and expositions, and was also a place for lodging immobilized soldiers during the war.  Monet agreed to rennovating the L'Orangerie and the architect  began drawing up plans according to Monet’s wishes for two oval rooms and a skylight to light the works. 

Detail of a Section of a Water Lilly Panel in the L'Orangerie Showing an Unfinished Area_ Photo: copyright Kim Minichiello

Time was of the essence because the French State was in  an agreement with Monet and a date had been determined when Monet would hand over the work to be installed in the L’Orangerie around 1924.  As time was getting close, he made every excuse to not follow through and canceled the donation. An exasperated Clemenceau was distraught and didn’t want anything more to do with Monet, and the situation almost destroyed their friendship.  The underlying factor, on Monet’s part,  was that he not only felt dissatisfied with the work, and that it was such a part of his “essence” he couldn’t part with the paintings while he was still alive. Even today in one of the panels there is an unfinished area, as if Monet couldn’t come to terms with completing them. 

The Water Lilies Room in the L'Orangerie, Paris, France Photo:  Wikimedia Commons

After Monet died in 1926, the project finally came to fruition.  Clemenceau was instrumental in making sure all of  the details were addressed to open the L’Orangerie and dedicate the master works of his dear friend.  The date of the dedication in May of 1927, and the opening of the Musée Claude Monet a L’Orangerie des Tuileries opened to very little fanfare.  Clemenceau noticed that day that a sign for a dog show to take place at the same time in another part of the building was more prominent  then one announcing the inauguration for the Musée Claude Monet.  In fact art critics after his death didn’t hail him as a master artist. Because of the changing taste to more modern works at that time,  they claimed  the impressionists produced art that was essentially “fluff” and were postcards of niceties for American tastes. This, Monet’s  momentous, glorious gift to the French State and no one seemed to care. By the 1950’s the L’Orangerie was essentially deserted and in disrepair.  

It is hard to fathom what went on in the L’Orangerie after the dedication of the Claude Monet Museum in 1927 and how it became what it is today.  Stay tuned for Part Two of this blog post to find out, or grab a cup of tea, a comfy chair and a copy of Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies.

A New Blog Series: Claude Monet, Giverny and Other French Musings

As I was writing an article for a soon to be released blog post on a recent book I read on Claude Monet, which I'm  highly recommending, I realized I have much more to share beyond what I gleaned from reading the book.  The article on the book itself is getting quite long already! 

Living in Paris, I took full advantage of its proximity to Giverny, Claude Monet’s home in his later years,  and visited it multiple times in every season of the year, with the exception of winter when it’s closed.  I did however visit the last week of  the year it was open before closing for the winter season.   

Seeing it in this way in all seasons gave me full appreciation of the ever changing light and landscape in the garden  that was the main inspiration and only subject matter for Monet in his later years. 

I will be starting a blog series about Monet, starting with a review of the book,  my visits to his home in Giverny,  and other museums and places in France, that may or may not have a direct correlation to Monet, but that I think will be interesting.  

Stay tuned…the post about the book will be coming up shortly!

Birth of Impressionism and the Musee Marmottan Monet in Paris

Ahhhh April in Paris!  What a better month to hold an art exhibition. On this day exactly one hundred and forty years ago was an exhibition that changed the art world forever.

On April 15, 1874 a small group of artists put together a small independent art show to buck the establishment of academic painters and salons.  This exhibition led by artists Claude Monet featured other works by, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro and Berthe Morisot.  They called themselves the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptures, etc.

It wasn’t untilfrench art critique Louis Leroy entitled his nasty, scathing critique in a french newspaper, “Exhibition of Impressionists”  for which one particular painting by Claude Monet inspired this title, that the group would eventually be coined the “Impressionists.”   It was his, Impression: Sunrise.

When I lived in Paris I was so fortunate to see this painting many times as well as other works by Monet, Renoir and Morisot at the Musée Mormottan Monet, which is in the 16th arrondissement only a few blocks from where I lived.  Originally a hunting lodge on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne, it is a gem of a museum.  It has been bequeathed with many beautiful works of art over the years, most notably in 1966, Michel Monet’s collection of works inherited from his father.

What I love about Monet’scollection here is there are works that seem to be works in progress and those that weredone during his later years when he was afflicted with cataracts.  With these one can get a sense of his painting process. And the color palette from the cataract years is much warmer with golds and yellows,  not typically Monet but are gorgeous.

It wasn’t until the third exhibition by these plus other independent artists that they gave in and officially called them selves “Impressionists.”

Today on the birthday of this major art movement I wanted to pay homage to the “Artists Independent” who later became known as “Impressionists,”  the painting that coined the term, and the Museum where it currently residues!

A side note, Impression: Sunrise was stolen from the Musée Marmottan Monet in 1985, recovered in 1990 and has been back on display since 1991.

These are the artists that participated in the first Impressionist Exhibition:

• Zacharie Astruc

• Antoine-Ferdinand Attendu

• Édouard Béliard

• Eugène Boudin

• Félix Braquemond

• Édouard Brandon

• Pierre-Isidore Bureau

• Adolphe-Félix Cals

• Paul Cézanne

• Gustave Colin

• Louis Debras

• Edgar Degas

• Jean-Baptiste Armand Guillaumin

• Louis LaTouche

• Ludovic-Napoléon Lepic

• Stanislas Lepine

• Jean-Baptiste-Léopold Levert

• Alfred Meyer

• Auguste De Molins

• Claude Monet

• Mademoiselle Berthe Morisot

• Mulot-Durivage

• Joseph DeNittis

• Auguste-Louis-Marie Ottin

• Léon-Auguste Ottin

• Camille Pissarro

• Pierre-Auguste Renoir

• Stanislas-Henri Rouart

• Léopold Robert

---