Art challenge: Monet, "Snow at Argenteuil"

CFLarsen

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During TAM3, I was fortunate enough to lure MoeFaux to the Monet exhibition at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. We came across one painting, where we profoundly disagreed on the sentiment of the painting.

http://www.jimloy.com/arts/monet06.jpg

Moe said that this gave her the impression of a joyous, Christmassy scene. I argued that it was quite the opposite, that of a very morose, serene, "dark" scene.

Not that I for one moment think that the meaning of art can be determined by popular vote. I am merely interested in hearing why the same piece of art can invoke such different sentiments.

What do you think?
 
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Maybe I've been conditioned by Currier & Ives, but I see that as a little bleak as well. The flat depth, the trees in the background in silhouette, the leaden sky all suggest a scene not necessarily morose, per se, but certainly to me not joyous.

You know what it reminds me of? The "Elenor Rigby" part of "Yellow Submarine."
 
I don't find it particularly joyous or morose. It just looks like a cold winter's evening. Perhaps it makes more of an impression if you see the actual painting rather than an image on a screen, or perhaps it depends to some extent on how you feel about snow. Monet generally just painted what he saw as he saw it (that's impressionists for you).
 
To me it's a cold, cold scene. Obviously the snow helps, but to me the dark, shapeless mass of maybe a person in there puts in way beyond happy, chrismassy fare.

Though I would love to send this on a Christmas card, as most people would probably just see the snowy scene and go, ahh.

I love Monet. Look how he gets the snow fallen on the ground. The sky. The roofs. My name's Ocean, I need ten others and we'll grab it:)
 
CFLarsen said:
During TAM3, I was fortunate enough to lure MoeFaux to the Monet exhibition at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. We came across one painting, where we profoundly disagreed on the sentiment of the painting.

http://www.jimloy.com/arts/monet06.jpg

Moe said that this gave her the impression of a joyous, Christmassy scene. I argued that it was quite the opposite, that of a very morose, serene, "dark" scene.

Not that I for one moment think that the meaning of art can be determined by popular vote. I am merely interested in hearing why the same piece of art can invoke such different sentiments.

What do you think?
Click to expand...

I would agree with you.
 
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Wonderfull picture, he IS one of my favourites but you are right it DOES look a little melancolic. Perhaps it is the lack of lights shining from the windows? That is one of the things most used in christmas pictures: lighted windows with golden light "flooding" out.
 
Ove said:
Wonderfull picture, he IS one of my favourites but you are right it DOES look a little melancolic. Perhaps it is the lack of lights shining from the windows? That is one of the things most used in christmas pictures: lighted windows with golden light "flooding" out.
Click to expand...

You know, you are right.
 
This scene seems very bleak, lifeless and lonely. As a Canuck, I spend a good part of the year trudging through the snow and contending with grey skies. I wonder if someone who lives in a more temperate climate would get something different from this scene?
 
I'm torn. It has snow so it must be cheery and Christmassy. But yet it's at night so it must also be morose and dark.

What I am sure of is the colors in that painting would go great with my couch.
 
HarryKeogh said:
...

What I am sure of is the colors in that painting would go great with my couch.
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And who are you supposed to be? Dusty from "Hannah and Her Sisters?"
 
I SO love Monet's work - I travelled hundreds of miles just to see an exhibition of his work a few years ago. I doubt it, but will the same exhibition still be in Vegas next year??

This particular piece is a snow scene from what appears to be a small side street in a French village. The primary colours are dark greys and greens - European winter, with just a touch of purple-blue in the clouds. The snow is not exactly falling straight down, the trees look ruffled and without snow cover, the hint of a person in the forground looks like they are wearing a wind-blown coat, the sky is low with running clouds - it's clearly windy as well as very cold, and likely slushy and sleety as well. Even the shutters in the windows are closed - no Christmassy feel of light flooding onto the snow on the lawn here. Obviously not a nice day at the beach - it's a great day to be indoors.

