Analysis Of The Artwork Garden At Vetheuil By Claude Monet

Claude Monet was a French artist, who was also the Founder of French Impressionist painting. He wasborn on 14th November 1840 in Paris, France. He studied at Le Havre secondary school of the artswhere he was known for his charcoal caricatures. Eugene Boudin was his mentor who taught him touse oil paints. He left school at the age of sixteen after his mother passed away and lived with his aunt. Monet was chosen to serve the military for seven years which his father refused to buy his exemption because of the reluctance of Claude Monet giving up painting.

Close up of the artwork description:

This artwork was painted by French Impressionist artist, Claude Monet using oil on canvas. The nameof this artwork is Garden at Vetheuil, painted in 1880. Monet’s hobby was planting gardens. Wherever he lived, he will plant gardens. During his stay at this rented house in Vetheuil, he and theowner made arrangements together to draw the scenery of the terraces, down to the Seine, which isa river in France. The little boy standing in front of the staircase is the youngest son of Monet,whereas the two persons standing at the staircase are Monet’s extended household members.

Recognizable Subjects:

There is a kid standing in front of the staircase with a chair in front of the kid. On the staircase, thereis another kid sitting with his mother standing right beside. They are most probably spending time atthe backyard of their house because there is a house behind them. They are surrounded by plantsmostly sunflowers. The pot on the right hand side is having an image that looks like a lion. There is acherry plant on the left hand side of the staircase.

Visual Elements and Their Qualities:

Lines: Claude uses different line techniques in this artwork. For example, straight lines, irregular lines,curvy lines, and thick and thin lines.

Colours:

The artwork looks lively with a variety of colours. Claude uses yellow, green and red colours to paintthe plants, blue and white colours to paint the sky, and brownish yellow colour to paint the ground.

Textures:

This artwork is believed to have a smooth surface. This is because the tool used in this artwork is oilon canvas.

Shapes:

This artwork contains mostly organic shapes, like human figures and plants. This artwork alsocontains geometrical shapes, as used in the painting of the house and the staircase.

Forms:

This piece of artwork is painted in one-point perspective form. It also contains organic form as mostof the artwork is being occupied by plants and human figures.

Composition:

The composition of this artwork creates an illusion of depth based on the arrangement of thesubjects and objects. For example, objects that are placed on the front are bigger than the objectsplaced at the back.

Technical Qualities:

Claude uses oil to paint on the canvas in producing this artwork. The artwork was created by heavybrush strokes that create a sense of movement as if the flowers are moved by the wind. The colourschemes used by Monet to paint this artwork are some cold and warm colours. For example, darkblue in combination with some white colours use to paint the sky as well as brown and grey coloursused to paint the house are the cold colours used in this artwork, while the use of light green, redand yellow on the plants are the warm colours used.

Analysis:

Size / scale relationships:The plants, especially the sunflower plants occupied most of the artwork which makes it theattention catcher of this painting. The sky is smaller than the ground because the ground was thepriority of Claude Monet in this painting. In addition, the colour of the ground is brighter than thesky because the garden is the main topic of this artwork. The plants on the front are obviously biggerthan the plants at the back to show the depth and perspective in this artwork.

Shape relationships:

In this piece of artwork, the clouds in the sky were painted by using irregular shapes. This is because Claude Monet wanted to differentiate the sky from the roof of the house. Monet also uses someirregular shapes to paint the shadows of objects to show that the light are coming from the rightside. In addition, Monet uses geometrical shapes to paint the house at the back to differentiate thehouse from the plants on the front of this artwork. The sunflower plants were painted by using some15rounded shapes and the four pots of plants on the front of the artwork is painted using somestraight lines.

Colour relationships:

The artist, Claude Monet uses a variety of colours in this artwork. There are bright colours likeyellow, red and white as well as some dark colours like dark blue, grey, black and brown colour. Thedark blue colour was used to paint the sky together with some white colour to paint the clouds toshow viewers that this artwork is actually panted in the day. Another evident to show that thisartwork was painted in the day is the use of some black colour to paint the shadows of objects. Monet also uses some bright colours like red, light green and yellow on the plants to make thisartwork look a little livelier. Besides, Monet uses bright colour to paint the shirts of the three humanfigures to make it easy for viewers to differentiate them from other objects. As in this artwork,Monet uses light blue and white colour to paint the shirts of the human figures. Textural surface relationships:~This artwork has an actual textural surface and is heavily layered. This is because of the techniqueused in this artwork is short and broken brush strokes. This technique creates depth and perspectivein the artwork. The colours in this artwork were also blend together optically rather than by blendingthem on the palette. By using this technique, Monet was able to capture the effects of light and theperception of viewers. Monet created this artwork by applying wet paint into wet paint of differentcolour that was already on the canvas. This painting technique can create depth and perspective. Forexample, the sunflower plants and the house have a kind of depth between them because of thistechnique.

