Impression Sunrise claude monet winter landscape Sesshu

#IMPRESSION SUNRISE CLAUDE MONET WINTER LANDSCAPE SESSHU SERIES#

Critics were far from sympathetic about Monet’s ocular issues, and even suggested the messy, blurry nature of Water Lilies was more of a side effect of his failing eyesight than an intentional choice.

#IMPRESSION SUNRISE CLAUDE MONET WINTER LANDSCAPE SESSHU SERIES#

The series of about 250 oil paintings called Water Lilies wasn’t always as celebrated as it is today. 'Water Lilies and Japanese Bridge' by Claude Monet (1899) / Collection of William Church Osborn, Class of 1883, trustee of Princeton University (1914-1951), president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1941-1947) given by his family, Princeton University Art Museum, Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain

Claude Monet’s vision issues didn’t stop him from painting.

In May 2019, one of Monet’s haystack paintings, Meules, sold for $110.7 million, setting a record as the first Impressionist artwork to fetch more than $100 million at auction. “The more I continue, the more I see that a great deal of work is necessary in order to succeed in rendering what I seek.' 'I am working very hard, struggling with a series of different effects (haystacks), but at this season the sun sets so fast I cannot follow it,” he wrote to critic Gustave Geffroy. Monet was especially interested in the different ways the light hit the haystacks, and raced to capture it before the sun changed positions. Between 18, Monet painted around 30 images of a field of haystacks close to his estate, which became his very first series of paintings. The rich, wild garden wasn’t the only part of Giverny Monet felt compelled to immortalize on canvas.

'Grainstack (Sunset)' by Claude Monet (1891) / Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

Impression Sunrise claude monet winter landscape Sesshu