Looking Deeply at Claude Monet's Vétheuil en été

    When I walk around the AGO, Claude Monet’s work never fails to catch my eye. No matter how many times I have stared in admiration at his pieces, I will surely do the same on my next visit. I have often seen impressionist works described as looking unfinished, fuzzy, and unrefined. Whether this is intended negatively or positively, these qualities are what give the painting such charm to me. I catch the works and their bright natural colours from across the room and am drawn to the world within. Today I have found myself settled in front of his 1879 oil painting Vétheuil en été. Monet famously has a magical skill for capturing light, his delicate impressionist mark making captures something that no other work can in my eyes. The painting, hung on a rich blue wall, is displayed in a beautifully ornate baroque style frame, which sinks your gaze further into the scene, drawing your attention inward. The work, sitting eye level in the centre of the wall, gives the illusion that you are in France - looking out a window on a warm summer morning. The scene is filled with oranges and pinks, which all together form buildings. These buildings have light from the morning’s sunrise pouring over them, making them glow and cast cool blue shadows. These forms nestle into natural greens and blues as lush greenery fills the cracks of the city and connects the town to the coastal landscape. Beyond the rolling hills of the village, there are dusty blues which make up the horizon, sky, and water. The water, which fills half the painting, displays a sparkling and complex reflection of the scene above. A tall building, perhaps a church (centre left), is the main focal point of the piece. The scene falls back into a blurred distant horizon towards the right moving away from the building as the hues combine into a purplish-blue fog. The colours of the wall and frame compliment those in the work, creating a visually appealing and serene overall atmosphere. As I look more deeply, the colours dance and mix, the water in the foreground seems to sparkle and I feel as though I may smell the sweetness of the breeze. His use of principles of light, colour, texture, movement, and perspective, among others, give me the slow peaceful feeling of being in nature. It is the connection and full heartedness that I recognise from mornings spent laying on a blanket by the water - looking up at the light dancing through the leaves on the tree branches outstretched above me. Monet’s soft touch and warmth paints pictures of this feeling, this connection. The horizon is blurred, each detail. Each building, each tree fades into the next. My mind has wandered, I have begun thinking about Jules Bastien-Lepage’s Joan of Arc. I felt this almost indescribable feeling looking at his paintings on my recent trip to The Met. Knowing that Bastien-Lepage was inspired by the earlier work of Monet, the inspiration and atmosphere within the paintings makes sense. However, they stylistically look nothing alike. Jules paints almost photo realistically while, as I described, Monet uses impressionist styles with minuscule visible brush strokes. Get close to any one section of the work and lose the context, and suddenly all you see is a blur of colour with no form. To me, this and every other choice made by Monet in this painting is undeniably successful. The feelings evoked and the magical journey I am taken on while looking deeply at this scene are built from Monet’s classic careful observation and creative representation of the beauty of nature.