General information
The name of the painting is quite long: Bridge over a pond of water Lilies. It is painted by Claude Monet in 1899.
Some happenings from 1899:
- First peace conference in The Hague
- A copper mine in Japan collapses
- Philippine - American war
Claude Monet was born on the 14th of November in 1840. He lived in Paris. He went to an art school and was influenced by Eugène Boudin, Johan Barthold Jongkind and Gustave Courbet. In 1861 he went into the army for two years. When he was back from the army he went to another art school. Together with other student he had a painting style painting the effects of light en plein air with broken color and rapid brushstrokes. Later they called that style Impressionism.
In 1872 he painted his famous painting Impression Sunrise.
The name from that painting was later used for that kind of painting style: impressionism. In 1883 he moved to Giverny. He produced a lot of series of paintings. This painting belongs to the series Water Lilies. On one day he mostly worked on more painting from the series. Because the light kept changing. Claude Monet died on the 5th of December in 1926, when he was 86, of lung cancer. He is buried in Giverny.
The Painting
In the painting the main objects are the pond, the water lilies and the bridge. Above the bridge you can see some trees. And the pond is full of Water Lilies. The Lilies are a bit vague but you can still recognize them. There are a lot of light colours in this painting. There is a little bit of dark paint used for the reflection in the water. The main colours are:
- geen, light and dark for the lilies and the trees
- pink, for the lilies
- yellow, for the lilies
- white, for the bridge
- brown, for the trees and the reflection of the bridge
- blue, a little used for the pond
Art elements & art principles
In this painting you can see brushstrokes are used for most objects. For the pond, trees and lilies. This is a real realistic painting. It is a scene which is also realistic. Claude Monet used linear perspective in this painting. Because you can see that a vanishing point is used for the pond. There is not really direction or movement in this painting. The lilies cover almost whole of the pond so movement is hard to see. And the trees are not painted in different directions.
My opinion
I like this painting a lot! I love the light colours from the water lilies. And the trees are also painted really nice. And I think the painter was really smart to make a simple white bridge. Because al the attention is drawn to the lilies, the bridge has to be simple. Otherwise the painting would be too busy. I do not know negative things about this painting at all. And I think that people would like the work because of the use of colour and its simplicity.
If I had to grade this painting I would give it a 9. Because I think that paintings never can be perfect. And I just really like it. I would love to own this painting. If I would own this painting I would hang it on a simple white wall. I would do that so all the attention would go to the painting. I think you will remember the pond really well. Because it is beautifully painted
Sources
All resources are from 23-06-2010
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Monet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bridge_Over_a_Pond_of_Water_Lilies,_Claude_Monet_1899.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Lilies
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterlelies_(Monet)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1899
