Vanessa Potts

A competent tour through the selected work of Claude Monet. It was Monet's work which defined the Impressionist movement (taking its name from Impression, Sunrise, included here on page 74), where detail in a painting is sacrificed in favour of creating a general impression of the scene in question. To this end, Monet is primarily concerned with landscapes and other colourful nature scenes, as well as implied motion and the effect of natural light.

Vanessa Potts does reasonably well to guide us through Monet's artistic principles (though the introduction by Claire O'Mahony is underwhelming), pointing out certain techniques such as the relationship between the horizontal and the vertical, the proportions of sky and sea, and also subtleties like, in Zaandam, the wobbly reflections in the water indicating ripples of movement rather than stillness (pg. 70). There are some problems – she frequently makes reference to other Monet paintings not included in the book, and many of those which are reproduced are too small on the page to truly capture them. I know it is said of Monet's work that it is best viewed from a distance, but reproducing paintings so they are only a few inches wide might be taking it a bit too far.

Ultimately, it is a useful introduction to Monet's work. He is not one of my favourite painters, being a pure aesthete with no deeper meaning or story in his impressions, but Potts' book has given me an appreciation for his approach, and for the subtleties of technique in even his broadest brushstrokes.… (más)