Day 322- Later Monet



 November 28, 2022

Gallery 819 displays 11 oils from Monet’s middle and late periods. Occupying the wall opposite the entrance to the gallery and smacking you in the eye is a monumental  canvas measuring, I would guess, seven feet wide and three-and-a-half feet high. Its big splashes of green broken by occasional dabs of red are so abstract that it took a  more careful look - and more than a moment - for me to think “Monet, water lilies, Giverny."  I don't particularly like the artist's use of paint - it seems rather slapdash to me, although the placard says that it took him three years to complete the work!  But I have to admire the fact that, at age 76, Monet wanted to experiment with a bold new style. 

 I'm not enamored, either, of most of the gallery's other contents. It's as if the curator felt obliged to include at least one example of each of Monet's major subjects - haystacks, the rock formations at Etretat, the facade of the Rouen cathedral, the arched bridge over the pond at Giverny - but was less concerned with the interest value of these paintings. Or maybe I just tend to prefer the clarity and freshness of Monet’s earlier work

I do, though, like a large painting of sunflowers (measuring perhaps 42 inches high and 38 inches wide) that dates to 1881. What I realize I’m responding to is the color scheme: By setting the white and blue  vase filled with the golden flowers and their green foliage on a table topped with a bright red cloth, Monet  gives the picture an unexpected visual jolt. Pink highlights in the blue wall  against which the table is set help to integrate the painting's  warm and cool colors, which come together in a way that’s both stimulating and easy on the eyes.


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