Chrysanthemums - Claude Monet Postcard

Chrysanthemums - Bad weather days, precluding work in the open air, generated a significant output of fruit and flower paintings. Monet adapted his technique for this different theme: he observed the subject for a long period, and then scrupulously reproduced every detail. The decentring of the main motif is the only element of free expression in this traditional composition, giving it an original arrangement. The line of the table is reflected in the material covering the vase, and the floral motif on the wallpaper echoes the main bunch of flowers. Monetís interest in flowers was really taking control in his life, a trend continuing through to the gardens at Giverny. At the time, he was growing chrysanthemums, a flower that was fashionable in the late 19th century, having been newly imported from the Far East at the end of the previous century. Claude Monet (1840 – 1926) was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. The term Impressionism is derived from the title of his painting Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant).