Johannes Vermeer, Girl With a Pearl Necklace, 1660-1665

Another very peaceful, very Dutch scene. 

4:24 pm  •  23 November 2011  •  40 notes

Johannes Vermeer, The Milkmaid, 1660

This traditional-looking scene of a housemaid (the title is kind of misleading) seems very simple when you first look at it. But look again. The way the light hits the woman, a sense of heaviness is achieved, and her downward face, half covered in a shadow is incredibly hard to decipher. Is she concentrated on her task? Is she wistful? Bored? The way you can’t  really make out her emotions has always fascinated me. 

3:29 pm  •  23 November 2011  •  78 notes

Johannes Vermeer, The Little Street, 1657

A view of the houses in Delft, the town where Vermeer was born, lived and died. The most notable thing about this painting is the use of “keyhole” views, or being able to see through a little hole to a scene behind it. This frames the composition and kind of makes it more complex. 

3:05 pm  •  23 November 2011  •  17 notes

Johannes Vermeer, A Woman Asleep, 1656

One of the most peaceful scenes I’ve ever seen. She just seems so perfectly situated. 

Dutch painters were some of the first to popularize “genre paintings,” or scenes of everyday life. There doesn’t really need to be a narrative, or any religious, intellectual or mythological content. 

3:02 pm  •  23 November 2011  •  33 notes

Jonannes Vermeer, Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, 1658

Vermeer, a Dutch painter, was mostly known for his interiors and exquisite details. He worked from his house a lot, which provided the backdrop to a great many of his works, like this one. His use of rich pigments also is prominent in most of his works. 

I love Vermeer. I love how every painting of his makes beautiful use of light, and this one is no different. The light streaming in through the window is truly beautiful. I’m always inspired to imagine a backstory to this panting, like that she is reading a letter from a faraway lover. 

2:22 pm  •  23 November 2011  •  29 notes

Claude Monet, Water Lilies, 1908

This piece sort of represents what the whole series was about. An exploration with color, style, texture and form (or lack thereof). The unconventional shape of this just adds to the novel feel.

My favorite part of Monet’s paintings is that from a distance, or at a smaller scale, the painting looks very coherent and designed, but up close those careful lines dissolve into a flurry of brushstrokes and piled-up paint. Monet can literally take some pink paint and swirl it around, and somehow it fits perfectly into a composition. 

11:42 pm  •  22 November 2011  •  46 notes

Monet, Water Lilies, 1926

Another one of Monet’s Lilies. I really like this one because all that’s shown is water. There’s no anchoring landmass, something that’s really quite hard to do and still have it look like water. Also, the colors are obviously glorious.

6:10 pm  •  22 November 2011  •  23 notes

Claude Monet, Nympheas, 1901

Part of Monet’s famous series of over 300 paintings of is water lilies in his garden at Giverny. He painted most of these while he was developing cataracts, which some say can explain the increasingly loose brushwork and style of thickly textured paint. I think that he was just developing his amazing style.

5:48 pm  •  22 November 2011  •  19 notes

Monet, Poplars (Series), 1890

Another series by Monet. (He was big into doing series of things if you couldn’t tell.)In this case, of some magnificent poplar trees alongside the river Epte, that he passed by every day. He loved these trees so much that he actually bought them from the lumber company that owned them so that he could finish painting them before they were cut down. 

I love the way Monet transforms something stiff and unmoving, like a tree trunk, into a fluid line augmented by his trademark feathery brushstrokes. And, as always, glorious use of color. 

5:29 pm  •  22 November 2011  •  47 notes

Claude Monet, La Cathédrale de Rouen, 1894

Monet did a series of over thirty canvases of the Rouen Cathedral, painting it at different times of the day and night, and in different weather conditions. I like this one because it captures the moment after a sunrise when half the world is covered in sunlight and the other is in shadow. 

Monet actually suffered nightmares about the Cathedral after painting it so much, he began to hallucinate and his paintings of the building grew steadily darker. Above all, this series shows his skill with texture, because it is primarily the layered effect of paint that builds up to mimic the stone.

3:58 pm  •  22 November 2011  •  17 notes

Claude Monet, Haystack (Winter), 1890

This is my favorite from the Haystack series. I love how even though the prominent color is white, you can find every other color woven in with the white to create not just one shade, but every variation of white you could have ever dreamed. Look at it closely. There’s pinks, purples, greens, oranges, browns, yellows and reds all contained within the “white,” which blends seamlessly into a snowbank when you step back from the painting. The haystacks sit underneath a blanket of snow, and the brushstrokes cover the painting in a flurry of colors. 

3:50 pm  •  22 November 2011  •  88 notes

Claude Monet, Haystacks (Series), 1890-91

This colorful pastiche of canvases is part of the series that Monet did on haystacks, mainly to experiment and document how the stacks looked at different times of day, and in different seasons. 

Monet was all about the color and texture of paint, and didn’t really focus at all on the line or design of a work. This is apparent the most in his Haystacks. It’s almost like the soft dabs of color made by his brush are piled up on top of each other, like the hay he was painting. The most notable part of this series is, in my opinion, the way he twine colors together so that you can notice the different strands when you’re up close, but they blend together into a lovely pastel when you back away.

3:44 pm  •  22 November 2011  •  527 notes

Claude Monet, Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son, 1875

One of a few paintings Monet did on his wife and son. The bright colors and low vantage point almost makes it seem like you’re staring into the sun. The clouds and her white dress both seem to be blowing in the wind. 

1:25 pm  •  22 November 2011  •  14 notes

Claude Monet, Houses of Parliament Series, 1900-1904

Done when he stayed in England, this beautiful series focuses on the British House of Parliament, and how it looked during different times of day, in different weathers. Really really stunning. The series allowed him to dive deeper into the exploration of atmospheric effects and color variations.

1:03 pm  •  22 November 2011  •  114 notes

Claude Monet, The Seine at Argenteuil, 1874

One of the most revolutionary things that the Impressionists started was painting “en plein air,” or outdoors. This sounds pretty standard nowadays, I mean, who hasn’t seen some dude set up with an easel by a river bank, but back then it was just not done. Artists drew the outline for their paintings outdoors sometimes, but would then go back to the studio and work on it for days in candlelight. This gorgeous, light, airy painting was done as Monet actually gazed at the river.

12:39 pm  •  22 November 2011  •  8 notes