My trip to Hartford

I took trip number three to The Wadsworth Atheneum museum of Hartford for this class. Although you would think it small it holds more art work the you would expect. This museum is the oldest operating art museum in America. They continually bring in new exhibits of all types of art. They also house many master pieces permanently. I felt that the collection seemed to have an over abundance of religious works. I know many museums do but for some reason I felt WAM had more then usual.

As always I was thrilled to see Monet. I can’t get enough. The brilliant pastels and faint lines make such wonderful paintings. One of my favorite things to do is to get very close to the paints (as close as the grads will allow with out yelling at you… yes that has happened to me!) and look at the brush strokes.

Claude Monet, born in France in 1840 is most well known for his paintings of water lilies. He also painted simple landscapes like fields and meadows. Another paints you may have seen(although not as well knows as the lilies) are his snow covered hay stakes.

Monet was labeled as an impressionist. He preferred to call himself “independent”. He would not have been considered a staving artist. He was very well known by the mid 1880’s and was also the leader of the Impressionist era. This was also the time frame that he became a land owner. He developed his beautiful garden with the pond full of water lilies that he is so famous for. You may visit the garden and walk over his Japanese bridge. Claude Monet passed away in 1926.

His cool colors, soft brush strokes and what some may call lack of detail has a very relaxing affect on the viewer. It is calming to see the swooning lines of the lilies. Only he could paint this way. The artist was Nearsighted and painted with out glasses which is the reason for his feel.

I have posted for you some Monet’s that I saw along with other works.