Painting of Distant Pond in the Field in National Gallery of Art

Course Level: nine–12

Curriculum Connections: Language Arts

Students volition learn the color theory and techniques that guided Claude Monet's impressionist painting and apply those techniques to the creation of their own works of art.

Claude Monet
French, 1840–1926
The Japanese Footbridge, 1899
oil on canvas, 81.3 10 101.6 cm (32 10 40 in.)
National Gallery of Fine art, Souvenir of Victoria Nebeker Coberly, in retentiveness of her son John W. Mudd, and Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg

Materials

• SMART Lath or computer with power to project two brusque films
• Water-soluble oil paints (or oil pastels, peculiarly for painting outdoors), colors used in demonstration pic
  • Cobalt blue
  • Cadmium yellow
  • Alizarin crimsom
  • Ultramarine blue
  • Brilliant rose
  • Emerald green
  • Azurite blue (copper-based)
  • Hookers green
  • Violet
  • White
• Brushes
• Canvass or canvass newspaper (any support that tin can handle a buildup of oil pigment) You may want to record the canvas paper to a drawing lath or hard surface.
• Palette
• Painter's tape to get a crisp white edge
• Water container
• Rags or newspaper towels
  

Warm-Up Questions

Imagine yourself standing on this bridge and describe your surroundings. What do you notice—any sounds? What'due south the weather similar? Do you see any plants or animals?

Background

In 1883, Monet moved to a belongings in Giverny, France. It was in Normandy, just over the Epte River from the Île-de-France, a favored spot for Parisians' summer retreats.

Improvements to the gardens occupied Monet until his death in 1926. In his final decade, he painted petty else only his prized lily pond, which had required long negotiations with local authorities to allow diversion of river water. Monet'southward stepson described the lily pond in 1960:

This was entirely his own cosmos; he converted a patch of landscape, and filled it with water to mirror the sky and with plants: some carmine, xanthous, pink, and white water lilies to float on this water equally though it were on the surface of the sky; the others, irises, calatheas, and arrowheads to mark the line of the banks, and above all else to requite pleasure to the eyes . . . and and then there is a little Japanese-style biconvex bridge. . . .

Quoted in Bernard Denvir, ed.Impressionists at First Mitt (London, 1987), 151.

Monet called his water-lily pictures paysages d'eau (waterscapes). Progressively, they lost their landscape elements. Hither, the sky has already been eliminated; the lush leafage rises all the way to the frame, and the decorative arch of the bridge flattens the illusion of three-dimensional space. Attending is forced onto the paint surface itself, and held at that place, not drawn into the scene. In later lily-pond paintings, flowers and their mirrored reflections assume equal stature, blurring distinctions betwixt solid objects and transitory effects of light. (Meet H2o Lilies from 1914–1926 in MoMA's collection every bit an example of this.) Monet had always been interested in reflections, feeling that their discontinuous and fragmented shapes paralleled his own broken brushwork.

Guided Practice

Brushstrokes:Ask students to find and characterization with a descriptive give-and-take or phrase the various kinds of brushstrokes that Monet used to convey unlike elements of the waterscape. How exercise brushstrokes and color combine to create light and form? Consider words such every bit:

choppy polish dots drags

dabs streaks short and long dashes ripples

Horizon line:Is at that place a articulate horizon line? How is a stardom fabricated (or non) between country and water? Between water and air? Between actual object and reflection of that object?

Movement:How does Monet convey move or stillness of h2o—through color, line, brushstroke? What kind of movement is it—quick, slow, languid?

Vantage point:What is your perspective on the scene as the viewer? Is your vantage point at h2o level or suspended in a higher place? At water'due south border? Alongside the pond? Consider what methods Monet used to convey vantage bespeak, such as cropping, framing, or other compositional arrangements.

Present the short film Monet'due south Water Lily Garden and Japanese Footbridge and have students reverberate on Monet'southward translation of this landscape. Practice his brushstrokes and limerick convey the sights and sounds of this peaceful pond? Is there anything you would accept added or removed? How would this change your impression of this identify?

