The Twentieth Century not only marked a new beginning in the social, political and economic world, it was a time of change in the art world as well. With the turn of the century, came new ideas and concepts of how to represent the world around us, moving away from the traditional values and skills taken from the Renaissance. Two revolutionary artists from this time period were Monet and Cezanne. They both found new ways of representing nature, but differ in their style and approach to their subjects.
As one of the great leaders of the Impressionism movement in France, Monet studied the ways in which outdoor light plays upon nature, creating a very animated effect on his canvas. His technique is not very precise, yet it is clear what the object is. In most of his paintings, his images are more effective if seen at a distance.
Cezanne, on the other hand, a contemporary of Monet, shows clear evidence in his paintings of the beginning of the Cubism movement; which developed out of and in reaction to Impressionism. Cezanne is like Monet in that he does not present a clear, concise picture of the image; but is totally different from Monet in his approach to his subject.
Monet’s oil painting entitled “Banks of the Seine, Vetheuil” of 1880, on display at the West Building of the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., is one of many examples of his perfected landscape style, at which he was most talented. It represents the moment of expression of light, which evokes feelings and emotions about the power of Nature. Because his composition is purely landscape, it draws the audience into his created environment. The division of subjects leads the eye from one plane to another. He begins with a detailed concentration on the flowers in the meadow, leading into the water of the pond, to the trees and shrubs in the background which are reflected in the water, which then creep into the sky above.
Cezanne’s painting completed in 1904 entitled “Le Chateau Noir”, also located in the West Building of the National Gallery of Washington, D.C. in contrast, is a landscape but differs from Monet’s in that Le Chateau is portrayed in an unnatural manner, and is not a balanced composition. While Monet uses soft, somewhat pastel-like colors, Cezanne uses bold, dark, contrasting and striking colors to describe his image.
In examining the artist’s techniques, we see a definite chance in method and style, which produces different ways of representing their subjects. Monet’s painting is of a highly Impressionistic style. The image is carried in his mind before actually painting it. Thus, his images are merely suggested through broad, vigorous strokes; creating an environment using a small range of colors. The colors are not intentionally blended, except as one color meets the other in his application on the canvas. Layers of colors are used to produce the painting’s animated effect. Monet painted the sky with patches of soft round color in a variety of blues and greens, and the water consists of many strokes of layered color to show how the outdoor light is reflected.
In Cezanne’s style, however, we see a more mechanical, uniform technique which moves away from the intimacy of Impressionism. His “Chateau Noir” is a painting of a chateau half visible by branches of trees. The viewpoint is taken as if we were standing on a mountain across from the chateau and peeking through the trees at it. The trees which we see in the foreground seem unnatural and stiff, somewhat like metal. Cezanne uses a completely different style from Monet. While Monet paints in small, vigorous brush strokes, Cezanne paints in large flat vigorous brush strokes whose placements do not have much of an order; giving the painting a feeling of disorder. The strokes used to depict the landscape resemble a patchwork in a variety of colors. Here is where we see Cezanne’s approach to Cubism, in which things of nature are reduced to a basic cubic form. As a result of this technique, Cezanne created a new pictoral way of depicting space by using geometry in landscape as Poussin did before him. The color of orange in the painting is used to make certain objects stand out. Perhaps he used this color to make us better understand what the painting describes.
While Monet is interested in the effect of light of Nature for the purpose of revealing its pure beauty, Cezanne is a more analytic and calculating artist who studies Nature by reducing it to its simplest forms; thus making it unnatural and somewhat mechanistic. However, through their paintings, they both presented inventive and revolutionary ideas of how to capture Nature on canvas. It was upon these techniques and philosophies of Monet and Cezanne which artists later found their inspiration to lead the way to Modernism in the art world.
Monet, “Banks of the Seine, Vetheuil” 1880, The National Gallery of Art, 4th St & Constitution NW, Washington, D.C., West Building, Gallery 86.
Cezanne, “Le Chateau Noir” 1904, The National Gallery of Art, 4th St & Constitution NW, Washington, D.C., West Building, Gallery 83.
