Post 6: Impressionists and Venice

 "Devilishly hard to paint"

Grand Canal, Venice  1908

Claude Monet (1840-1926)

73.7 x 92.4 cm, oil on canvas

MFA Boston - Monet Grand Canal

     The seed of Western modern art was planted in the XVI century in Italy. Not in Florence, but in Venice. The first painter to develop a unique technique using loose brushwork was Titian (1488-1576). Inspired by Titian, Velasquez carried the torch of modernity to Spain. Inspired by Velasquez, Manet, and other Impressionists would forever free their brushes, themselves, and all the artists, establishing individuality as the "new black" in art. 

Manet in Venice:

Le Grand Canal à Venise (Blue Venice), 1875

Eduard Manet (1832-1882)

57.5 x 47.9 cm, oil on canvas

Manet Venise Blue

      Gazzetta di Venezia, on 13 September 1874, announced the arrival of the "Signori Manet"(he and his wife checked into Grand Hotel, "one of the smartest establishments in town" p.371, Gayford). This was his second and last visit to Venice, which lasted one month during which he painted these two paintings of the Grand Canal. Like in Argenteuil, Manet would go immediately to the water, where he would paint from gondolas and boats. 

     Several companions and admirers wrote that although Manet's Venice paintings looked deceivingly casual, they were actually painted through the painful process of hours and hours spent on the water and starting over numerous times. The first painting he finished (Venice Blue, above) was sold for almost 52 million dollars by Christie's in November 2022 to a private collector (the public is unable to see it, thank you very much "1%"). The view is of Palazzo Barbaro with its staircase to the water, the exact Palazzo where Monet and his wife will be staying 36 years later. 

 

Le Grand Canal a Venise, 1875

Eduard Manet (1832-1883)

58 x 71 cm, oil on canvas

Shelburn Museum Vermont

What helps me to differentiate Manet from Monet painting, is to imagine if it is a painting with a "sound" or not. Manet will always include people, transport, and whatever makes noise around him while he paints. Monet's paintings are mostly "quiet", with no people, no boats, just air as the main subject, therefore perfect to be looked at with some background music. I would say that Manet's Venice is a bustling city, while Monet's Venice is a true Serenissima. 

Inciteful Manet realized that Venice is "devilishly hard" to paint. He told his friend: "faced with such a distractingly complicated scene, I must choose a typical incident and define my picture as if I could already see it framed" (p374, Gayford).

Renoir in Venice:

Venice -Fog, 1881,

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)

45.4 x 60 cm, oil on canvas

Renoir Venice Kreeger Museum Washington DC

Venice, The Dodge Palace, 1881
Pierre- August Renoir (1841-1919)
54.5 x 65.7 cm, oil on canvas
Renoir Dodge Palace Clark Museum

The Piazza San Marco, Venice, 1881
Pierre-August Renoir (184101919)
89.5 x 104.46 cm, oil on canvas
Renoir Piazza San Marco Minneapolis Institute of Art

     Renoir arrived in Venice in the autumn of 1881, starting his three-month tour of Italy. Further down his journey, he painted more under the influence of classicism, but in Venice, he was still a true Impressionist at heart. These are the three paintings I found from this visit, and for me, they land right between Manet and Monet. We can still see the daily activities and the life of the city, but at the same time, the theme is the fog, the air, the sun reflections, and the atmosphere that 'envelops' the scene as Monet would say. It could be argued, that whenever Renoir holds on to ambiguity and combines it with his uniquely soft brush touches, he rises to the very top, but he had to or chose to compromise his standards occasionally. 

Monet in Venice:

San Giorgio Maggiore by Twilight, 1908

Claude Monet (1840-1926)

65.2 x 92.4 cm, oil on canvas

Monet Venice Museum Wales

     Monet arrived in Venice on 8 September (October 1, by some sources) 1908 at the age of 68. He immediately regretted not coming earlier and promised himself and his wife Alice that they would be back next year, saying that "one can never leave Venice without the plan of coming back". A promise not fulfilled. Their only stay in 1908 lasted 10 weeks during which he painted 37 paintings. Not all of them were finished. He returned to them after his wife died in 1911, remembering their happy moments. 

Palazzo da Mula, Venice, 1908

Claude Monet (1840-1926)

61.4 x 80.5 cm, oil on canvas

Monet Venice National Gallery of Art Washington DC

     In Venice, Monet did not create a series of the same scenes in a different light as he did in France. He would work just on one canvas at a time, choosing in total a dozen views a short distance from each other. He focused on air, mist, and haze between him and the building he was looking at, or him and the water. He called it "the envelope". He writes in a letter: "The Palace that features in my composition was just an excuse for painting the atmosphere". 

 

Le Palais Ducal, 1908

Claude Monet (1840-1926)

81.3 x 99.1 cm, oil on canvas

Monet Venice Brooklyn Museum

     In May 1912, a big exhibition of 29 Monet's Venice paintings opened at the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery in Paris. It was a huge success for Monet, who was already established as a leading Impressionist. The only painting Monet left unrevised as it had been painted in the 'plein air' was the last  - "Gondola in Venice". He gave it to his great friend Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929) French Prime Minister of two mandates, who established the separation of church and state in France. Today this painting is in The Nantes Museum of Art. 

 

Gondola in Venice, 3 December 1908
Claude Monet (1840-1926)
81 x 65.2 cm, oil on canvas
Monet Venice Art Museum Nantes

Next year, the Brooklyn Museum and the de Young Museum in San Francisco will organize the exhibition Monet & Venice (October 2025 to July 2026). If you would like to see more beautiful Venice paintings look at those of Turner and Whistler's, two of my favourites in capturing her beauty.

To make a connection to contemporary art related to Venice, here is a photo I made on our visit to the Venice Biennale this year 2024:

Migrant Child, 2019, Banksy (background)

The Vitruvian Man, 2019, Invader? (foreground)

The work of these two street artists can be seen in public spaces worldwide. Both are trying to stay as anonymous as possible but we know that Banksy is from England and Invader from France. The former is a school drop-out and the latter finished Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Banksy's work is always a sharp criticism of the powerful and speaking in the name of the poor and those needing help, while Invader's designs come from video games and mark the most popular cultural points in cities. Here, Banksy is addressing a terrible migrant crisis and across from him Invader responds with the stylized image of Vitruvian Man by Leonardo de Vinci. In 2019, celebrating 500 years after Leonardo's death, we could see the original drawing of The Vitruvian Man in the Academia Museum in Venice. 

Sources:

Book Venice City of Pictures by Martin Gayford

Claude Monet (1840-1926), Le Rio de la Salute | Christie's

CLAUDE MONET (1840-1926), Saint-Georges Majeur | Christie's

Museum Barberini | Claude Monet: The Rio della Salute

(#6) CLAUDE MONET | Le Palais Ducal

Venice, the Doge's Palace - Renoir

The Piazza San Marco, Venice, Pierre Auguste Renoir

The Magic of Light on Water in Monet's Venetian Masterpiece | Impressionist & Modern Art | Sotheby’s

Claude Monet | The Doge's Palace Seen from San Giorgio Maggiore | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Venice by Famous Artists | DailyArt Magazine

Venice Art Bucket List: 20+ Famous Paintings In Venice - The Geographical Cure

Monet in Venice - National Gallery London short video

Artistes — G-P.F.DAUBERVILLE

Titian's innovations

Venice in the Eyes of Claude Monet | DailyArt Magazine

EDOUARD MANET (1832-1883), Le Grand Canal à Venise | Christie's

Claude MONET in Venice

Bing Videos - Trailer for Luchino Visconti masterpiece film : "Death in Venise".