Activeness

In this activity, students volition have into consideration their observations from the Guided Practice section to create their ain impressionist painting of Monet'south water lily garden. Before they brainstorm, present the film Monet's Palette and Technique (below) where landscape painter David Dunlop demonstrates the colors and techniques employed past Monet to capture his impression of this pond.

Film: Monet's Palette and Technique

Now project the first picture, Monet'southward H2o Lily Garden and Japanese Footbridge, over again—this time on a loop so students can directly detect his mural as they pigment like Monet. They may choose to focus on a few lily pads or a cluster of grasses along the shore or even accept a different vantage bespeak of the bridge. Delight see the glossary at the cease of this lesson for a list of terms and definitions used in this film.

Extension

Students will incorporate their observations and David Dunlop's instruction to create a painting of a favorite local outdoor identify: an athletic field at the school, a neighborhood park, their ain lawn, or another setting important to them. They can employ oil pastels if painting in oils outdoors (en plein air to the French impressionists) is besides cumbersome. Once back in the classroom, students volition brandish their works of art to fellow classmates. As a group, students should reflect on what impression each painting leaves by observing brushstrokes, horizon lines, sense of motion, and vantage points (suit questions from the Guided Practice section to each piece).

Glossary
(in social club of mention)

Simultaneous contrast is the way in which ii different colors tin can touch on each other. When placed side by side, 1 colour can modify how we perceive the tone and hue of the other color. The colors themselves don't modify, but we run across them every bit altered. Simultaneous contrast is virtually axiomatic when complementary colors are placed side by side.

Successive contrast is the event created when you look at an object or a color immediately afterwards you have observed an object or colour for a prolonged menses of time. An subsequently-image is retained past your center and can alter the color or hue of what you lot view next or in succession.

Fovial vision is the process of viewing an object direct and often in item (or the contrary of peripheral vision).

Value is the lightness or darkness of a colour.

Subtractive mixing means that one begins with white and ends with blackness. Every bit one adds color or mixes in more pigment, the effect gets darker and tends to black.

Cross-hatching is the process of marking or shading with 2 or more than sets of intersecting parallel lines.

Opaque colors are nontransparent and cannot exist seen through.

Glazing is a technique of applying a transparent coating to the surface of a painting to modify the color tones.

Perspective in drawing or painting is a way of portraying 3 dimensions on a apartment, two-dimensional surface past suggesting depth or distance.

Complements are two colors on opposite sides of the color wheel, which when placed next to each other make both announced brighter. The complementary color of a master color (ruby, blue, and yellow) is the color you lot get by mixing the other two (red + blue = purple; blue + yellow = green; ruby + yellow = orangish). And so the complementary color for reddish is light-green, for blue it'due south orangish, and for yellow it's purple.

Analogous color schemes use colors that are next to each other on the colour cycle. They commonly lucifer well and are often establish in nature (ex. blueish, blueish-green, and green).

Symmetry is achieved in a piece of work of art when elements are given equal weight from an imaginary line in the heart of a piece. For case, remember of your eyes in relation to either side of your nose.

Asymmetry occurs when elements are placed unevenly in a work of fine art but work together to produce harmony overall.

Volume is the amount of space that a effigy or object takes up in a painting or drawing.

Gradual transition is the process of blending colors so that they slowly shift from one color or shade to another.

Abrupt transition is the process of blending colors so that they quickly shift from one colour or shade to another.

VA:Re8.1HSI Translate an artwork or collection of works, supported past relevant and sufficient bear witness establish in the work and diverse contexts.

VA:Cr2.1HSII Through experimentation, practice, and persistence, demonstrate acquisition of skills and knowledge in a chosen art form.

VA:Re7.1HSII Recognize and depict personal artful and empathetic responses to the natural world and constructed environments.

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Source: https://www.nga.gov/learn/teachers/lessons-activities/sense-of-place-france/monet.html

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