If it wasn’t for Claude Monet, many of us would never have given the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen a second thought. Part way between Paris and France’s English-facing coast, it has been built and rebuilt a number of times over the 800 years prior to the Impressionist painter’s first visit in 1892, even briefly becoming the world’s tallest building several years prior to that point.
Yet it took Monet’s multiple depictions – more than 30 in total – of the French cathedral’s west façade for the world to really sit up and take notice. In many cases these weren’t studies, but rather full-scale canvases measuring more than a metre tall. He used every inch of the stretched linen to carve out a very vivid impression of this stately building in pastel hues and dazzling golds.
Look closely at any one of these paintings, now sadly almost all separated out across the globe as far afield as the National Museum of Serbia and Japan’s Pola Museum of Art, and one can see the sheer quantity of oil paint piled up on the surface, every meticulous stroke like a chip into weathered stone.
Denne historien er fra August 2021-utgaven av Artists & Illustrators.
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Denne historien er fra August 2021-utgaven av Artists & Illustrators.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Still life IN 3 HOURS
Former BP Portrait Award runner-up FELICIA FORTE guides you through a simple, structured approach to painting alla prima that tackles dark, average and light colours in turn
Movement in composition
Through an analysis of three masterworks, landscape painter and noted author MITCHELL ALBALA shows how you can animate landscape composition with movement
Shane Berkery
The Irish-Japanese artist talks to REBECCA BRADBURY about the innovative concepts and original colour combinations he brings to his figurative oil paintings from his Dublin garden studio
The Working Artist
Something old, something new... Our columnist LAURA BOSWELL has expert advice for balancing fresh ideas with completing half-finished work
Washes AND GLAZES
Art Academy’s ROB PEPPER introduces an in-depth guide to incorporating various techniques into your next masterpiece. Artwork by STAN MILLER, CHRIS ROBINSON and MICHELE ILLING
Hands
LAURA SMITH continues her new four-part series, which encourages you to draw elements of old master paintings, and this month’s focus is on capturing hands
Vincent van Gogh
To celebrate The Courtauld’s forthcoming landmark display of the troubled Dutch master’s self-portraits, STEVE PILL looks at the stories behind 10 of the most dramatic works on display
BRING THE drama
Join international watercolour maestro ALVARO CASTAGNET in London’s West End to paint a dramatic street scene
Serena Rowe
The Scottish painter tells STEVE PILL why time is precious, why emotional responses to colour are useful, and how she finds focus every day with the help of her studio wall
Bill Jacklin
Chatting over Zoom as he recovers from appendicitis, the Royal Academician tells STEVE PILL about classic scrapes in New York and his recent experiments with illustration