Musée d'Orsay ,La Pie THE MAGPIE

THE MAGPIE

This masterpiece is titled The Magpie and was painted by the famous French impressionist painter Claude Monet. But this is not an impressionist painting, and we are going to see why.

It is an oil on canvas which dimensions are 89cm high by 130cm width. It was created in 1868 and 1869 whereas the impressionist movement was created in 1874. It started with the painting exhibition presenting Claude Monet’s painting Impression Soleil Levant, we may translate like Impression rising sun.

What is the impressionism ? The young painters such as Cézanne, Renoir, Sisley and Monet were against the academism and against the indoor work. Also, they discovered the Japonese print which offered them the possibility of getting rid of to many details. Then they could experience a new concept out of the bitten tracks.

So, we may consider the Magpie as the early beginnings of the impressionist style.

In 1868, Claude Monet left Paris and his difficult situation to go to Etretat, in Normandy to the North of Paris. There, he decided to paint in the landscape, in the open air to capture the sensations to render the effect.

What can we see on this painting ? It is depicting a snowy landscape divided in 2 parts : in the fore ground, we can see a snowy field and in the back ground, we can see a country house and trees covered by the snow. This separation is marked by the wooden fence also covered by the snow. This fence is one of the balance elements of the composition. It is enhanced by the magpie which is standing on the gate of the fence. Whereas the magpie is the subject of the title, it is not in the centre of the composition but in the light. This position is emphasized by the open perspective lined by the trees behind the magpie in the back ground. And we can add that the magpie is the only black touch of the composition which attracts the watch. Also, the magpie is not hieratical such as the trees but it is following the diagonal lines of the fence’s shadow.

And meanwhile the sky is cloudy, we can feel the brightness of the sunlight.

So to describe this painting I used two important words : light and shadow. Indeed, Claude Monet used sun and shade to translate the impalpable / untouchable part-liquid part-solid matter. This matter, the snow, occupies almost 90 % of the composition. It put in relief that Claude Monet used a very small palette of colours : black, white, grey and brown. This gives us the inform that the aim of this creation is the sensation more than the reality.

Another important detail proves us it is not an impressionist painting : the brush strokes. The brush strokes are still too shy, not yet applied with character to let this painting considered as an impressionist panting.

In a nutshell, we can say that the painting is to realistic to be considered as an impressionist painting. But we can see it announces the future works of Claude Monet based on the vibration of light.