CHAVEZ, 1

FABIO CHAVEZ
ENGLISH 1013
DESCRIPTION ESSAY
RIVERBANK AT LAVACOURT

I chose this painting because I felt a calm feeling. When I saw it for the first time, I felt better.

This painting transmitted me peace and rest. In my view, is better an outdoors painting like this

one because the painter can enjoy the spectacular view and express all his feelings while he is

painting. I prefer a colorful paint that reflects positive attitudes rather than a dark one that makes

me feel sad. The reality is sad enough for me, and I like art for feeding my heart and my mind with

the wonderful and beautiful scenery.

This is an impressionist style painting and this painting represents the essence of this artistic

movement. In this case, the painter emphasized on accurate depiction of light in its changing

qualities, like this early morning. At that time, the photograph had been invented, so painters were

not pretending to make everything perfect like the real things. This painting was painted quickly

and the painter employed an optical principle discovered by scientists and doctors at that time. Our

eyes can blend two colors together to make a third color, thats what the painter did in his painting.
 CHAVEZ, 2

He put two colors next to each other to give the effect of green grass. Unlike the paintings of

Monet's Argenteuil period (1871-78), which depict the fusion of nature with modern life, the

paintings of the Vetheuil period are agrarian, representing a countryside that had remained

unchanged for centuries.

This work was carried out by Claude Monet. No painter is as purely impressionist as him. In

fact, the term "Impressionism" is derived from the title of his painting Impression, soleil levant

(Impression, Sunrise). Monet was born on 14 November 1840 in Paris and he died on 5 December

1926. In the present work, Monet has painted the towpath along the river at Lavacourt. Monet's

Vtheuil period was among the most productive in his career, but it was a difficult time for him

personally. The artist suffered financial hardship and felt discouraged about his work, which critics

attacked for its lack of finish. Above all, during 1879 (the year of the present work), his wife

Camille was bedridden with an illness, probably cancer, and she died in September, at age 32.