I recently visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art on 5th Avenue. I paid special attention to the European Paintings exhibit. I found the impressionist painting of “Bouquet of Sunflowers” painted in 1881 by the French impressionist Claude Monet especially interesting. The way that Claude Monet makes the colors look like they are blended when he actually didn’t blend colors, as we learned in class that all impressionist artists in history did, is very interesting yet impressionable to the eye. According to my research Claude Monet completed 20 floral still life paintings including sunflowers which he signed and dated in 1881.
I learned that a rainy day was often what he preferred for his floral still life paintings as a painter who was always devoted to his garden.
I also learned that another famous impressionist of that era named Vincent Van Gogh which we spoke about in class actually liked Monet’s Sunflowers better than his own painting of Sunflowers as he wrote “Gauguin was telling me the other day-that he’d seen a painting by Claude Monet of sunflowers in a large Japanese vase, very fine.
But- he likes mine better. I’m not of that opinion”. I also learned that unlike Vincent Van Gogh, Monet would paint his sunflowers with no sign of decay. Monet chose seven types of flowers for his still life works- sunflowers were among his most popular. Claude Monet also liked to paint water lilies and he has approximately 250 oil paintings of them. I also found this painting very interesting in the way that he painted reflections in the water.
This made it look just like an impression of something realistic which helped me understand what Impressionism really is. When Monet wasn’t painting the plant life on his property he was busy planting and remodeling landscapes to better inspire his work or as he put it, “ I’m good for nothing except for painting and gardening”.
He created a perfect place where he would reflect and capture all of its color and beauty in oils on the canvas. In conclusion, I found that this exhibit pertained to what we learned in class extremely well as I felt like I took a walk back in time. To actually see these famous and beautiful works of art that all of us have heard of in one time or another is truly breathtaking and was also a lot of fun!
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