Painting by Monet "Soroka". Winter masterpiece from Etretat

Etretat - a small settlement on the coast of Normandy. In the days of Claude Monet was a fashionable aristocratic resort with a mild, cool climate in the summer. Monet with his wife and one-year-old son Jean spent 1868-1869 there and wrote, in addition to rocky landscapes, a small winter masterpiece. This is the famous painting by Monet "Soroka".

The circumstances of the artist's life at this time

Monet was going through a very difficult period. In Paris, his paintings were rejected by the jury of the Salon. None of the photographs of his works sent to the International Maritime Exhibition in Le Havre, attracted no attention. But worst of all, his canvases were confiscated by creditors. Painting Monet "Soroka" has not even been conceived by the artist.

His girlfriend Camille Donsier became pregnant in 1865, and in August 1867 she gave birth to Jean-Arman-Claude's son. Father Monet, a grocer, reluctantly reconciled himself to his chosen profession. However, he was categorically against his son's connection with Camilla and left them without material support. In Paris, the artist was helped little by little by friends, but the financial situation was so deplorable that before the birth of his son he attempted to commit suicide by rushing from the bridge to the Seine. Without money, he went to his father's house in Saint-Adress, leaving Camille alone in Paris. Monet settled with his aunt, who always supported him. To financial and family problems, a partial loss of vision was added, and he could not draw on the street.

Luck comes to hard

His position was partially changed when he met his patron, shipowner and collector Gaudibert (Gaudibert) of Le Havre. He ordered him three portraits and helped sell another picture. Finally, Monet had some money, and he went for Camille to Paris. Godibert helped him to rent a house in Etretat, where he and his family moved in October 1868, fully recovering from the depression. He wrote to a friend in Paris: "... Thanks to this gentleman from Le Havre who helped me, I enjoy the most perfect silence and tranquility, and I'm looking forward to the opportunity to do something worthwhile ...". Painting Monet "Soroka" was written in December 1868. The days were short, twilight, soft snow was falling ...

Monet Experiments

Winter plein air became a severe test for the artist. A piercing wet sea breeze was blowing, and Monet liked to experience various color effects arising on soft white snow. This meant that he completely changed the summer palette to white, gray, violet. In the countryside, Monet's "Soroka" was born. The artist found that he wants to draw not objects by themselves, but enveloping the air that touches them.

Claude Monet "Soroka": description of the painting

The place where the painter painted his "Soroka" is unknown. One can only assume that next to the house where his family lived. What is so good about the painting "Soroka"? Claude Monet illuminated it from the inside, from it emanates an incomprehensible light. The low winter sun is outside the image on the left. In the background, it can be assumed that either snow-covered fields or the sea are depicted. After a heavy snowfall, there is complete silence. Everything is quiet, nothing moves. If you mentally remove the magpie, then even then the picture will be beautiful, but the bird brings in it the movement of life: flew in, sat, shook her head and now will fly again. Magpie, the only living being, is the center of interest. The canvas is accentuated by several dark areas: a fence, gates, trunks of fruit trees and, finally, the bird itself, which sat on a grating slack gate as the only clean and piercing note on the musical camp.

Composition

Monet breaks it into two parts. Horizontally - fence and vertical - magpie in the far left corner.

Coloring

Impressionist friends already conducted experiments with images of shadows on white snow. Before them, it was customary to write shadows only in black. Monet picked up the new method and masterfully developed it. White snow is dominant, but what color range does Monet use to reveal its whiteness: yellow, red, violet, blue, blue shades! The warm colors of buildings contrast with the coolness of the roof and the blue shadows of the fence. This is one of the first cases when Monet used in the shadows the color that he observed in nature. Bluish snow covered the wattle cap with a hat, and beneath it lay deep blue shadows, but through them you can see individual spots of white snow. Monet, in addition, gives a lot of light and warmth to the sky behind the trees. The trees to the right of the gate are marked with strokes with a muted white color. The forty itself deserves special attention. It is indicated by only a few strokes. It can be seen that she is sitting, waiting, listening. Its contours are softened by smears of snow behind it. If you look closely, you can see its bluish shadow below in the snow.

This magnificent work is Soroka. The picture of Monet, whose description we gave, was rejected by Salon in 1869. Neither the critics nor the public took the beauty and lightness of the winter village landscape. They did not understand him, for they are used to something quite different. Now Soroka is an ornament of the Orsay Museum in Paris.