Rouen Cathedral West Facade Sunlight by Monet

Rouen Cathedral, West Facade, Sunlight by Claude Monet, oil on canvas 1894, is a landscape painting from the series of 26 views of the famous, landmark Gothic cathedral brightly lit in the warm, yellow light of day against a brilliant, azure blue sky. The massive, stone church edifice soars to fill the picture plane of the tall, vertical composition, yet seems to dematerialize in rapidly applied brushstrokes of warm, yellow lights and cool, blue shadows that capture the fleeting effects of light, color, and atmosphere as they would appear to a view looking upwards at the amazing architecture. Painted from life with an eye for the optical and atmospheric effects of nature, the cathedral series epitomize the technique and subject matter of the French Impressionists and remain one of the most beloved examples of their legacy to this day. Claude Monet (1840 - 1926) was a founder and chief driving force behind the French Impressionist school of painting. Born in Paris, Monet studied with Eugene Boudin, who taught the basics of oil painting and plein-air (open air) easel painting, and later with painter Charles Gleyre, eventually befriending fellow Impressionists Manet, Renoir, Bazille and others. Rejected by the Paris Salon and other venues of the 19th century academic establishment, the Impressionists painted directly from nature, capturing fleeting moments in time, in bright, broken color and small, rapid brushstrokes. Monet lived and studied in London and Holland, producing many paintings, until the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874, where his painting Impression: Sunrise gained notoriety and earned the group its famous moniker. Following the death of his child and of his first wife Camille, Monet settled in Giverny, where increasing success allowed him to establish a home and studio surrounded by elaborate gardens. Monet painted many landscapes, including garden scenes and his famous Cathedral series, with increasing concerns for light, color and atmosphere, with a concern for color and shapes that in his older age bordered on a kind of abstraction, making him one of the most beloved painters of the modern era.