Evening star., 1940-08-04

order for Monet to deliver paintings
until he thought that he had given
value for the money.
Many of Monet's works were pur-
chased by Americans One New
York collector alone had so of his
paintings; another had Is. Numer-
Gus examples were owned in Boston
and other cities. Durand-Ruel, who
had invested so heavily in canvases
by Monet and Renoir, declared that
American support enabled these
artists to live, and incidentally pre-
vented his own financial ruin.
Giverny, as many American tour
lists know, is a typical French ham
let on the Seine, which at the time
he settled there was composed of a
few farm houses united on narrow
street and bounded by ancient gray
walls Monet developed superb gar
dens wherever he lived. In Givernv
his water gardens where he painted
his famous series of water lilies.
were an outstanding achievement.
At the Corcornn Gallery of Art IS
a lovely and QUIT view of Giverny,
lent by Breckenridge Long. This
vision of a lake, or river inlet,
was painted in 1897 1t is done in
cool blue greens, with glimpse of
sky at sunset, deepening from pale
blue to yellow and pink at the
horizon. The reflection of trees and
sky in the water gives the painting
balanced composition.
Georges Clemenceau was a life
long friend of Monet. who is said
to have done much to uphold the
Tigers morale during the World
War. When Monet died in 1926
Clemenceau was at his bedside.
1t is difficult for us today to ap-
preciate the furore caused by I'M
pressionism. There have been nu-
merous sensations since then, stirred
up by post-impressionism, cubism
and many others. some of which
seem to have been deliberately de-
signed to bring their creators no.
toriety. But where most of these
are definite breaks with the pre-
dominant naturalism of older
schools, Impressionism was not an
attempt to get away from realism.
1t was the quintessence of visual
realism. The Impressionists en-
deavored to paint the appearance
of things, the casual and accidental
aspects Of life.
Nature His Teacher.
Nature was Monet's chief passion
and his real teacher, and he painted
entirely in the open. He would
begin a landscape, but within few
minutes the light would have
changed and he would work on
another painting. returning to the
first only when the light on some
successive day was the same as
that under which he had begun the
painting. Hence. he habitually kept
number of paintings under way
simultaneously. working on them in
succession as the light changed from
day to day. There are series of
paintings of certain subjects-hay-
stacks, water lilies, poplars, etc.
under different conditions of light;
and also of the Cathedral of Rouen
and of the Thames in London.
Monet's feeling for nature is
epitomized in an anecdote related
by Octave Mirbeau, French jour-
nalist, who was one of the earliest
defenders of the Impressionists. A
young man, he wrote. begged Monet
to take him as a pupil.
But I do not teach painting"
Monet replied. Il limit myself to
making paintings and I assure you
that have hardly time even for
this Besides. there has never been
and never will be but one teacher.
and she ignores all our esthetics
There she is" He pointed to the
sky. GO! Learn from her, and
listen to all she will say to YOU"
Monet was an indefatigable ex-
perimenter throughout his career
He approached the phenomenon of
light with the scientific attitude
Every one who has held a glass
prism in ray Of sunlight and has