Claude Monet

Claude Monet

Rouen Cathedral Series

1892-1894

Claude Monet was a French Impressionist painter and considered the founder of the impressionist movement. The series Rouen Cathedral involved renting a studio across the street from the Rouen Cathedral, and painting it over thirty times throughout different times in the day in the course of two years. Disregarding the building completely, Claude focused more on the changing conditions on the Cathedral; how the light reflected off the building, what effect does a cloudy day have compared to a sunny day, what colors do I see now that I didn’t see two hours ago. All of these questions were answered throughout the span of time he spent painting this series. Claude Monet masters the art of reproducing subtle nuances in an ever changing environment while painting the Rouen Cathedral by studying the same object in different conditions, illustrating Monet’s skill in replicating the effects of light, the attention to detail, and the beautiful nature of capturing a moment in time.

The Rouen Cathedral series painted in the 1890s by Claude Monet encompasses all the characteristics of an impressionist painting by paying closer attention to the effects light and color have on an object rather than the object itself. This practice is what led them to create a “new pictorial process where the juxtaposition on the canvas of brushstrokes of pure color will result in a "optical mixture" only in the eye of the spectator.” Monet trained himself through practice, to see in color and light, rather than in form. He would never mix colors, but instead go straight from the tube, placing two large brush strokes down on the canvas side by side to create the color he wanted, playing with the viewer’s perception of the painting. For example, to get an orange color he would paint a yellow and red brush stroke side by side. To the viewer’s eye from afar it would look as if it was the color orange. The impressionist painters worked directly...