Claude Monet, thanks to a special outlook on life, became the most famous artist and ancestor of the new trend in painting – impressionism.
For a long time, Monet and his family live in the small town of Argenteuil. There he paints many paintings of his wife, Camilla. One of these works – “Walk” – in front of us. The full original title of this work is “The Walk. The Lady with an Umbrella”, also known as “Camilla Monet with her son Jean.” This painting, written in 1875, is one of the most famous early works of the artist.
Camilla Monet is depicted standing on a hill, the background is a blue sky with white clouds. She is dressed in a light, almost weightless dress of light blue color, in her hands she holds an umbrella from the sun. Sunlight seems to be flowing from everywhere, there is a summer heat, the figures of a woman and a child dissolve in it. The child is depicted a little apart from the figure of a woman, so nothing distracts the viewer from Camilla. A breeze blows her hair and skirt; clouds, easily running across the sky – all this creates a feeling of airiness and weightlessness of the entire space of the picture, adding dynamics to the image.
The artist does not focus the viewer’s attention on nature, giving her the role of scenery. The picture is framed by tree branches and grass in the meadow, the earth and the sky do not have a clear border, smoothly flow into each other.
The picture “Walk” gives the audience only bright and positive emotions, it just radiates happiness and love. The artist talks about his earthly love, but at the same time the image itself is ephemeral and unreal. The ability to unite on the canvas these opposites makes Claude Monet one of the greatest artists of the world.
Unfortunately, weightless happiness will not last long: in four years Camilla will die from tuberculosis, but her young and flourishing image will forever remain in the artist’s heart and can please us on many canvases of Claude Monet.
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