Monet, Claude: Poplars on the Epte
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Poplars on the Epte
1891; Philadelphia Museum of Art
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Poplars along the River Epte, Autumn
1891 (260 Kb); Oil on canvas, 100 x 65 cm (39 3/8 x 25 5/8 in);
Private collection
Monet painted the tall poplars on the banks of the river Epte near
his house at Giverny under varying climatic and seasonal conditions
in 1890 and again in 1891. A row of tall vertical stems backed by
a receding line of other poplars provided the basic arrangement
which he observed from his boat. He began his series of Haystacks
before he had finished with the Poplars, a distant line of trees
often forming a background. In both series he took enormous pains
to wait for and entrap exactly the light each picture demanded.
Yet in spite of the stubborn effort made with the aim of attaining
a complete objective truth, causing him to take out a whole set
of canvases to the chosen site on which he could work one at a time
as a particular phase of light allowed, another element insidiously
crept in. The subject in constant repetition came to matter less and
less; aesthetic considerations apart from a scientific naturalism
came into play. The slenderness of the poplars seemed to take on
something of the exaggerated elegance of the contemporaneous
art nouveau.
The color scheme became more of a contrived and artificially
heightened contrast between blues and purples, oranges and yellows.
The new aspect of Monet's art after he had reached the age of fifty
can be appreciated in the ecstatic color of this example.
With the public the series were a great success, the Haystacks
especially. Fifteen of them exhibited at Durand-Ruel's were all
sold within a few days at 3,000 to 4,000 francs each.
But there were some critics and some among Monet's
Impressionist
confrères who were dubious of the course he now pursued. The
adverse opinion gained strength that Impressionism so interpreted
involved too great a sacrifice of substance and construction.
Yet they attached too little value to the poetic and abstract
characteristics of Monet's art.
© 14 Oct 1995,
Nicolas Pioch -
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