Woman with a MONET umbrella: analysis of the work

Woman with umbrella (Femme à l'ombrelle) is a work painted by Claude monet in 1875 and set in Argenteuil, a town where Parisians used to go on weekends and which Impressionist painters also frequented to paint outdoors. Monet resided there between the years 1871 and 1878, Sisley, Renoir and Caillebotte also being habitual. This work belongs to a series of paintings made there by Monet as part of his studies of light and color and his adherence to the aesthetic principles of Impressionism.

In this lesson from unPROFESOR.com we offer you a Analysis of the work Woman with umbrella, one of the most representative of Claude Monet and the first phases of him within the Impressionist movement.

Index

1. Description and context of Woman with an umbrella
2. Formal Analysis of Woman with Umbrella
3. Analysis of color in this work by Monet

In the year 1871, Claude Monet moves from England to the Netherlands and, from there, goes on to

The house where Monet and his family lived had a big garden very close to the Seine and close to the house of Edouard Manet, who would visit him often in the summer of 1874.

Woman with umbrella (1875) represents his wife Camille and her son Jean on one of those walks in the Argenteuil countryside. A snapshot in which Monet tries to catch just the moment when they both reach the top and stop to observe the surroundings. In the painting, Camille, dressed in white and with an umbrella, is located on the top of a hill with a blue sky as a backdrop. The figure is turned towards the viewer and behind it is the child, also looking in front of it.

We follow this analysis of Woman with umbrella to pay attention to the formal aspects. She is a oil on canvas which is currently located in the National Gallery of Art in Washington. Critics consider it to be one of the most representative works of Monet and from Impressionism.

The quest to paint by plein air or plenarismo, away from studies and without following academic guidelines, it became one of the greatest wishes of this generation of artists. Outdoor painting made it possible to study light and color and to capture on canvas how the landscape or the objects or scenes painted changed according to the light of day. The aim was to capture a unique moment and, like photography, show reality as perceived by the human eye.

Composition and perspective

The Impressionists made the decision to form a group and exhibit their works outside of those more conventional and academic spaces. The stay away from the limitations of the academies it allowed Monet to paint subjects like this, his family's walk in the country.

In the composition, the viewer is in the place where Monet would have been, allowing us to participate in that familiar and everyday moment. A portrait far removed from conventional family portraits and in which a moment full of spontaneity and naturalness. For this Monet, a master at capturing the moment, uses quick brush strokes, creating the effect that the scene is a snapshot, although, as usual, the family posed for hours.

The perspective it is very low, thus achieving that the figure of Camille fills the scene and acquires a monumental aspect. To do this, Monet placed the easel at a lower point on the ground, the sky also acquiring a great role. But, the painter manages to balance all the elements so that the viewer's gaze moves slowly from one to the other, from Camille to the umbrella, to the sky, the grass and the child.

Monet applies color wisely, that is, the most striking and vibrant tones are the greens of the grass, thus balancing the prominence and predominance of the blue of the sky. A green that is also repeated in the umbrella, thus guiding our gaze from top to bottom. The figure of Camille is painted in a white and bluish color that also raise our eyes towards the heaven, also making us look at the child by adding one shades of red to the face and hat.

The shades of the figures he paints them in violet tones, something very typical of Impressionism, also recreating the effects of light on each of the figures and showing his passage through the umbrella, in addition to the effect of the floating veil on the face of Camille.

Woman with umbrella received numerous accolades when it was exhibited at the second impressionist exhibition of the year 1876, considered as one of the most beautiful atmospheric works of him. This exhibition was held at the Durand-Ruel Gallery, presenting Monet some 18 paintings. Although the exhibition was not widely celebrated by the press, it did receive positive reviews for the high quality of the light treatment. A) Yes, Edmond duranty, novelist and art critic, noted in his work La Nouvelle peinture like the impressionists

“[…] They have gradually achieved the decomposition of sunlight into its rays and its elements and to recombine their unity with a general harmony of iridescence spread over their canvases. From the point of view of the delicacy of his works and the subtle penetration of his colors, it is a rather extraordinary result. The most learned physicist would have nothing to reproach them for about their light analysis. "

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