Analysis Of Claude Monet's The Coalmen

Climate change is the anthropogenic result of the Industrial Revolution, and the continuing issue of man’s ‘conquest of nature’. Thus, the current epoch is christened the ‘Anthropocene’: a period where humans are observably altering the functions of Planet Earth. Because of the catastrophic ramifications, both the causes and implications of climate change are of prevalent discussion in the contemporary art and design world. Manifesting in an abundance of mediums, often the subject matter depicted in these works is purposely provocative; a result of modern work’s tendencies to disperse the current mirage of ideologies instilled in our Occident culture, during the early Anthropocene – because changing human beings perceptions is the challenge,

1) introduces the audience to a bustling scene on the docks; the activity created by the amount of detail in all depths of the visual text. Capturing this moment in the year of perhaps 1875, the Industrial Revolution has come and gone, but what now remains of this era is the combustion of fossil fuels, such as the coal presented here. Monet depicts workers heaving coal up the ramps, while above in the top third of the painting, are other citizens of Paris, ‘going about their day’. However, excluded from the picture is the detail (a factor of Impressionist-era paintings), specifically the detail of the people. Only their overall movement is visible, not their struggle to breathe in the encompassing yellow smog, which overlays the entire visual text. Creating a sense of completeness for the viewer – over a hundred years of viewers – and omitting the experience of this smog, it beautifies the urban landscape, and inadvertently, the conquest of nature. Such a glorified depiction “produces a sensory anesthetic to the actual physical conditions” (Mirzoeff 26); this phenomenon normalizes the burning of fossil fuels and the conquest of nature, as the viewer becomes accustomed to the beauty of the ‘modern’ city (Mirzoeff 26). Due to Monet’s credibility, the ideologies created by the text are still prevalent in Occident culture today. However, now it is known that these practices are unsustainable, yet the ‘living in the moment’ attitude, with an

2). Orientated around the current conquest of nature in the African country Senegal (source), the specific image of analysis discusses deforestation; a key contributor to climate change (Anderson and Kuhn, Cowspiracy). Devoid of living fauna, the dun-hued setting exposes the audience to the present drought in Senegal. Arguably a natural occurrence in this semi-arid country, the graceful figure in the scorched foreground denies this. Radiating divinity from this creature is due to her chin held high, and elevated stature of her earthen attire; depicted is Monteiro 's effort to show the unnaturalness of Senegal’s situation via this godly being. Acting to discredit those standardized ideologies created by artwork such as The Coalmen (Fig. 1), it effectively shows the foreignness of the conquest. Additionally, this uncovered meaning is only further encouraged by the supernatural being holding the elephant ear leaf, far above the fires. Visual information made seen by this visual text is not just the wrongness of the Western world’s culture, but also the plea of help from the people and the environment of