Both art and artists can address climate change. One such artist who has been a key figure in the Impressionist art movement, and transformed French paintings in the second half of the nineteenth century was Claude Monet, who portrayed landscape and leisure activities of Paris and its environs. But what’s more striking is the way he has mirrored air pollution during the Industrial Revolution in 19th-century London and Paris.
The founding impressionist’s artworks are relevant even today, and his works depicting both the brighter and darker side of the artist, are being showcased in an exhibition in the Spanish capital until February 25, 2024 at CentroCentro, Madrid’s vibrant exhibition space inside the Cibeles Palace, a vast neoclassical structure. A display of over 50 masterpieces from the Musée Marmottan Monet, an art museum in Paris, France, dedicated to the artist, aim to recount his journey as an Impressionist master, and include the very famous and iconic Water Lilies (1917-1920), large-scale paintings such as Wisteria (1919-1920) apart from Pompom hat (1880), The Train in the Snow. The Locomotive (1875) and London. Parliament. Reflections on the Thames (1905).
Monet’s work portrays his fondness for gardens, flowers and nature, at the same time show the production process of factories releasing a large amount of smoke into the air causing air pollution and health problems in his dark, fumed masterpieces.
The ethereal paintings that sparked the Impressionist movement analyse a dreamlike haze, smoke, soot in over a 100 works where the artist interpreted pollution. However, a recent analysis of his artworks done by the experts from the University of Paris and Harvard University suggest that air pollution is clearly visible and the objects in his paintings appear hazy. The pollution is reflected in white hues in the scenery. Experts from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a multidisciplinary scientific journal, observed that air pollution made an impression on Monet and many other 19th century painters, and that most of his artworks tell a tale of two modernising cities: London and Paris.
One of his outstanding pieces of artwork is The Train in the Snow. The Locomotive (1875), the train billowing black coal dust onto the winter-white countryside setting.
Another one is Portrait of Michel Monet Wearing a Hat with a Pompon (1880), a dark and sooty portrait of Monet’s son Michel, where he is depicted like an adorable chimney sweep. Reflections on the Thames (1905) depicts industrial-age smog and fog in London winter.
A series of artworks titled Water Lilies has over 250 oil paintings depicting the flower garden at his home in Giverny, which were the main focus of his artistic production. In fact, Water Lilies, Le Bassin aux Nymphéas was sold for $27 million in 2014, at Christie’s in New York City and in June 2014, another one was sold for $54 million at a Sotheby’s auction in London.
However, impressionism as a style captured fleeting impressions of light, dark and countryside using complementary colours. Among the founding Impressionist artists like Monet, the style of painting developed in France also include Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley and Edgar Degas, among others.
But since art engages with climate change and pollution, Monet’s paintings also have a global resonance. For this reason, his artworks have been vandalised by climate activists. Last year, his artworks were targeted inside a German museum and activists threw mashed potatoes on a glass-covered painting to draw attention to climate change. Again this year, two activists smeared red paint and glued their hands to the protective glass on a work titled, The Artist’s Garden at Giverny which was on display in an exhibition at Stockholm’s National Museum, Sweden.
