DOI Heft:
No. 134 April, (1908)
DOI Artikel:Alexandre, Arsène: Claude Monet, his career and work
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28254#0110
Claude Monet
After these first experiences he entered the
atelier of the very academic Gleyre. If ever there
was a painter caring nought for air it was he.
Gleyre’s creations are mere congealed statues, in-
capable of breathing, having, indeed, no need of it,
seeing that they live in something quite different
from air, with which they can thus dispense en-
tirely. So the young artist, impelled by Nature,
put aside all these lifeless things, and all these
conventions which impede life; and not having as
yet found a means of escape into the vast freedom
of the firmament, he placed himself under the
artistic domination of Courbet and Corot, a course
of action which at that time stamped one a
revolutionary. The first step in the direction of
complete deliverance was taken in 1863, when an
exhibition of the works of Manet revealed to
Monet what could be effected by honest, simple
painting, by the great contrasts of fresh tones, quite
apart from the rules of chiaroscuro. To make a
change of this kind was, it should be remembered,
as mad a thing, commercially, as one could do at
that period. Nevertheless Monet took the plunge
with all the ardour and the resolution he showed
in everything he undertook.
From 1866 (the year in which he exhibited his
Dejeuner, reproduced in these pages four years
ago, and the year of his great female portrait,
Camille, now reproduced), Claude Monet was
destined, right up to 1883, to be engaged in
desperate conflict with circumstances on behalf of
his art. He was the butt of all sorts of jokes,
to which he paid no attention, suffered pri-
vations which he scornfully endured, antagonisms
which never checked him for a moment in his
stride. Everything that might serve to embitter a
man fell to his lot—without embittering him. For
years he found the utmost difficulty in selling his
paintings even for the ridiculous sum of a hundred
francs. Little cared he. With complete confi-
dence in himself he refused to make the smallest
concession to public taste. This was the period
of his closest intimacy with Sisley and Renoir.
The latter has often told me how, when the little
“ JUAN-LES-PINS ”
(By permission oj Messrs. Durand-Ruel)
BY CLAUDE MONET
90
After these first experiences he entered the
atelier of the very academic Gleyre. If ever there
was a painter caring nought for air it was he.
Gleyre’s creations are mere congealed statues, in-
capable of breathing, having, indeed, no need of it,
seeing that they live in something quite different
from air, with which they can thus dispense en-
tirely. So the young artist, impelled by Nature,
put aside all these lifeless things, and all these
conventions which impede life; and not having as
yet found a means of escape into the vast freedom
of the firmament, he placed himself under the
artistic domination of Courbet and Corot, a course
of action which at that time stamped one a
revolutionary. The first step in the direction of
complete deliverance was taken in 1863, when an
exhibition of the works of Manet revealed to
Monet what could be effected by honest, simple
painting, by the great contrasts of fresh tones, quite
apart from the rules of chiaroscuro. To make a
change of this kind was, it should be remembered,
as mad a thing, commercially, as one could do at
that period. Nevertheless Monet took the plunge
with all the ardour and the resolution he showed
in everything he undertook.
From 1866 (the year in which he exhibited his
Dejeuner, reproduced in these pages four years
ago, and the year of his great female portrait,
Camille, now reproduced), Claude Monet was
destined, right up to 1883, to be engaged in
desperate conflict with circumstances on behalf of
his art. He was the butt of all sorts of jokes,
to which he paid no attention, suffered pri-
vations which he scornfully endured, antagonisms
which never checked him for a moment in his
stride. Everything that might serve to embitter a
man fell to his lot—without embittering him. For
years he found the utmost difficulty in selling his
paintings even for the ridiculous sum of a hundred
francs. Little cared he. With complete confi-
dence in himself he refused to make the smallest
concession to public taste. This was the period
of his closest intimacy with Sisley and Renoir.
The latter has often told me how, when the little
“ JUAN-LES-PINS ”
(By permission oj Messrs. Durand-Ruel)
BY CLAUDE MONET
90