This show highlights his interest in architecture, not only compositionally, but how he used it as a backdrop and tool to capture the changing effects of light and I was fortunate enough to catch it this week! Gilpin wrote down notes and sketching techniques of his journeys through various parts of Britain detailing the natural beauty of the landscape and illustrating the work with his own pen and wash sketches.
He published his notes as sketching guidebooks for tourists to learn how to observe a view and also how to arrange elements within a composition to create a pleasing subject. In this painting, we can see a great example of the use of square brush strokes to indicate the movement of the water, the strokes keep with the same width but vary in length. By choosing a composition that already has coloured elements within the painted houses, Monet used these reflections to add colour throughout the scene.
It was really great to see some of the unfinished painted sketches around the show and above you can see the underpainting tone Monet used. Many of the canvases look to be painted onto an off-white, muted light grey tone with a little warmth to it. Inspired by the picturesque ideals, Monet took advantage of the new expanding network of European railways and followed the tourist guidebooks looking for inspiration in the south of France.
He arrived at the Mediterranian coastal resort of Bordighera in mid-January , bright sunshine and blue skies led him to this iconic view of Bordighera and later to the amazing colours of Antibes. The colours of the works here are vivid and jewel-like, in comparison to the muted tones in his earlier work. The amazing light of the Riveria inspired a new saturated colour palette. From the luminous colours of Antibes, Giverny in the snow shows a much more subtle handling of the subject.
Monet was always responsive to the changing light and how the weather affected a landscape and here the snow effect acts almost as if the scene is enveloped in a thick snow fog. Monet has built up the surface texture to indicate the different elements of the composition. You can just make out the line of trees in the background and the actual surface texture of the painting is quite thick.
