Claude Monet [antikvár]

"Life, oh, life! To seize it and picture it in all its veracity; to love it such as it is given to us; to see it as the abode of genuine beauty, eternal and changeable. .." Zola "To see with the eye of a newlyborn!. . ." Cézanne "How wonderful it is to see the sun! I like to look straight at the sun! Yes - straight at the sun! I adore its light; I have done my best to show it..." Corol The artists who knew Claude Monet spoke of him with high deference. ".. .Monet, in my view, is a very serious, very pure talent... this is an art marked by a great mastery, which stems from the gift of observation and an absolutely new outlook... Monet is a true worshipper of Nature," said Camille Pissarro. "Monet has created a mode of vision," declared Paul Cézanne. "...I would have given up the whole business, but for the friendly encouragement of the old Monet, who possessed a fighting spirit," confessed Auguste Renoir. "But who will do for the genre composition what Claude Monet has done for landscape painting?" asked Vincent Van Gogh. "Now, as before, I feel an invariable admiration for the artist who helped me to perceive the light. the clouds, the sea and the cathedrals, which I had always loved and whose beauty, conveyed by you in its full splendour, moved me to the heart" - these words were addressed to Claude Monet by Auguste Rodin. "The canvas of Monet has always moved me. In it I always drew a guidance, and in the days of despondency and doubts Monet's work was my friend and tutor," told Paul Signac. These are but few of those numerous expressions of gratitude which were addressed to Monet by his contemporary artists. They reflect, however, just as a drop of water reflects the world, the great significance which was attached to the words Claude Monet in the tempestuous and brilliant art of Francé in the second half of the past century. Monet belonged to that sort of people who are possessed by one idea, fanatics who know only one single road. These people choose their road once and for all and then follow it unservingly, never veer off it even for so much as a second, not even for the sake of exploring somé neighbouring footpath. They may not have full confidence in their strength, but they do not know doubts as to the correctness of their chosen path. 7 Such a person is indispensable for any new art, which unites a group of people and makes its way to recognition through hardship and enmity. If Claude Monet had not existed, his place would have been taken by somé other Impressionist; but Monet did exist, and there was no other person who would be better suited for the role, which he was destined to play in the movement. This did not mean that he had a greater talent than the others. But among the talents which were in no way second to his, in somé cases may be even superior, Monet possessed