Red & Black Week: Two paintings by Monet

Today is the second day of Sophistique Noir's Red & Black Week and I shall make a post about two paintings of Claude Oscar Monet (1840-1926). He was an impressionist and I do like several of his paintings, but these two fit the theme of the week best.

Source

A funny little fact is, that Arvid Liljelund, whom I introduced to you in my previous post, is from the same era. France and especially Paris were of huge importance to the Finnish art at that time. Liljelund, like many other Finnish artists, spent time in Paris, in order to absorb influence of French art. I guess I'm a sucker when it comes to the latter half of 19th century paintings, but now I shall continue to the paintings!

First I would like to introduce to you Camille au Petit Chien (1866). If my knowledge is correct, it belongs to a private collection at the moment, but lucky for us, there are still photos of it. Camilla with a Little Dog is a potrait of a female against dark background. I think the contras between the darkness and her pale face is striking. Her outfit makes another contras of color, that rich red and black and white stripes are a combination which certanly makes my gothic heart pound! There is also yet another interesting contrast, between the face of Camille and the dog she is holding. The quick brushstrokes of the god make it either shaggy or very lively, as if it would be hard to keep it still in Camilla's arms. I must say, that by first glance, the little dog could also be a pile of feathers, but maybe that is a bit mean to say. ;) Anyway, I do think this painting is extremely good and it has a place in my heart.

Source

Another painting of Monet, which I consider strikingly beautiful, is La Japonaise, or The Japanese Woman (1875). Yet again the colors are magnificent and I just love that slightly malicious yet flirty expression of the young lady in the painting! The human figure in the robe she is wearing is almost as three demensional as the lady herself. The armed man of the robe has also an interesting expression on his face. Maybe the lady is smiling, because she has eyes in her back too, and she can detect everything, especially the admiring glances that she gets, when she walks past?

This picture I got of the painting is slightly more bright red than it actually should be. Camille, who was the artists love and who is posing in the other painting too, had more blonde than ginger hair in this painting. Also, her robe was more like imperial red, not this bright.

Thank you for reading, and remember to click the icon of Red & Black Week and check the other participants too!