Value Plastics & Impressionism: Monet’s Sunrise Analysis
Value Plastics and Impressionism
Value Plastics: In composition also predominate colors: blue and orange. Orange represents the sun, and blue the sea. Monet used colors with great spontaneity, applying broad brushstrokes of intense color (blue, purple, gray, and orange) to the canvas. He outlines the figures in a very schematic way, giving the feeling that the painting was done quickly to capture the precise moment of sunrise. The brushwork is loose, conveying the sensation of light without precise outlines. Color is applied to the canvas without pre-mixing on the palette. Monet used a clear palette (white, pink, green) and progressively eliminated black. Shadows were colored with cold and complementary colors (purple, blue). He painted outdoors (plein air), placing the canvas in front of the subject, a practice popularized by Manet. Scientific contributions, such as photography (to represent motion) and the color wheel (detailing color mixing and complementary colors), also influenced his work.
Influence and Relationships
Monet’s work shows the influence of friends and English painters. He was also impressed by Japanese art (ukiyo-e) which was spreading throughout the West.
Impression, Sunrise by Claude Monet
Impression, Sunrise, painted in 1872, was presented at the Salon des Refusés in 1874. It caused a great scandal and was criticized for appearing to be just a few simple strokes.
Style: Impressionism
The group, called the cornflower batignolles, gathered in Guerbois and showed their works to the public. In 1874, they developed the first exhibition of young artists together – La Société Anonyme Coopérative des Artistes Peintres, Sculpteurs et Graveurs. Approximately 3,500 visitors attended this exhibition, many laughing and teasing. The criticism was harsh, and a writer named Louis Leroy coined the term “Impressionism” for the group, taking the name from Monet’s painting Impression, Sunrise. Since then, artists concerned with light and color have been called Impressionists.
Subject: Sunrise at the Port of Le Havre
The painting depicts a sunrise at the port of Le Havre, with factories and chimneys in the background. Sailboats moored at the pier are only suggested due to the fog and morning smoke from the factories. In the foreground, three fishing boats are returning after a night’s work. The orange sun is reflected in the water, blurring into the distance.
Meaning: Anti-Literary Character
The Impressionists did not aim to tell a story but to capture a moment in light. Monet’s work attempts to impress the audience, allowing viewers to attribute their own impressions.
Style: Pioneer of Impressionism
This work by Monet is considered a pioneer of the Impressionist movement, which emerged in opposition to the official academic naturalism that prevailed in Paris at the time. Impressionism in painting arose from disagreement with classical themes and the artistic formulas dictated by the French Academy of Fine Arts. The Impressionists chose to paint outdoors and depict themes of everyday life. Their primary goal was to achieve a direct and spontaneous representation of the world, focusing on the effects of natural light on objects. The emergence of photography in the nineteenth century, a technique capable of capturing reality with great fidelity, caused a change in the traditional conception of painting.
The color science of the time revealed that the color range derives from pure tones that mingle optically in the retina. The Impressionists were concerned with capturing the effects of light on objects rather than the exact representation of their forms, because light tends to blur boundaries and reflect the colors of surrounding objects in shadow areas. The color of the object and its surroundings are involved in the shadows. The Impressionists eliminated minutiae and only suggested forms using primary colors (cyan, magenta, yellow) and complementary colors (orange, green, and purple). They managed to give an illusion of reality by applying color directly to the canvas in short, juxtaposed strokes, which mixed in the retina of the observer from an optimal distance, increasing brightness by contrasting a primary color (like magenta) with its complement (green). This allowed the Impressionists to achieve greater brilliance in their paintings than normally occurs when mixing pigments before application. To see this effect, one must observe it outdoors.