Monet's parasol

 

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James Lucas

@JamesLucasIT

This is one of the most famous paintings in the world, yet few people know the story of the woman holding the parasol… It was painted by Claude Monet in 1875, and she was his wife, Camille, out for a walk with their young son Jean near their home in Argenteuil, just outside Paris. Monet painted them outdoors on a windy day, from below, so that Camille stands against the sky, her veil and dress caught by the wind, looking down at us as if we had just called her name. It feels less like a moment a husband didn’t want to forget. Four years later, Camille was gone. After a long illness, she died in September 1879, at just 32. Five days before the end, a priest blessed the marriage she and Monet had made in a simple civil ceremony nine years earlier. And there, at her bedside, the artist did the only thing he knew how to do: he painted her one last time. Years later, he confessed that even then, sitting beside her, he caught himself studying the colors that death was leaving on her face, a moment he never managed to forget. By then, she had appeared in some fifty of his paintings: in a green silk dress at nineteen, standing at a window, walking through the poppies with their little boy. Without ever meaning to, he had painted the story of her whole life with him. Monet lived almost fifty more years, but on this canvas it will always be that summer afternoon, with Camille turning to look at him in the wind…

I AM BLAZE THE CURIOUS

@Blazethecurious

DID YOU KNOW?? After undergoing cataract surgery in 1923, Claude Monet gained the ability to see ultraviolet light, causing his late paintings to feature surreal shades of blue and violet that normal human eyes cannot perceive! ​As Monet aged, dense cataracts severely degraded his vision. The clouded crystalline lenses in his eyes turned yellow-red, muddying his perception of color. His famous water lily canvases shifted from delicate greens and pinks into murky, disharmonious browns, reds, and oranges. ​After years of hesitation, he finally agreed to a radical surgery to remove the cataract-clouded lens from his left eye. Because the human eye lens naturally filters out ultraviolet (UV) light, removing it meant UV wavelengths hit Monet's bare retina directly. As a result, Monet began perceiving UV light as a vivid, ethereal blue-violet, a condition known as aphakic vision. He reworked many of his late water lily compositions, painting blossoms and water reflections in striking, electric-blue hues. Walk with me ​More Fascinating Facts About Claude Monet A. ​Started as a Teenage Caricaturist: Before mastering Impressionism, a 15-year-old Monet made a living drawing satirical charcoal caricatures of local figures in his hometown of Le Havre, selling them for 10 to 20 francs each and signing them "O. Monet" (his first name was Oscar). B. ​Accidentally Named Impressionism: The term "Impressionism" was originally coined as a harsh insult by art critic Louis Leroy. Reviewing Monet's 1872 painting Impression, Sunrise, Leroy mocked the loose brushwork, sneering that wallpaper in its embryonic state was more finished than Monet's "impression." The group embraced the insult as their official title. C. ​Hired a Full-Time Gardener to Wash Water Lilies: At his famous estate in Giverny, Monet created an intricate water garden. He hired a full-time gardener whose sole job was to row out onto the pond each morning in a boat to scrub dust and soot off the lily pads so Monet could paint their pristine surfaces. Hopefully you've learnt something new today?

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