dusk

Dusk is a very odd hour ... everything and every place and everyone starts taking on different hues when it is neither day nor night!

 San Giorgio Maggiore by Twilight - oil on canvas , impressionist painting by Claude Monet

The painting is a part of a series of views of Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, painted by Claude Monet in the early 20th century. The church, its bell tower, the other buildings on the right, all seem to emerge from a blurred veil of colour, there ...  but not there, at the same time.

This was very typical if the 'Impressionist' style of painting, of which Monet was the founder, and one of its most prolific practitioners who followed the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perception of nature, rather than copying it in detail.

This style was quite a contrast to the existing Classical styles at that time, and created a revolution in the world of Art. There was a change not only in the technique, but also the themes represented. Painting 'Nature' and that too in this manner, was something that had never been accepted before. Paintings were done outdoors, rather than in the studio, and rapidly applied brushstrokes were visible in the final work.

The Impressionists sought to capture on canvas what the eye perceived ... the effects of light, the changes in time and weather, the brilliance of pure, intense colours .... leading to a seemingly 'incomplete' or 'unfinished' work of art.

'For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life - the light and the air which vary continually. For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value." ... Claude Monet

source: http://www.theartstory.org/movement-impressionism.htm

http://www.claudemonetgallery.org/San-Giorgio-Maggiore-At-Dusk.html

http://www.impressionism.org/

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