Contents

1. Introduction

2. Claude Monet Biography

3. Vincent Van Gogh Biography

4. Painting 1: “Road in the Snow”

5. Painting 2: “In the Jardin du Luxembourg”

6. Compare and Contrast

7. Conclusion

8. .Bibliography

IntroductionI am going to compare the paintings of one impressionist artist and one post-impressionist artist. The impressionist artist I have chosen is Claude Monet and

the post-impressionist is Vincent Van Gogh. I will choose a picture from each of

them and review each them before comparing them to each other. By doing this I hope to discover the different painting styles between Monet and Van Gogh. The picture I have chosen by Monet is called “Road in the snow”. It was painted in 1867. The picture I have chosen by Van Gogh is called “In the Jardin du Luxembourg”. It was painted in 1886.

Artist 1: Claude MonetClaude Oscar Monet was born on the 14th of November 1840 in Paris. His parents were Louise Justine Aubree (a singer) and Claude Adolphe. When he was 11 he began studying at Le Havre school for the arts.

In 1861 Monet joined the First Regiment of African Light Cavalry in Algeria for seven years. However he caught typhoid after two years so his Aunt petitioned to have him sent home.

Monet attempted to commit suicide in 1868 but met Camille Doncieux who helped him to recover. He later married her and had two sons, Jean and Michel. When the Franco-Prussian War began in 1870, Monet and Camille moved to England. They later moved back again in 1871. Camille died on the 5th of September 1879 of tuberculosis.

After Camille died Monet and his children moved into Ernest Hoshede’s house. When he began to run out of money they moved to Poissy with Hoshede's wife, Alice, and her six children. After Hoshede died, Monet married Alice in 1892. Alice died in 1911, and Jean died in 1914.

Monet developed cataracts that affected how he saw colours. After he had surgery for this he went back and changed the colours on the paintings he had made during his illness.

Monet was one of the first impressionist painters. One of his more famous paintings is ‘Impression Sunrise’ in 1872. The highest price any of his paintings was ever sold for was ‘Nympheas - Water Lilies’ at $71,846,600.

Monet died on the 5th of December 1926 in Giverny in France, of lung cancer at the age of 86. He is buried in the Giverny church cemetery.

Artist 2: Van GoghVincent Van Gogh was born on the 30 March 1853 in Groot-Zundert, a village in the Netherlands. His parents were called Anna Cornelia Carbentus and Theodorus Van Gogh. He was named after his Grandfather and his stillborn older brother. He had two other brother and three sisters called Theodorus, Cor, Elisabeth, Anna and Willemina. Van Gogh had a mental illness, making him suffer anxiety and frequent bouts of depression.

In April 1881, Van Gogh Spent fell in love with his recently widowed cousin, Kee Vos-Stricker, who was seven years older than him. He proposed marriage to her but she refused and began staying away from him. In November 1887, Van Gogh met Paul Gauguin, another artist. Gauguin began painting with Van Gogh.

On 23 December 1888, Van Gogh confronted Gauguin with a razor blade, before fleeing to the local brothel. Whilst he was there, he cut off the lower part of his left ear lobe and asked a prostitute to look after it for him. Van Gogh was hospitalized. By the time he was released, Gauguin had left. They never saw each other again.

Van Gogh admitted himself into a mental hospital, the Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Most of his paintings in this time had swirls in them, this is thought to refer to his mental state.

On 27 July 1890, Van Gogh shot himself in the chest. He survived the initial shot but died a few days later in hospital.

Painting 1: “Road in the Snow”The picture is called “Road in the Snow” by Claude Monet. It was painted in 1867. The painting is of a natural environment. It is an impressionist painting. It was painted with oil paints on a canvas. The brush strokes are small and controlled.

In the middle of the painting there is a cart with two people in it, pulled by a horse. One of the people is a male and the other is female. The cart is one a snow-covered road at the bottom of a steep slope. There are two small houses next to the road. After the houses, trees are painted around the road and behind the houses.

