Bold: Woman and a Parasol – Madame Monet and Her Son, 1875, also known as The Stroll
At his secondary school, Monet (1840-1926) discovered that his charcoal caricatures were popular, and that he could sell each one for 20 francs. He soon decided he might do better taking drawing and painting lessons, and becoming an artist, rather than following his father’s wish that he join the family grocery business.
Like many artists, Monet moved to Paris early on in his career. There he saw artists sitting in the Louvre in front of the Old Masters, painstakingly copying and trying to learn from these revered works. But instead, Monet chose to sit by the window and paint what he saw outside. He began to create his own approach, working outside en plein air, a technique he had learned from his tutor, the artist Eugène Boudin. It was Monet’s ability to master the effects of light on his subject that would define his career.
Looking at the serene pictures he created, you would be forgiven for thinking that he lived a very quiet life, spent mostly on the banks of ponds filled with lily pads, or at picnics on idyllic beaches with friends. For the most part, you would be correct, but Monet also enjoyed life as a vigorous young artist, and threw himself into the swing of Parisian life, taking advantage of all it had to offer.
He viewed art school with the same disdain that he felt for those artists he had seen in the Louvre, trying to copy the masters. Disillusioned with both the way art was being taught and the work that was being created around him, he found inspiration instead within his circle of friends, which by now included fellow artists Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley. Together, they shunned conventional methods and subjects, and bold new ways of making art began to take shape.
Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette by Renoir
Monet had been honing his skills for many years before he painted Woman with a Parasol in 1875. It depicts Camille, his wife, whom he had met when she had posed for him in Paris, and Jean, their son, then seven or eight years old. Monet’s unique approach – the remarkable way in which he used colour to convey the moment when light is fading – is brilliantly exemplified in this one painting. Camille’s veil and dress billow in the wind, echoing the surrounding grass and perfectly capturing the feel of a family stroll in the late afternoon.
However much this tender portrait delights viewers today, it was far from the typical genre painting that most of Monet’s contemporaries would have expected – indeed it was considered downright rebellious. Every year, Monet and his fellow artist friends submitted their works to the Académie des Beaux-Arts, for inclusion in their annual exhibition at the Salon de Paris. It was the most prestigious event on the art calendar. Every one of them had their work regularly rejected – it simply did not fit with the very conservative style favoured by the Académie.
In response, the artists decided to form their own renegade group, so that they could exhibit their own work. Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley and their colleagues wanted to show the public what could be created beyond the restrictions that were imposed on art by the establishment. Formed in 1874, they called themselves the “Société anonyme des artistes peintres, sculpteurs et graveurs”.
It was at one of these exhibitions that a critic, seeing one of Monet’s pieces, scornfully coined the term “Impressionists”. He felt the picture was unfinished, as if the artists had only managed to create a mere impression. But the group now had an identity; they were a movement!
Beech at Trouville by Eugene Boudin (1824-1898)
Monet showed Woman with a Parasol at the second of these rebel exhibitions. Despite lacking popularity – viewers were uncomfortable with pictures that strayed from familiar classical themes – he continued with his technique and his favoured subject matter. He took to painting the same scene over and over again, in order to study the light as it changed over the course of time.
Monet would often get frustrated with his picture after weeks of work, and destroy it. This happened so frequently that more than 500 of his paintings are estimated to have been trashed. Kicked, slashed, or burnt; the offending pieces had to be removed from his sight instantly. He suffered from grave self-doubt.
Monet travelled regularly to find inspiration, and, in the early 1890s, rented a room opposite Rouen Cathedral in north western France. Here, he wanted to capture the building in a variety of conditions – morning light, midday sun, grey weather – and made as many as 20 paintings studying the changing effects. This fascination with variable light led him to produce similar studies of haystacks and poplar trees. He even visited London to paint the River Thames in various weathers. In Giverny, he loved the gardens that he had helped create there. A Japanese-style bridge over the garden’s pond became the subject of many works.
However, despite Monet and his fellow Impressionists garnering attention, it did not turn into profit. Monet might have made a name for himself, but he was continually in debt. None the less, he persevered, refusing to stop even when he was diagnosed with cataracts. He had to wait until he was an old man to see his work recognised and admired. Today we can all see what he was fighting for, and can only be thankful for his resilience.
