Today, Monet's The Magpie is one of the Musee D'Orsay's greatest treasures. “accustomed to the tarry sauces cooked up by the chefs of art schools and academies, was flabbergasted by this pale painting.” In the words of Felix Fénéon, a contemporary art critic, The Magpie was rejected from the 1869 salon, likely because of its pale palette. ![]() Hence, whilst the scene itself is serene, this painting represents a daringly novel approach. ![]() At the time when he was painting, such pale colours and bright light were very unusual in artworks. What makes this painting particularly notable is the extremely pale palette that Monet used. The shadows of the wall and gate help to transform the great expanse of snow in the foreground into a poetic image of a winter morning. He chose to paint the snowscape in sunlight, created a contrast between light and shade. The scene that Monet depicts in ‘The Magpie’ is still and serene. Monet was staying in a house paid for by one of his patrons, Louis Joachim Gaudibert. The Sceneįor ‘The Magpie’, Monet ventured into the countryside around Etretat in Normandy to execute the work en plein air. The Magpie also happens to be Monet's largest snowscape, measuring 130 x 89 centimetres. Over the course of his career, Monet produced 140 snowscapes, with the Magpie being the most famous of the lot. ![]() Monet also encouraged Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley to join him in his new ambition and the artists each attempted their own snow-filled works. Gustave Courbet had spent a great deal of time pursuing snowscape subjects in his work. Monet was not the first artist to be captivated by snow. This may have been out of a desire to paint more transitory scenes than his other landscape works, capturing the snow in sunlight before it melts away. Towards the latter half of the 1860s, Monet began to experiment with snow-covered landscapes (snowscapes). Today, Woman in the Green Dress is to be found in Bremen's Kunsthalle. They eventually chose a pose with Camille standing with her back to Monet, turning her face towards him and a gloved hand raised towards her face. Camille added a fur-trimmed black jacket, perhaps to conceal the fact that the dress did not fit well, and a small feathered hat. Together with input from Camille, Monet set the scene for his seven-foot canvas. And there is the problem of this green satin dress which I have rented and her blond head which I fear I will not do well.”īazille and Monet were very close and so when he eventually gave up on his painting, the dress probably made its way across to Monet’s studio on the rue Pigalle. “What is really horribly difficult is the woman. In January 1866, Bazille wrote to his mother complaining, It is likely that the green dress Camille wears in the painting was borrowed from Frédéric Bazille, who was struggling with his own painting at the time. Instead, she was his partner and close advisor, especially in Monet's early career. Gedo demonstrates that Camille’s professional capabilities made her far more than Monet’s muse. Far from being simply a passive figure, Camille advised Monet on composition, clothes and appropriate poses, helping to bring an air of sophistication and elegance to many of his paintings.Ĭamille’s influence aided Monet in his attempts to capture the essence of the modern woman.Ĭamille featured in a number of Monet’s paintings throughout their relationship, from the controversial ‘La Japonaise (Camille Monet in Japanese Costume)' from 1876, to the tender, almost haunting painting ‘Camille Monet on her Deathbed’ from 1879.Īrt historian and psychologist Mary Mathews Gedo has written extensively on the ways in which Camille redefined the role of the artist’s model. ![]() The figure depicted in the work is Camille Doncieux, Monet’s mistress who later became his wife.īorn in January 1847, Camille came from a bourgeois family and she was influential in shaping Monet’s figure paintings. Softly it drags, it is alive, it tells us quite clearly something about the woman”. It was not only accepted by the jury, but received praise (something that the impressionists were not used to at this time).Įmile Zola, one of the Impressionists' main supporters, said the following about the dress: Monet submitted this work to the Salon (the annual exhibition of the Fine Arts Academy) in 1866. Note how Monet uses the fabric to show off his skill at painting light and shadow. Her facial expression is ambiguous, giving the whole painting an enigmatic feel. In ‘The Woman in the Green Dress’, the model’s fashionable clothes show her to be a modern Parisienne woman.Īt the same time, her pose is bold and dynamic, indicating that this is not a traditional portrait.
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