The rest, of course, is up to the imagination. I think Monet, a painter of light and light effects, was simply trying to capture the effect of snow and cold on the village. It's neither upbeat or otherwise, just a freezing cold windy, snowy day in rural France.
 
hgc said:
And who are you supposed to be? Dusty from "Hannah and Her Sisters?"
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Thank you hgc. This is one of my favourite film scenes ever. And as I myself paint, but do not consider myself an artist, I always tell people who order paintings from me (they are mostly my friends and acquaintances) that they are welcome to chose the coour palette according to the colour schemes in their rooms. And then I always add "unlike the character from Hannah and her sister, I am not going to be insulted".
The Monet painting: I see it mostly as very quiet and contemplative, but neither joyous nor sad.
 
OK. let the artist explain....

I used to do this for a living people (explain art, it's fun as you can make it up!)


If lights were pouring out of the windows it would be Thomas Kinkaide that painted it. Just stick it on a candy box cover.

Moe lives in Vegas. To her snow is interesting and not the norm.

Claus lives where snow means having to shovel the sidewalk and all that. It's common.

To me, it's very restful. Evening, everyone is going home, or settled in. Of course, I look at a snowy day (like today, it's coming down AGAIN) as a thing of beauty. The snow covers up the ground and even though it is cold, covers everything like a blanket. And typically Monet, it's a little candyboxy. Houses are nice, things pretty much line up. He wasn't known for his "bleak period". I don't think he painted it as a statement of the coldness and futility of life. He just wasn't that kind of guy.

Then again, he's one of the more popular painters because he isn't any too "difficult" to understand. And I"m not saying that like it's a bad thing.:D
 
kittynh said:
seeing this picture, and reading how Monet felt about it at the time he did it, I don't think he was a morose painter.

It's also one of his greatest works. when I saw it I was blown away.


http://www.si.umich.edu/CHICO/monet/camille.html
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Kitty, I've only ever seen prints of this work, but you're right, it is beautifully evocative. I share your feeling that he was, on the whole, not a morose painter. We'll never be sure though; he's not available for questioning. (Unless you wish to pay John & Sylvia...)
 
The thing that strikes me in the painting is not the snow, but the varied shapes of the trees and the extremely narrow palette. This is probably done with very few (maybe even only one) colors (and white)... This would have been a bright cheery country scene before the snow, and a deeply quiet scene with more snow. Deep snow has a 'soundlessness' that is not quite captured yet in the painting.

At the point Monet has captured the scene, it is at a moment between the cheery and quiet.

There is still a hint of the warm country village, the sharp form of trees not yet softened in snow, a promise of more snow to come. So 'in-between'.

Maybe Monet would be delighted that two people could look at his painting and see both at once.
 
CFLarsen said:
During TAM3, I was fortunate enough to lure MoeFaux to the Monet exhibition at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. We came across one painting, where we profoundly disagreed on the sentiment of the painting.

http://www.jimloy.com/arts/monet06.jpg

Moe said that this gave her the impression of a joyous, Christmassy scene. I argued that it was quite the opposite, that of a very morose, serene, "dark" scene.

Not that I for one moment think that the meaning of art can be determined by popular vote. I am merely interested in hearing why the same piece of art can invoke such different sentiments.

What do you think?
Click to expand...

I think it's colored pigments on a flat rectangle. The fact that each of you felt it was "speaking to" you in such specific terms is a pretty good sign that it's actually sufficiently abstract to allow each of you to personally relate it to a mental state. It pulled off illusions of intimate expression for each of you, and illusions of that sort are among the most common features of art.

There's no trees and no snow in the scene--just pigments. But an even larger bunch of us get the tree and snow illusions.
 
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Monet reaction

My honest reaction was this: OK, I'm looking at a computer image of a Monet, looks like an honest Monet, not sure how big it is originally and I can't see any details of the canvas. Not sure I've ever seen this one. The Monet I know was fascinated by light. How else could one paint the same haystacks, the same cathedral, the same arched bridge over a garden pool, so many times under so many conditions? This guy was pushing the limits of paint to capture the effects of different light spectra on interesting shapes and objects. And losing his vision, as I understand, in the process of many years.

I think he was particularly fascinated by the blueness of the white, here. Take a close look at the way the "white" snow looks so "white" by being blue-ish. And the sky is really cool! I have seen days like that, where the sun is so diffuse and reflected off the grey sky and snow, and it begins to set.

I think there was a challenge to the technician, here, to choose his color range (pallette?) carefully and try to capture the look of it all.
 
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