Dana Larson ARTHIST 102 Proffesor Aschenbrenner 02/25/09

The piece observed for this paper is Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight Effect, Oil on canvas, ca. 1903, by Claude Monet 1840-1926. This painting is a modernist painting in the Impressionist style, and illustrates the Impressionist aesthetic in the melding of objective and subjective. The term Impressionism originates in 1874 when a crtitic reacted to Monet's painting Impression: Sunrise, using the deragotive term Impressionism to describe the sketchy appearance of the piece.(823) The Impresionist movement in art was thus coined by a critics reaction to Monet's hurried and somewhat blurred aproach to painting, which places great significance on the objective or the object being depicted, and the subjective or the artists interpretation of the object while placing less importance on the psycological and emotional state of the viewer. From a techinical perspective Monet's painting is concerned with light and it's effect on percieved form, and light's relationship/interaction with color and the eye's perception of this phenomona. An analogy can be drawn between the Impressionist movement in painting and music. The Impressionist aesthetic in music is exemplified in the works of Claude Debussy 1862-1918. Debussy's music conveys the ideal of the impressionist movement in it's attempt to depict a moment in time, not relating directly to the emotional or psycological state of the composer or listener. Monet the leading proponet of Impressionist ideals in painting captures a moment in time, in the painting Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight Effect. The paintings subject is a bridge over the Thames river in London with barely visible smokestakes in the background. Composition: The eye naturally settles on the midsection of the painting, where the bridge runs horizontally and seperates the sky in the background from the Thames in the foreground. The bridge and industrial landscape in the background are vieled in shadow, and sillouetted against the lighter sky. This creates an effect on the viewer that this landscape is being percieved at dusk. The eye is drawn next to a bright spot of sunlight playing off the river in the lower right hand corner with a sillouetted figure in a boat. Which draws the eye up to the clouds in the upper right hand corner conceiling the setting sun from view. The composition with the bridge dividing the piece creates balance as a result of this almost exact division of the painting. while the forms are

almost completely enveloped in shadow and sillouette Monet brings out slight highlights in the line created by the bridge, and in the clouds as well as a spray of light reflecting off of the river. Scale: The scale of this piece is comparable to that of a view from a modest window in a house. The landscape and bridge are off in the distance thereby creating a sense in the viewer that they are percieving the bridge in reality at a distance. The effect of this piece is monumental but the actual size is actually quite small at only 29 x 38 in. The piece definitly has a realistic impact on the perceptions of the viewer, as if they where looking out their back window at the river. Color: The effect of the color scheme in this piece is relaxed and medatative. Rather than blending colors Monet juxtaposes contrasting colors in patches to imitate the efffect of light interacting with these colors in various intensities and settings. This is best viewed up close in the water of the river were deliberate dashes of green, red, and yellow are interdisperesd amoungst the predominant violet and blueish hues. When viewed from a distance the effect is that the colors blend and create a natural effect similar to water and light interacting in nature. The predominate color in this piece is violet. The bridges color scheme is composed almost entirely of hues of violet with a golden or yellow line catching the rays of the sun on the bridges ralling. The same effect is used for the clouds in the upper right hand corner, with the outine of the clouds depicting the barely escaping rays of sunlight outlining their forms. Texture: The paint is applied with moderate thicknes that is perceivable up close. When viewd at distances of aproximatley 5 ft. or further this texture is not noticeable. The effect that the painting has at a distance is that of a smooth blending of all the paintings elements, thereby mitigating the thickness of the paint as applied by Monet. Depth: This piece has a percieved use of perspective with objects in a 3d world as depicted on a 2d surface. The naturalistic setting of a bridge over a river gives this piece a relatively open and spacious feeling, while it's actual size 28 x 39 in. is rather small. Depth is achieved by the layering of objects in space, begining with the river in the foreground the bridge and the box-like factories in the far off background. And the clouds and the skyline providing the space in which this moment in time was captured. The viewer does not as in tromp l' oeil painting interact with this piece directly rather the piece has a photo or picture like quality as if viewed out a window.

Lighting: The lighting is dusk like, with the sun vield behind cloud cover outlining cloud forms and eventually reflecting off the water surface. The boat in the river as well as the bridge, factories, and smokestacks are all sillouetted againt the lighter water and skyline. All of the physical objects in this piece are covered in shadow and or sillouetted. The brightest element of this piece is the river in the right hand corner were some of the sun light's rays create bright yellows, oranges and some white, matching the effect real light has when reflected off water. Line: Line is hazy and undefined. The detail in this piece is somewhat ambigous, while at the same time enhancing the realistic effect of distance viewed in low quality light. It is interesting to note that some of Monet's critics accused him of destroying form.(824) There is in the bridge a line that is created by the effect of light running along the top edge or ralling of the bridge. This line has a natural almost organic flow that leads the eye from left to right. The bridges arches create a sense of contour and subtraction of weight, emphasising seperation from the line of the water level. In conclusion through use of realistic lighting effects, in a hazy dusky setting, Monet captures a relaxed and medative moment in time. Thereby excelling at meeting the expectations created in the viewer perceiving this piece from the Impressionist aethethic point of view. The ideals of the Impressionist movement in summary are; emphasis on light's interaction with form and color, capturing of a transitory moment in time, juxtoposition of colors on the canvass that trick the eye viewing these colors from a distance into interpreting the realistic interaction of light with objects in space and time, and an emotional and psycological detachment that is a combination of the objective and subjective in relaxed and medative reflection upon the percieved moment in time being depicted.