Artist Deconstruction - Claude Monet

The picture that is being used for this analysis is Houses of Parliament by Claude Monet. It was originally painted in 1904 (Museums and Exhibitions). This picture is very interesting because of the way that it was painted. The colors that were used in it can tell a lot about the picture. The subtitle of the picture is "Sun breaking through the fog". By just looking at the picture before reading the title, I would have seen this picture as a sunset over a river, not the sun breaking through the fog on a sunrise. I associate darker colors and the sun on the horizon with the sunset rather than the sunrise. Most likely, this is because I see the sunset more than I see the sunrise. I am either sleeping or at work during the sunrise and do not ever get to see the sun near the actual horizon in the morning. Monet used the main colors red and blue in this painting without adding or subtracting too many other colors. It is interesting how an entire piece can be painted without even having to experiment with a vast amount of colors. While Monet obviously has a lot of mixing with the colors in the photo, he did so unintentionally to create an environment that the viewer can relate too.

The cooler colors used for the buildings are an example of how the buildings are dark and cool because it is still morning. The warmer colors that he uses for the sun and the sun's reflection in the water show how much heat must be used to break through the dense fog that is also represented by the dark cooler colors. It is almost as if Monet had depicted a battle between cool and dark colors in this painting to represent what happens to the environment in the morning when the sun comes up.

The form of this painting is very hard to describe. There are no definitive dots or lines. Instead, Monet used shapes to convey the background image of the horizon. He erased the actual horizon that many people associate a horizontal line with at the bottom of a picture (Lester, 2006). Instead he used blurred shapes to convey the land and water. The colors almost represent the differences rather than actual dots and lines. But, the lines that exist between the water and the land and the sky are visible, they are just not pronounced.

There are many different shapes used in this painting. The parallelogram is easily seen as the tower in the painting. "It is a four-sided figure with opposite sides that are parallel and equal in length" (Lester, 2006). While it may not be a perfect parallelogram, it depicts one and is pronounced in the painting. The other main shape that is used in the painting is the shape that represents the sun. The circle is used to portray what everybody would associate the sun with. In the daytime, the circle appears as a bright circle, just as it does in this painting. Finally, the triangle is used as the peaks of the buildings. It is even used to portray the ripples on the water in the reflection of the sun and the cold part of the water. It is the one part of the painting that is more threatening and pronounced.

The depth of the photo is relayed in many different ways. First, the tower in the painting is depicted as a smaller tower and the entire tower from top to bottom can be seen making it appear as if it is far away. Also, the darker color used makes it look even farther away while the lighter color of the sun and the sun's reflection make it look as if the water is right in front of us. At the same time, the tower is put in front of the sun's rays to make it appear as if the sun is farther away than the tower and the reflection. The illusionary perspective of the picture makes it appear as if the city is far away because the buildings are all blurred together as if they would be if you were far away from it. You would not be able to see the details of each building just as you cannot in this picture.

Monet did not use a lot of movement in this painting, but I would say that the implied movement of the water can be seen in the ripples that have formed. It gives the illusion that the water is moving with a current and is choppy. It also gives the effect that the fog is moving away, especially in areas surrounding the sun and the sun's reflection.

The painting is very interesting, especially looking at it with the different angles. By forcing myself to look at it with the four cues, I realized parts of the picture that I had not seen when I first looked at it. While it appealed to me because I liked how it looked, I never even thought about how the building looked farther away because it was darker and in front of the sun, even though those are the exact reasons that it does. All of the cues are apparent in this painting and make it look appealing when just browsing through a ton of other pictures. Having the cues noticeable may be the reason the picture is appealing above other pictures that did not use the cues.

References
Lester, Paul (2006). Visual Communication: Images With Messages. Belmont, CA: Thompson Higher Education.

Museums and Exhibitions, (2005, May 5). "Turner, Whistler, Monet" Exhibition. Retrieved April 15, 2008, from Museums and Exhibitions Web site: http://www.impressionniste.net/turner_whistler_monet_tate_britain.htm