Showing posts tagged paintings

Claude Monet Reading by Renoir

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Claude Monet was not as prolific painter of self-portraits as some painters like e.g. Vincent Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo and Rembrandt. However, luckily other painters stepped in to contribute to the immortalization of Monet’s likeness. Among these, we find Renoir’s “Claude Monet Reading”.

Painted by Renoir in 1872, it shows Monet reading the newspaper while smoking his pipe. Monet is well dressed in dark jacket and a hat, with a white shirt visible under his jacket. The year of the painting, 1872, is the same year that Monet painted Impression Sunrise but before it was exhibited and before the impressionist movement had really taken shape. The painting was thus made before the true artistic breakthrough of Monet himself, while he was staying in Argenteuil on the outskirts of Paris. Some of Monet’s memorable early works like Argenteuil and Woman with a Parasol was also painted while he stayed there. The depiction is an uncanny Renoir with all the characteristics of Impressionist painting. We see the fine but visible brush strokes, the focus on color over line, the depiction of light and the strait forward motive.

The excellent depiction in Claude Monet Reading offers a glimpse of Monet the Man in the days before his career really took off. The painting can today be found at the Musee Marmotten in Paris, France.

Gustav Klimt’s Junge Frau

Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt was no stranger to depicting the sensual. Nowhere is this inherent feature of Klimt more obvious than in his painting The Virgin. The Gustav Klimt painting depicts a number of girls lying together on a bed of flowers. At the center of this lies the Virgin herself (well, actually the original name is Die Jungfrau which just means young woman but never mind that). Her uninterested face is actually modeled on that of , Emilie Flöge, Klimts partner. Notice how her face is set at a rather steep angle, like her neck could have suffered damage.

The Virgin is herself covered in an intricately decorated fabric, in the familiar style of Klimt. As is also apparent in other Klimt paintings, he is using round shapes to symbolize the female. Meanwhile the flowerbed on which the women are lying is surrounded by an empty, though not menacingly so. This further serves to concentrate the viewer’s eyes on the women, as if any prodding was needed. The Virgins is a painting that would make a great art reproductions to be hung in the home.

The virgin is painted in the symbolism and style of klimt, though at the same time offering a harmonious and balanced coloring palate that makes it a pleasure to observe. Another masterpiece from the Austrian master himself.