Visit Beyond Monet With Me
Visit Beyond Monet With Me
A little vlog of the Beyond Monet exhibit
Happy May everyone!
I am thrilled it’s now the summer season.
This past week I went to the Beyond Monet exhibit in San Diego. It was the last week showing here and I’ve been eyeing it so it was “now or never”.
In 2022, I went to see the Beyond Van Gogh exhibit which was amazing. This year they had both showing but since I already saw Van Gogh I thought I’d just do Monet.
There were some differences between the two occasions, even for the repeat Van Gogh.
In 2022, when you entered the exhibit it took you through a maze of sorts to read quotes and a brief history of Van Gogh’s life and to view some paintings (not originals) before you got to the large room where it all came alive.
This year, when you enter there are some large displays for both Van Gogh and Monet so you can read about both in one area (no maze) before you enter the large room.
It felt like there was a bit less effort put into the beginning of the exhibit this time around but it was still worthwhile.
Beyond Monet
I took some video on my phone to share with you. If you can’t make it to a place where it’s showing or you want to see it before you go, this will give you a good idea of how it is. Enjoy!
The entire room was covered in the animated paintings. I didn’t want to pan around much to avoid the other people in the room but it’s such a fun experience to be immersed in the art in that way.
Paintings
Woman with a Parasol is a painting Monet created in the summer of 1875 in the garden of his second home in Argenteuil. The woman is his wife Camille and the boy is their son Jean.
Here is another view of their house and garden with Jean playing and Camille peaking out of the door.
Monet painted Clifftop Walk at Pourville in 1882. He would often paint this cliff at Pourville when he’d stay in the summer.
The woman is Alice Hoschedé with her daughter. Alice was the wife of Ernest Hoschedé, a department store magnate and art collector. He was a collector of Monet’s paintings and would commission artwork from him.
Ernest went bankrupt in 1877 and moved into a house in Vétheuil with his wife and children as well as Claude Monet, his wife Camille and their two sons.
Ernest spent most of his time away in Paris. Camille died in 1879 and Monet, Alice and their children continued living together. After Ernest died in 1891, Alice agreed to marry Monet and became his second wife.
Eventually they lived together in his famed Giverny home.
Something you may not know
Monet became famous in his hometown as a teenager when he started drawing caricatures of the well known citizens in town.
He sold his caricatures at a local store for 10-20 francs apiece. Often they were of his teachers and other students would purchase them.
A professional artist, Eugene Boudin, took notice and became the one to teach Monet how to paint en plein air.
Quotes
"Aside from painting and gardening, I am good for nothing.”
“Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. It’s enough to drive one mad. I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it.”
“Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love.”
“The light constantly changes, and that alters the atmosphere and beauty of things every minute.”
Final Thoughts
As a photographer I feel that last quote deeply. In art, the more I learn and the more I practice it, I know light is the main subject in nearly all of it.
Seek out the light and you’ll find the way.
Have you been to Beyond Monet or Van Gogh? Which one was your favorite?
I really enjoyed both and recommend both but if I had to choose, I’d say my favorite was Van Gogh.
Monet’s paintings are a bit more muted and pastel than Van Gogh’s so Van Gogh’s “popped” more in the animations with his bright yellow, orange, and blue hues.
On my way home I was thinking about which painter they should exhibit next (if they do).
I would really like to see Camille Pissarro. He has a prolific catalog of nearly 900 paintings that I think would really shine in a “Beyond” exhibit.
What do you think? Who would you like to see?
x,
Courtney
Music Used- Don’t You Leave by Crowander via Free Music Archive, (CC BY-NC)