Art Appreciation Blog

Dematerialization mirroring sensation

To see, we must forget the name of the thing we are looking at ~ Claude Monet

Fruit trees are blooming again in Provence. The sunlight from the dew in the grass reflects through the air onto delicate almond flowers. That sensory effect was never better interpreted than in Impressionists' paintings. Join me on a little trip enjoying their spring landscapes, aiming the spotlight at the ones with blossoming trees.

Apple Blossoms, 1873
Charles-Francois Daubigny (1817-1878)
58.7 x 84.8 cm, oil on canvas
Apple Blossoms Daubigny The Met

Apple Trees in Blossom, 1874
Charles- Francois Daubigny (1817-1878)
85 x 157 cm, oil on canvas
Blooming Trees Daubigny NG Scotland

Daubigny, a precursor of Impressionism, was one of the Barbizon group of painters Monet very much looked up to. He painted blossoming trees every spring, starting in 1857, and continued for the next 20 years until the end of his life. The Barbizon Group of painters were the first to paint in the open and to focus on true colors under the natural light. Daubigny was also the favorite landscape painter of Vincent van Gogh and you will find at the end of this post a story of the poetic way he paid homage to Daubigny.

Apple Blossom Time in Arc-la-Bataille
Wynford Dewhurst (1865-1941)
38.3 x 55.4 cm, oil on canvas
Apple Blossom Dewhurst Christie's

Digging deeper in the Impressionist drawers of the past, I found Wynford Dewhurst, a British painter ("Monet from Manchester") and theorist. He wrote the book Impressionist Painting, its Genesis and Development in 1904 (available on the Gutenberg Project platform). The book is packed with first-hand accounts and anecdotes from his mentor and idol Monet, Mary Cassatt, Cezanne, and other key art figures in France at the time. Dewhurst felt that his compatriots were falling behind Americans in comprehending the importance of Impressionism in art.

Note how in the painting above, like a true Impressionist, he moves the horizon line way above (or other times way under), while Daubigny still keeps it in the classical central position.

Spring (Fruit Trees in Bloom), 1873
Claude Monet (1840-1926)
62.2 x 100.6 cm, oil on canvas
Monet Spring Trees Met Museum

After visiting his mentor and his admirer, we arrive at the man himself—Monet, one of the world's greatest landscape artists. As the description in the Met Museum says, we can not be sure what kind of fruit trees these above are. The painting was first named Plum, then Apple Trees, only to be left today as Fruit Trees. This proves the point Monet was trying to make- forget about details and immerse yourself in the magical play of the light, color, surfaces, and air in the moment.

In the above-mentioned book by Dewhurst, we can find an anecdote proving Monet's dedication: in 1889 invited by poet Maurice Rollinat (who would later tell the story to Dewhurst), Monet spent 3 months in Fresseline in Creuse and painted 23 paintings there. He was especially taken by one tree hanging on the top of a cliff, painting it at different times of the day from various angles. At one point, the weather got so bad that he had to stop painting for three weeks. Arriving again at his scene, he found the tree budding. Determined to paint it as it was when he started, Monet called the whole village and orchestrated them to take every single bud from the poor tree by the next morning when he would be back to continue his work.

Springtime, 1886
Claude Monet (1840-1926)
64.8 x 80.6 cm, oil on canvas
Spring Monet Fitz Museum UK

He made up for that 'crime' later as I found out in another story from the same book: hundreds of poplar trees along the Seine were to be cut by the order of the French government, and used for palisading the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900. Monet bought those grounds before the government got to them, and saved the poplars, immortalizing them in later paintings.

Speaking of the Universal Exhibition, the one in 1900 in Paris attracted 51 million visitors (France at the time had 41.5 million inhabitants) - a new world record. The French government included a large number of Impressionists in its exhibition "The Best of French Art in the XIX Century" establishing their elevated status domestically and internationally from then on.

Small Houses in Auvers (near Pantoise), 1873/4
Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)
40.7 x 50.9 cm, oil on canvas
Cezanne Blossom Harvard Art Museums

Printemps. Pruniers en fleurs (Spring. Plum Trees Flowering), 1877
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)
65.5 x 81 cm, oil on canvas
Pissarro Orsay

And here are some blossoming trees from the two good friends - Cezanne and Pissarro who painted many scenes next to each other (like these from the Pentoise area, even though they were dated differently). They bonded when they met in 1861, feeling like outsiders with strong accents in Paris (Pissarro's Caribbean and Cezanne's Provençal). Pissarro was one of the rare ones to recognize early on something special in Cezanne's artistry. While Pissarro stayed loyal to the Impressionistic process of disintegrating the materialistic elements into sparkles of colors and light, Cezanne was heading in almost the opposite direction - "building" with color, as he said, "I want to make something solid and durable out of Impressionism".

Page of Van Gogh's letter to his brother Theo
with a sketch of Daubigny's garden
Letter Van Gogh Museum

Daubigny's Garden, 1890
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
51 x 51.2 cm, oil on canvas
Daubigny Jarden VV Gogh Museum

Le Jardin de Daubigny, 1890
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
53.2 x 103.5 cm, oil on canvas
Vincent Jardin Hiroshima Museum

Le Jardin de Daubigny (avec un chat blue), 1890
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
56 x 101. 5 cm, oil on canvas
Blue Cat Art Museum Basel

(it should be here, but it is not at the moment, there is some dispute about whether they have the original or a copy)

As promised, here is a story (gathered from different sources you can find below) of Vincent van Gogh paying respect to Daubigny.

It is 1890 and Van Gogh is as mentally exhausted, as his brother Theo is physically and financially. Camille Pissarro helps him go to Auvers-sur-Oise to be taken under the care of the famous Dr Gachet. Van Gogh learns that the house where his admired Daubigny lived, is in Auvers with his widow still living there.

In a letter to his brother (image above) Van Gogh, as usual, writes about paintings he is working on and sketches the Daubigny's garden that he is about to paint. The first of the three paintings was done more in an Impressionist manner while the other two are in Van Gogh's original style, belonging to Post-Impressionism and almost Expressionism. The two in his Post-Impressionist style are painted in different weather conditions, one on a sunny day and the other under the turbulent sky with a blue cat.

Here is an easy way to remember the difference between Impressionism and Expressionism: Impressionists painted shadows blue and Expressionists painted their cats blue!

Auvers is the place where Vincent lived during the last months of his life, where he painted Wheatfield with Crows known as his 'suicide note' after which he shot himself in the stomach. He was buried there next to his brother (who died 6 months later) right by those wheatfields.

But we must remember him by the endless magnificent paintings he created while overcoming his pain with beauty. His series of around 20 paintings of Blooming Peach, Apricot, Almond, Plum, and Apple Orchards of Provence, painted in Arles and around Saint-Rémy-de-Provence are immeasurable sources of joy, beauty, and hope. Many of them are in Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, like this one: