The Japanese Bridge 1924

This image depicts a Japanese bridge, painted by Claude Monet, probably sometime around the turn of the 20th century. Look at those stabs of paint, the colors seem to vibrate and shimmer! Monet wasn't trying to give us a photograph, he was after something else. The surface is built up of countless little dabs and dashes. It's almost like he's weaving light itself onto the canvas. Check out the way he renders the water; it’s not just blue, but a mix of greens, yellows, and even touches of red. There's a particular stroke near the bottom that catches my eye, a sort of looping gesture that suggests both reflection and movement. It is like an alphabet of feeling! Monet’s obsession with light and color reminds me of the later work of someone like Rothko, where the subject dissolves into pure sensation. And it shows that art is a conversation, always questioning what we think we know.