Winter, 1868 --- Days 14/357 & 358

Walks: Hood

Distances: 4 still cold miles

Claude Monet, The Magpie, 1868, oil on canvas

Here we have Claude Monet well on his way to what came to be known in art as impressionism and one of Ciwt's favorite paintings. Impressionism wouldn't be coined as an art term for another four years and Monet was focused on capturing the softness of resting snow, the near ethereal light and shadows and the enveloping quiet of the still winter weather he was out painting in.  

He was also inventing or perfecting new techniques and using colors in entirely fresh ways. He had wide skill with his brush and here often applied paint with light, wispy strokes.  His vision was astoundingly sharp so he could see and then paint the many colors before him.  

Pink building and sky:

Red, yellow, blue sky in the distance,:

And, remarkable for the time, blue shadows when black was traditionally used for them:

And then there's that bird, that magpie, bringing aliveness to the still scene:

To Ciwt this magpie is many things: delicate, strong, self-possessed, solitary and alert.  Magpies are restless birds though, so there is a sense of moment while it has landed and anticipation about when it will move on.  

Ciwt supposes that, like her, the myriad people who have loved this painting over the years have also projected their own thoughts and feelings onto the bird.  Among Ciwt's projections, is Monet himself.

Like the magpie, Monet was alone in many ways.  At the time of this painting, he had finally attracted his first patron and had some income but there was no guarantee another was coming.  For years he had been dirt poor.  His father never approved of his profession and refused to help him financially, even when he and his young lover (who would become his wife), Camille Doncieux, had a son. He lived by moving from place to place (sometimes needing to leave them alone) hoping to attract patrons or just sell a canvas. He often skipped out on his rent agreements, left his debts unpaid and in the worst of it became so anxious and despairing he made a suicide attempt.  

But, like the bird, he was self possessed and had a powerful, abiding (and correct!) belief in his artistic talent.  So, he famously trudged outside with his paints and easel even in the most forbidding weather often working from before dawn to dark or until his fingers could no longer move from the cold. He was obsessed with nature and bringing  it - its colors, its varying luminiosity, the feelings it evoked - onto his canvas. He studied nature, light and color patterns, invented or perfected brushwork techniques in pasionate service to his goal. Along the way he also happened to initiate a whole new art movement and is now known as The Father of Impressionism.