“Repairing a $12 Million Monet After It Has Been Punched”

Claude Monet - ‘Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat’ - 1874 - oil on canvas - damaged (click photo for larger image)Claude Monet - ‘Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat’ - 1874 - oil on canvas - repaired (click photo for larger image)“On 29 June 2012, Andrew Shannon entered the National Gallery of Ireland and punched a hole through a Monet painting from 1874, valued at nearly $12 million. While Shannon was recently sentenced to 5 years in prison, the painstaking process of restoring the prized artwork took an arduous 18 months to complete.”

Read this fascinating article to find out just how much time, expertise, and expense goes into repair and restoration work.

An Impressionist Fascination

Claude Monet - The Rocks of Belle Ile (Rough Sea) - 1886 - Oil on canvas, 65 x 82 cm - Musée d'Orsay, Paris (click photo for larger image)French painter Claude Monet (1840-1926) was the founder and leader of the Impressionist movement in France. The movement's name, Impressionism, is derived from his work entitled “Impression, Sunrise” of 1873. Monet adhered to the principles of Impressionism throughout his long career and is considered the most consistently representative painter of that school, as well as one of the foremost painters of landscape in the history of art. At Etretat in Normandy, Monet was fascinated by the sheer cliffs and the bizarre shape of the Manneporte, an arch of rock. He returned to the subject over several years, and to the jagged crags and stormy Atlantic at Belle-Ile-en-Mer in Brittany. Using Impressionist dabs to establish an irregular pattern was almost as important in such a work as recording a striking view.

Edgar Degas: The Impressionist Realist

Edgar Degas - Les repasseuses (Women Ironing) - 1884 - Oil on canvas - 29 7/8 x 31 7/8 in. (76 x 81 cm) - Musee d'Orsay, Paris (click photo for larger image)"I want to look through the keyhole," French artist Edgar Degas (1834-1917) once said. A keen intelligence and precise objectivity characterize his work, and he was the only artist who truly bridged the gap between traditional academic art and the avant-garde movements of the late 19th an early 20th centuries. Degas was especially fond of the human figure—particularly female—which would emerge on his canvases as laundresses, ballet dancers, cabaret singers, milliners, prostitutes to women washing themselves. His ability to explore the language of art—its technical and tactile complexity, its refinement as well as its implicit energy—to a more extreme degree than any of his contemporaries, but without losing sight of his subject matter is wherein his greatness lies.

“Picasso Looks at “Degas”

Edgar Degas - Self-Portrait, ca. 1857–1858 - Oil on paper, mounted on canvas, 10-1/4 x 7-1/2 inches - Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MassachusettsEdgar Degas - Self-Portrait, ca. 1857–1858 - Oil on paper, mounted on canvas, 10-1/4 x 7-1/2 inches - Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts (click photo for larger image)Pablo Picasso - Self-Portrait, 1896 - Oil on canvas, 13 x 9-1/2 inches - Museu Picasso, Barcelona (click photo for larger image)

“Throughout his long and prolific career, Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) observed and absorbed the work of other artists. One artist Picasso particularly admired was Edgar Degas (1834–1917).”

This is the opening line of an article by Sarah Lees, associate curator of European art at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts. written for “Antiques and Fine Art Magazine” to help promote a 2010 exhibit. It’s a very interesting discussion—and we strongly encourage you to read it. Picasso was not an artist who ever needed to copy or imitate anyone. But he was like a sponge—taking up everything around him and adding it to his own pictorial language.

Edouard Manet—Leading the Charge

Edouard Manet, The Absinthe Drinker, 1859, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, CopenhagenWhen Edouard Manet (1832-1883) began to paint genre (everyday) subjects, such as old beggars, street urchins, café characters, and Spanish bullfight scenes, he was challenging all of the standard of the Salon. Monet adopted a direct, bold brush technique in his treatment of realistic subject matter—which was bitterly attacked by his critics. In 1866, the French novelist Emile Zola, who championed the art of Manet in the newspaper Figaro, became a close friend of the painter. He was soon joined by the young group of French impressionist painters, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, and Paul Cezanne, who were influenced by Manet's art and who, in turn, influenced him! Together, they all dramtically changed the direction of art. But it was definitely Manet who led the charge.