Just a short post today, about a remarkable artistic lineage which set me thinking this morning.
Around 1920, Claude Monet painted a series of pictures entitled 'SAULE PLEUREUR' (WEEPING WILLOW). The tree that caught his imagination grew next to his beloved pond in Giverny, France.
SAULE PLEUREUR (WEEPING WILLOW) - Claude Monet (1918-19)
As with his more familiar and greatly loved WATER LILIES series which depicts the same idyllic garden, the canvases illustrated above and below confirm the monumental influence and impact that Monet's Willows exerted on generations of later artists.
SAULE PLEUREUR (WEEPING WILLOW) - Claude Monet (1921-22)
I was especially struck, today, by the kinship of tone, hue and even emotion between the 1922 WEEPING WILLOW (immediately above) and the work of the great Joan Mitchell below. The two artists also demonstrate a similar use of negative space around the edges of the paintings.
UNTITLED - Joan Mitchell (1959)
Out of the two, Monet applies the paint more densely, but the fecund sensuality of his work undeniably finds rich echoes in Mitchell's pure, airy abstraction.
On another, unrelated matter, I read today that the tedious and culturally vacant obsession with taking selfies in front of great works of art is leading to a spike in gallery insurance claims and, consequently, premiums. Unsurprisingly, paintings are sustaining damage when the selfie-taker reverses into the painting, potentially tripping over the alarm wire. Alarming, literally, and depressing.
Copyright Haydn Dickenson 2024
I haven’t heard about the selfie- imposed damage!