Claude Monet, 'the Parc Monceau'

The Parc Monceau, depicted by Monet, which we can see in front of our eyes now, was one of the jewels in the crown of the Paris public gardens, one of the most elite of the parks boasting ornamental plants from the most diverse countries of the globe. It was established by the Duke d'Orlean a century before Monet made his painting. It had been opened to the public by Napoleon III in 1862. Monet includes in the background some of the luxurious private mansions but he provides a fleeting glimpse only of the parks celebrated floral displays and no sign at all of its grand arterial drives and sophisticated sculptural features. He concentrates on the decorative play of strong Parisian sunshine and deep shadow and the figures relaxing under the tall mature trees remembered in the nineteenth century for surviving so many revolutions. It's particularly interesting that Monet created two versions of the painting. This one with more emphatic tonal contrasts and the other one with softer harmonies as it anticipates his interest in painting a series of works such as those of Rouen cathedral. Monet quickly realised that he could capture the momentary intransient effects of sunlight by painting only en plein air, meaning out of doors. Strong contrasts of bright and shadowed areas are recognisable as part of his artistic language. In the Parc Monceau he had explored varied effects of light and atmosphere anticipating his series of paintings produced at Giverny from the 1890s. Painting realistic scenes of modern life was one of Monet's key artistic ambitions. He excelled in portraying overall visual effects instead of details, which could be thought to be a reaction to the newly established medium of photography. There is a beautiful play of light and shade from the canopy of the trees which could be beech, oak or poplar. In the botanics our view looks up between the trees of the Spanish chestnut, conifer and the oak lawn up to the house. We can see little of the flower displays which were reputed to be splendid in this park. The trees are really big and in full leaf and one wonders what a winter view of this would look like when the leaves are off the trees. Our gardens were originally started in 1670 as a physic garden and were eventually opened to the public on the 7th of April in 1889 right in the middle of all these paintings.