Road at Louveciennes, Melting Snow, Sunset 1870

Claude Monet painted "Road at Louveciennes, Melting Snow, Sunset" with oils, capturing a fleeting moment in a small town. Notice how the road draws your eye, beginning wide at the bottom and narrowing to a distant glow. The sky is a wash of sunset hues, mixed with thick brushstrokes of orange, yellow, and soft greys, which give way to the browns and greys of the buildings and skeletal trees that line the street. This contrast of light and dark creates a sense of depth, but also a feeling of transience, as though the scene is about to disappear. Monet’s Impressionism sought to destabilize academic traditions, moving away from clear form and detail, to prioritize the subjective experience of light and colour. The melting snow is as much about materiality, texture and paint, as it is about representing the physical world. In this way, Monet invites us to consider how our perceptions shape our reality. It reminds us that the world is always in flux, resisting any fixed interpretation.