No subject is more readily identified with artist Claude Monet than his private garden and lily pond, both located at his home within the small French village of Giverny. The tangled brushstrokes and thickly applied paint of The Japanese Footbridge at Giverny yield an almost abstracted canvas that is unusual to Monet’s style. However, this work does not stray far from the artist’s typical repertoire as it reveals his fascination with light and atmosphere. Monet’s great pleasure in the contemplation of natural beauty and his desire to capture the essence of nature on canvas led him to the completely new style of painting later termed Impressionism.
Monet’s harmonious combination of unmixed colors and varied brushstrokes produced masterful studies in light. These paintings reveal the artist’s immediate impression of a scene while also refusing to be completely legible. The loud color scheme and vigorously applied paint immediately attracts the eye. The flora, sky, and water are depicted through quickly applied, thick layers of paint that blend together at a distance to reveal the scene. They unite the composition and provide a framework for a uniform background while darker, smaller brushstrokes form the arc of the footbridge. The bridge horizontally divides the canvas and provides the scene with a sense of symmetry.
Conjuring fiery, dark evocations of twilight, the warm, earthy hues of red, teal, and gold overwhelm the canvas. The viewer’s attention is focused onto the paint itself rather than being drawn into the scene. Just as the background appears to dissolve into the water in the foreground, the left side of the bridge is enveloped by the glow of nature and seems to be melting into the atmosphere. Floating lily pads and mirrored reflections assume equal stature within the painting as distinctions between solid objects and transitory light are blurred. Monet had always been interested in reflections, seeing their fragmented forms as a natural equivalent for his own broken brushwork.
Works like this painting show Monet’s interest in types of compositions that became the forerunners of abstraction. After many years of struggle, during which Monet experienced extreme poverty, the painter finally achieved much financial, critical, and popular success. It was during this chapter in his life that he was able to purchase his home in Giverny and employ staff to help cultivate the beautiful gardens now associated with his paintings. By painting en plein air (outdoors), Monet was able to showcase his analysis of his environment under varying conditions of light and season.
“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 light and the air which vary continually. For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value.” –Claude Monet
