Shane Cratty

A Beautiful Day on the River Seine
April 17th, 2012
Art 1.2
Section 4136

On the Bank of the Seine, Bennecourt by the French painter Claude Monet is one of the few great paintings that truly embody Impressionism. On the Bank of the Seine, Bennecourt was painted in 1868 on the Seine River in the Northwestern Portion of France. Created with oil on canvas and standing at thirty-two inches tall by thirty-nine and two-thirds inches wide, this painting depicts Monet’s future wife, Camille Doncieux, gazing across the Seine River at a village not too far off in the distance. The ability this painting has to capture the eye is amazing and unique, and allows you to fully appreciate the Impressionist Art Movement.
In this piece, the artist uses many different techniques to allow you to admire the scene in all of its glory. The objects in the piece seem like they are almost incomplete, yet at the same time seem very precise and just as the artist intended them to be. As is a hallmark of Impressionist Art, this picture portrays the overall visual effects as opposed to the details, to not detract from the overall viewing of the piece.
Another characteristic of Monet’s Art and Impressionism in general is the use of short vibrating strokes in order to obtain a kind of shifting effect with the light and color, which is very apparent in this particular oil painting. One of most noticeable uses of light in this image is in the reflection on the river of the village. Another good use of the lighting was to create shadows on the front bank in the image. The methods used in this piece have a very interesting way of capturing the fluctuations of light occurring in the scene.
The colors in the painting are all bright, with a lack of any dull tones whatsoever, even the shadows are rendered in color. The main colors are vibrant shades of blue, green, and yellow with a