Analysis Of Claude-Oscar Monet's Mouth Of The Seine At Hofleur

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I visited Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California for the first time hoping to learn more about the European artworks this place has to offer. Norton Simon Museum holds the remarkable amounts of artwork by world-renowned artists: Vincent Van Gogh, Rembrandt van Rijin, Caravaggio, Raphael, and Pablo Picasso just to name a few. I observed many European paintings in the 18th to 19th century; I chose to discuss the artwork by the incredible Claude-Oscar Monet. Claude-Oscar Monet’s Mouth of the Seine at Honfleur, 1865 is an oil painting of a seascape on a canvas. The Parisian artist is considered one of the most influential artists in the late nineteenth to early twentieth century.
Monet became affiliated with numerous artists throughout his …show more content…

At first glance, the cheerful bright blue sky on the upper portion of the painting caught the most attention. The second dominant feature is the small sailboat with seagulls on the background where Monet illustrated in brightest white. Examining closely in that particular area, it is noticeable that the artist intended to incorporate a sheer layer of white surrounding the sailboat to create the illusion of sheen light breaking through the clouds and reflecting into the ocean. Monet used a variation of values along with the combination of heavy and light individual brushstrokes to create uneven tones to show the movement of the water caused by the weather and the sun. Several layers of underpaint can also be seen as the artist’s intention for the waves to appear fuzzier. The fuzzy wave in the foreground to the right is slightly bulged from the canvas showing the finer brushstroke slightly dabbed on the surface. Dense cracking is present all over the painting possibly due to the painting being very …show more content…

According to the author of Best of: Claude Monet, Monet spent the year prior he painted Mouth of the Seine in Honfleur where he worked along side Boudin, and Jongkind. (Brodskaya, 137) “The combined teaching of Boudin and Jongkind proved formative for Monet’s future direction as a landscape painter.” (Isaacson, 2004) Monet also produced several more of landscape paintings that hold some similarity to the Mouth of the Seine. Monet’s painting titled The Green Wave, 1865, and Seascape, Storm, (1866), are also the paintings of the seascape that also contains the similar subjects of the sky, ocean, and sailboats. Monet executes these two paintings with longer and heavier brushstrokes when comparing to The Mouth of the Seine. The famous Manneporte, Etretat, 1883, is also another painting that contains similar subject and techniques used. It seems as if Monet uses the same technique to paint the ocean. Although Manneporte bears much more Impressionistic style and the color schemes are more lively and energetic. However, the oceans are extremely alike to one

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