etween light and shadowMonet's pictorial style is the quintessence of Impressionism -- an investigation of the transformational properties of light. Emile Zola, the 19th-century French novelist and critic, wrote that Impressionism is a perception of the world "through a temperament." A scrupulous observer of light and color, Monet could define what he was feeling with loose brushwork and an almost infinite spectrum of huesMonet's principal subject is lightSkeins of small brush strokes combine a variety of colors to render meadows, mountains, grain stacks, and cathedrals as a part of — indeed as creations of — the sun, the air, the sky. Thus Monet's brush strokes are always visible, and in many works he applies the paint in varying degrees of thickness to produce relief effects. This slight three-dimensionality heightens one's sense of the physicality of the object depicted, while making it even more apparent that one is viewing pigment. ...