Space and volume relationships

The terrace house on the background of this artwork is bigger than other objects in this painting. This is because the artist was trying to emphasize on the depth and perspective in this artwork tocreate the distance between objects. Furthermore, the dark tone and light tone colours used in thisartwork create depth and contrast.

Interpretation

The artist, Claude Monet liked to plant gardens wherever he lived. Every time he moved house, hewould make arrangements in his garden to create drawings. The three flowerpots in blue and whitebelong to Claude Monet, who would take the flowerpots with him every time he and his familymoved house. The intention of Claude Monet for doing gardens paintings was because he wanted tocapture every moment with his family and friends. The artwork gave me a feeling of happiness as soon as I looked at it. The artwork made me feel likeas if I was in the garden spending valuable time with my family on a sunny afternoon. The vibrantcolours used on the plants were able to give me a sense of calmness and joyous feeling at the sametime. I feel very relaxed by looking at the artwork. The flowerpot placed in front on the right has a lion image on it. It also seems like the object in frontof the kid standing in front of the staircase is a chair on the first look but it actually is a wagon.

Judgement

This artwork by Claude Monet is having good and bad traits at the same time. One of the good traitsis that the artist uses good line technique to do the painting of the house on the back of thisartwork. He was able to make the line look obvious to show the distance between the sky and theroof of the house. Another good trait is that the artist was clever in choosing what colours to use. The combination ofthe dark and bright colours he uses was able to bring out a lively feeling out of the artwork. The dark colours used in painting the house and the sky and the bright colours used in painting theplants and human figures were able to show the distance and depth between all the objects andsubjects. The mixture of bright colours used to paint the plants were able to make the plants look as if theywere moved by the blow of the wind. The black colour used to paint the shadow of the objects wereable to give viewers a clear view of where the light source come from. Next, the bad trait of this artwork is the brush strokes technique used by the artist, Claude Monet. This technique, if being used to paint the plants are able to make the plants look lively and surreal,but if used to paint human figure might have an opposite outcome. This is because the brush strokes technique made the human figure unclear and without a properform, especially human figures that are painted further. It will make it difficult for viewers to spotthe human figures. For example, in this artwork, the two human figures at the back are on the staircase are without aproper form and are unclear. Hence, if viewers see from far away, they might not know that thosewere actually human figures. Another example is the staircase. The brush strokes technique made the line unclear and it is a littledifficult for viewers to spot the staircase because of the improper form.

Conclusion

All in all, this brush strokes technique might be good to be used on plants and buildings as they looklively and also able to show the depth in an artwork. At the same time, this technique is not reallysuitable to be used to paint human figures as it will make the human figures unclear and withoutproper form. 17Comparison:~The artwork “Otaru Fable” by Chang Yoong Chia and the painting “Garden at Vetheuil” by ClaudeMonet have massive differences between them. One of the most notable differences was theirnationality. Chang Yoong Chia is a Malaysian, whereas Claude Monet was a French. The difference of their nationalities will cause their artworks to be very different because what theysee in their own country is different. For example, the view, the scenery and the weather aredifferent. In France, there is winter season, whereas in Malaysia there is no winter season.

Hence,Claude Monet might be able to create artwork of winter scenery by staying in his homeland. Thatdoesn’t mean Chang Yoong Chia will not be able to do the same, but if he wants to artwork of winterscenery, he would have to travel all the way to another country having winter season which wouldbe very troublesome. Besides, another difference is the equipment they used to produce their respective artwork. ChangYoong Chia used seashells, marker pen and scallop shells ink to produce his artwork, while ClaudeMonet used oil on canvas to create his artwork. Chang Yoong Chia’s artwork contains only black and white colour, which at times look very dull andunattractive. Furthermore, the fact that he painted on the seashells, which is very small compare toa canvas makes it harder for viewers to see from far away. Meanwhile, Claude Monet used oil topaint on a canvas which makes it easier for viewer’s to see and couple with the fact that he used avariety of colours to create his artwork make his artwork a little more lively and attractive. Lastly, even though both the artworks have a lot of differences between them, they both fall in thesame category, which is expressivism. “Otaru Fable” is an expressivism artwork because the artist,Chang Yoong Chia was trying to share his feeling of happiness during his trip. On the other hand, theartwork “Garden at Vetheuil” by Claude Monet is also an expressivism artwork because he wastrying to express his own feeling through the artwork. He was trying to tell viewers about the dailylife of his family and him.