Monday, March 10, 2014

Manet ~ In the Greenhouse

Manet was at the forefront of the impressionist movement using small yet distinct brushstrokes to create his painting, while retaining a clarity in his style that was refreshing and beautiful in comparison with most of the other impressionists. Another attribute of Manet’s style is that he used a different color for each shade in his art making his paintings more vibrant, whereas the artists before him would use the same color but with a deeper or lighter shade layering the paint to create a shadow effect. Manet was an impressionist given his brushstroke and use of color, but unlike the other impressionists, he was a realist as well, desiring to depict scenes as how they really appeared to him. Thus, In the Greenhouse was probably a scene that Manet actually saw in real life.

In the Greenhouse was recently featured in the new movie Monuments Men, which was a movie about this group of Americans who go into occupied territory at the end of WWII and save much of the art the Hitler and the Nazi’s had confiscated and restore the stolen art to their owners if possible.