Poppies (Wild Poppies or The Poppy Field near Argenteuil)

English

Poppies (Wild Poppies or The Poppy Field near Argenteuil): Claude Monet

Price: Price on Request
Art Type: Oil Painting
Size:
English Comments: 0
International Comments: 0
Creating Date:
Introduction and Works of Claude Monet >>

Contemporary-Art.org

Reproduction

Enlarge

Claude Monet Oil Painting - Poppies (Wild Poppies or The Poppy Field near Argenteuil)

Keywords: Poppies, Wild, Poppies, Poppy, Field, Argenteuil

Work Overview: Poppies (Wild Poppies; The Poppy Field near Argenteuil)
1873
Oil on canvas
Musée d'Orsay

When he returned from England in 1871, Monet settled in Argenteuil and lived there until 1878. These years were a time of fulfilment for him. Supported by his dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, Monet found in the region around his home the bright landscapes which enabled him to explore the potential of plein-air painting.

He showed Poppy Field to the public at the first Impressionist exhibition held in the photographer Nadar's disused studio in 1874. Now one of the world's most famous paintings, it conjures up the vibrant atmosphere of a stroll through the fields on a summer's day.

Monet diluted the contours and constructed a colourful rhythm with blobs of paint starting from a sprinkling of poppies; the disproportionately large patches in the foreground indicate the primacy he put on visual impression. A step towards abstraction had been taken.
In the landscape, a mother and child pair in the foreground and another in the background are merely a pretext for drawing the diagonal line that structures the painting. Two separate colour zones are established, one dominated by red, the other by a bluish green. The young woman with the sunshade and the child in the foreground are probably the artist's wife, Camille, and their son Jean.

Claude Monet was the leading figure in a loose-knit group of modern artists who became known as Impressionists. Monet himself, along with Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Alfred Sisley (1839-1899) and Renoir (1841-1919), was most interested in capturing the optical effects of sunlight on the colours and shapes of nature. This necessitated the mastery of plein air painting, so as to immediately record in paint, the momentary effects of light. (Note: For more, please see: Characteristics of Impressionist Painting: 1870-1910.)

This particular masterpiece of Impressionist landscape painting was painted by Monet the year before the first of the Impressionist Exhibitions in 1874, and about the same time as he painted Impression: Sunrise (1873, Musee Marmottan, Paris). Poppy Field was painted in the area around Argenteuil, where Monet lived between 1871 and 1878. Evoking the resonant atmosphere of a stroll through the fields on a summer's day, it is now among the world's most famous landscape paintings of the 19th century.

Claude Monet painted The Poppy Field, near Argenteuil in 1873. Painted in the wildflower fields outside Argenteuil, this painting reveals Monet's passion for color. With dabs of red, he scatters the blooms in a natural profusion across the lush green fields.

In the foreground, he sketches in the figures of Camille and Jean with simple strokes of violet, black, and white. Their figures appear again at the top of the hills in the distance, more a suggestion of color than an accurate record of their appearance.

In the countryside, a vivid splash of poppies seems to move in a gentle breeze. Monet has made the red poppies and the green field effectively equiluminant. The position of the poppies seems uncertain. To many viewers, they appear to quiver.

Claude Monet painted The Poppy Field in 1873 on his return from the United Kingdom (in 1871) when he settled in Argenteuil with his family until 1878. It was a time that provided the artist with great fulfillment as a painter, despite the failing health of Camille. Paul Durand-Ruel, Monet's art dealer, helped support him during this time, where he found great comfort from the picturesque landscapes that surrounded him and provided him with plenty of subject matter from which to chose. It was a time that Monet's plein air works would develop, and this particular painting was shown at the first Impressionist exhibition of 1874.

This beautifully depicted summer's day is captured in all its glory with the vibrant poppies complementing the wispy clouds in a clear blue sky. In the landscape, a mother and child pair in the foreground and another in the background are merely a pretext for drawing the diagonal line that structures the painting. Two separate colour zones are established, one dominated by red, the other by a bluish green. The young woman with the sunshade and the child in the foreground are probably the artist's wife, Camille, and their son Jean.

Copyright Statement:
All the reproduction of any forms about this work unauthorized by Singing Palette including images, texts and so on will be deemed to be violating the Copyright Laws.
To cite this webpage, please link back here.

>> English Comments >> Chinese Comments >> French Comments >> German Comments >>Report

Poppies (Wild Poppies or The Poppy Field near Argenteuil)

Claude Monet

Work Overview