The Three Trees, Autumn Claude Monet Date: 1891 Style: Impressionism Genre: landscape Media: oil, canvas Dimensions: 92.3 x 73 cm Location: Private Collection
Poplars were a bold choice of subject matter on Monet’s part: he portrays some of the trees as nearly naked, wire-like, unable to compress their blooming canopies into the composition. In fact, when combined with their aquatic reflections (a recurring motif in Monet’s work, from the seminal Impression, Sunrise to the later Water Lily Series) the trees resemble a grid of prison bars. And, as the air — freedom — between the steel rods occupies those behind bars, so the artist, an impressionist par excellence, pays particularly close attention to the atmospheric motions between the trees.
Monet does everything to vary the visual rhythm and break the somewhat imposing monotony of the horizontal trunks. First, the front line is delivered in a left-leaning perspective, so that each tree appears slightly smaller than the preceding one — the progression even implies a vanishing point at the far left before taking a turn to the right, deeper into space. Second, the tops form a band in the shape of a large “S,” which flows via the sky, dividing it into several visually manageable parts. Still, the linearity of the series is quite stark, almost acrobatic at times, and doesn’t always make for a smooth viewing.
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