At the Meadow, Vetheuil 1888

Curator: Today, we’re looking at Claude Monet’s "At the Meadow, Vetheuil", an oil-on-canvas painting created in 1888. It’s held in a private collection, but its style is classically Impressionist, very much a plein-air work. Editor: Right off, I feel the almost tangible haze of a warm day, doesn’t it feel like looking at a memory? The brushstrokes give it a shimmering quality like the air is actually vibrating. Curator: Precisely, Monet's quick, broken brushwork evokes a sense of movement and immediacy. You'll note he’s portraying a leisure scene, very typical of Impressionist genre paintings. It depicts figures enjoying the meadow, with emphasis on capturing fleeting light. The work exists within a particular political and economic context as art became a marker of wealth and privilege for both artists and their patrons. Editor: It's funny though; looking at the central figure, the woman in the foreground. She doesn't seem all that thrilled with her meadow outing! There's a slight melancholy about her, or maybe I’m projecting my feelings after a hard day of work. I’m reminded of my summers as a child… distant memories I can barely touch. Curator: It’s easy to see such sentiment reflected back at you. Her figure also demonstrates the interest of late nineteenth-century art in capturing intimate scenes from modern life, of creating snapshots from everyday bourgeois existence. Monet frequently painted his family and friends, weaving together social networks with landscape. Editor: I can see that. There's something about the way the light hits her dress that feels intimate. It reminds me that, no matter what the sociopolitical forces are, or how "genre painting" it is, in the end it’s still an image of a human in the sunlight. Curator: Yes, despite the painting's position in the history of art, there is something deeply moving about how well Monet captures an intimate and individual moment in this work, while speaking to universal themes and broad social structures. Editor: A pretty neat trick, and a pleasant meadow indeed.