In 1872, Claude Monet painted an image of the harbour of Le Havre at dawn and named it Impression, Sunrise. Two years later it was exhibited in Paris and subsequently changed the course of art history. The term Impressionism was coined and an art movement was born.
Last year marked the 150th anniversary of the creation of this historic painting, and to celebrate, the museum that houses Impression, Sunrise, the Musée Marmottan Monet, held an exhibition about the impact of the sun on art throughout history. And it was absolutely fascinating. I had never really thought about how our understanding of the sun could influence art, but this exhibition did a fantastic job of tracing this influence from the Middle Ages through to modern day. And I absolutely loved it.
There were a lot of beautiful artworks on display, but I was particularly drawn to Contrastes Simultanés by Sonia Delaunay, the first living woman to have had a retrospective exhibition of her work shown at the Louvre. As usual with visual art, I can’t explain why I love this painting so much. I just do. It’s bright and colourful and wonderfully abstract. And I love it.
Happy Monday all!
Suggestions for artists I should check out? Please contact me with your ideas. I hope you enjoyed your daily helping of art!
