Dimensions: support: 654 x 1003 mm frame: 864 x 1216 x 88 mm
Copyright: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: This is Claude Monet’s "The Seine at Port-Villez," currently residing at the Tate. It's quite a hazy scene, creating a serene and almost melancholic mood. What do you see in this piece? Curator: It's interesting how Monet frames the Seine, focusing less on industrial activity and more on the river as a site of leisure and reflection. Given the rise of tourism and outdoor recreation in the late 19th century, how might this painting be seen as participating in a romanticized vision of the French landscape? Editor: That's a great point! I hadn't considered the social context of leisure. Curator: It prompts us to think about who this art was for and the cultural values it promoted, right? I am now thinking about how painting can be seen as an important element to cultural memory. Editor: Absolutely, seeing it as more than just a pretty picture changes everything.
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/monet-the-seine-at-port-villez-n06182
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Monet executed several scenes of the Seine near his house at Giverny. He probably began each canvas in a specially adapted flat-bottomed boat, but would have continued working on paintings in his studio over a period of time. Monet has stripped this scene of physical detail, focusing, instead, on recording the all-enveloping light and atmosphere of the river. In 1891 he said, 'For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life - the air and the light, which vary continuously. For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value.' Gallery label, August 2004
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