There are no definite lines separating the different objects in the painting, the colours all blend into each other. The painting is soft and slightly dark. The colours are dull and subtle. If you look closely you can see that the snow contains different colours such as pink, blue and grey. The road is rough and bumpy while the snow is smooth. The road is rather straight but turns a corner further away. The snow lies in wavy lines and spills out onto the road. The artist appears to be stood outside painting the picture, at the side of the road.

The painting makes you feel sad as the colours in the snow are cold and the road appears to be endless. These make it seem forbidding and lonely. The colours in the sky are warm though, contrasting with the snow. This makes it appear to be in the early morning, while the sun is rising. As the road continues it gets blurrier and fewer colours are used. Eventually the road appears to stop or turn a corner and trees are growing at the end.

The objects are all rather small and the sky takes up much of the picture. The trees are further away and so are all pretty small. The house is the biggest object in the painting, twice the size of the cart. The cart is the focus of the painting.

I like the painting as it is clear and is of an actual image rather than a few blobs or streaks of colour. I think it appears rather peaceful and quiet as there are not many living things in it. I was interested in how many colours are in the snow on the road as it looks just grey and white from further away.

Painting2: “In the Jardin du Luxembourg”The picture is called “In the Jardin du Luxembourg” by Vincent Van Gogh. It was painted in 1886. The picture is of a landscape. It is a post-impressionist painting.

In the painting there are a number of trees in three straight lines. There are also a number of people either walking around or sat down looking out over the water. Beyond the water there are some buildings with what looks like a lighthouse.

There are lines firmly separating the trees from the background, as well as some of the people’s clothes. The picture is light with vibrant colours. The ground contains slight colours like blue, red and yellow. The ground is smooth and straight. Many of the lines or objects are straight. Van Gogh appears to be standing outside, in front of the tree in the middle of the painting.

The painting makes you feel happy or calm as the colours are bright and cheerful. The picture seems welcoming. The painting is not in detail and is slightly blurry. The buildings over the water are even more blurry and are painted in only the colours brown, blue, green and white while the area closer is in many different colours. The painting appears to be in early spring as the trees are a light lime green, rather than in summer when they would be dark green.

The objects in the painting are big and take up much of it. The trees canopy covers most of the sky and top half of the picture. The buildings across the water are far away so are very small. The focus point of the painting is the trees which take up much of it.

I like this painting as it is colourful and I like colours. It is also rather clear and interesting. The painting appears to be a moment of every day life captured on canvas.

Compare and ContrastVan Gogh and Monet had very different lives. They were born 13 years apart in different countries. Van Gogh had to teach himself to draw and paint while Monet went to an art school. Both of them tried to commit suicide at some point in their lives. Monet was married twice while Van Gogh proposed to someone but was harshly turned down. Monet also had children. Monet had problems with how he

saw colours and Van Gogh was mentally ill. Van Gogh worked with other people while Monet also worked alone. Van Gogh killed himself while Monet died of natural causes, two years before Van Gogh.

Differences in the paintings are that in Monet’s there are few objects and they are small while in Van Gogh’s there are lots of big objects. All of the colours merge into each other in Monet’s while in Van Gogh’s there are lines separating them.Monet’s painting is made of dull, dark colours that make it feel lonely while Van Gogh’s is made of bright colours that make it feel cheerful.

ConclusionMonet and Van Gogh were very different, in both lives and painting style. I have found the difference between impressionist and post-impressionist artists. In my

comparison between their paintings “Road in the Snow” and “In the Jardin du Luxembourg” I have found that I prefer Van Gogh’s painting as it is colourful and full of life.

BibliographyMonethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Monethttp://www.artquotes.net/masters/monet-biography.htmVan Goghhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh#cite_note-Tralbaut_1981.2C_107-48

http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/bio.htmlPictureshttp://www.abcgallery.com/M/monet/monet160.htmlhttp://www.abcgallery.com/V/vangogh/vangogh83.html