Monet said, let there be light, and there was light.

"The fog is not gray? How does this painter draw purple? Can he draw? " When Monet's Westminster Abbey was exhibited in London, it caused a storm. To many visitors, the painter seems to have made a common-sense mistake when mixing colors. With doubts, the visitors gradually left the venue, and people full of amazement walked on the streets of London and couldn't help looking up at the sky in London. Only then did they find that the fog in London was really purple. What's going on here? It turns out that in the industrial age, there were many chimneys in London, constantly spewing out dust particles with Mars. Under the sunlight, the fog in London naturally appears purple.

Monet has been chasing in the world of light and color all his life. He was born in an ordinary family in Paris, and his father ran a small business to support his family. His father wanted Monet to inherit the family grocery store when he grew up, but Monet was bent on becoming an artist. As early as three or four years old, Monet showed great talent in painting, and the walls and floors at home became places where he doodled. When he was a student, he preferred comics. In class, he didn't concentrate on listening and studying, but created exaggerated and funny cartoons based on the teachers and classmates in the classroom. By the time he was a teenager, Monet had become a famous cartoonist in Normandy, and selling cartoons became a way for him to earn income.

Monet himself once said half jokingly, "When 15 years old, people in le havre thought I was a satirist ... countless commissions made me make a bold decision that might damage my family's reputation: I began to collect money to paint portraits. I charge people between 10 and 20 francs according to their appearance. My customers doubled in a month. So I ordered 20, and no one bargained. If I go on, I may be a millionaire now. "

However, history does not want Monet to be a cartoonist after all. The encounter with eugene boudin seemed to open a new world for Monet. Monet began to contact oil painting and learn painting skills, and was influenced by the works of many artists in the Louvre. Following the process of eugene boudin's going out to sketch, Monet felt the charm of light and shadow. The smooth lines and blurred colors in eugene boudin's works have also brought important enlightenment to Monet, and the legend of Monet's light has just begun.

If eugene boudin has brought enlightenment to Monet's art, meeting like-minded friends and unique love will make Monet feel unprecedented spiritual touch and soul awakening. Knowing eugene boudin, Monet realized the numerous possibilities of art, and decided to return to his birthplace-artistic Paris, and formally study painting.

1862, Monet joined Charles Greer's studio in Paris, where he met Sisley, Basil and Renoir. Four high-spirited young painters no longer just stay in the studio. They often travel together and take easels to the Fontainebleau forest on the outskirts of Paris. When sketching outdoors, they rely on direct observation of nature and capture the light and shadow of nature with their eyes. They ignored the previous theories and indulged in oil painting under natural light, thus creating a brand-new artistic technique. Monet at this stage is always immersed in his own inspiration.

The most beautiful thing in life is to meet her along the way. 1865, Monet is 25 years old and Camille 18 years old. They met by the Seine because they had lunch on the grass. At that time, Camille was his model. Camille in the painting is gentle and demure, which fascinates young Monet, and Monet with artistic temperament also touches Camille's heart. Every artist has a muse in his heart, and Camille seems destined to be Monet's muse.

1866, the annual official salon in Paris was just around the corner, and Monet sent a large portrait of Camille as a model-a woman in green. Although the painting Monet was completed in only four days, it brought unprecedented praise to Monet. Although portraits are not uncommon, in the past, portraits were mostly about nobles, and the theme was the same. Camille, who came from an ordinary family in The Woman in Green, stood in an inconspicuous corner, dressed in ordinary clothes, standing sideways, her head leaning back slightly inadvertently, and the girl was fresh and beautiful. Monet seems to have found a brand-new portrait theme and distinctive portrait style for the times.

Although Monet and Camille are soul mates, they can't be understood and fulfilled by Monet's family. His father even cut off his financial support, because he could not accept and approve that a young girl was a model to marry Monet. In an instant, Monet changed from a talented painter to a poor and indebted youth. In order to avoid debt, Monet had to destroy his works. Because of financial difficulties, Monet could only scrape off the oil paints on the painting and reuse them, but all this failed to destroy their love. The light of Monet, because love is more gorgeous.

After that, Monet's economic situation has not been very good. 1867, Camille was pregnant and their first child was born, but they couldn't give her good nutrition. Monet even mentioned to Basil that they would probably starve to death if there were no bread sent by Renault. At that time, poverty seemed to be the epidemic of many artists, and many of them lived a life where they ate their last meal but didn't know where the next one was. But in such a difficult situation, Camille never left Monet, even when he once wanted to commit suicide, he still didn't leave him. Camille brought Monet hope and endless creative inspiration.

Monet's "Woman with an Umbrella", written in 1875, is full of dreamy light and shadow, and white clouds decorate the wonderful sky. Camille appears with an umbrella and a white gauze skirt, under which are colorful vegetation. Camille, like a lady who came out of a poem, is unforgettable. It is precisely because of this muse that Monet can create a steady stream of excellent works even if he is poor, even if he has to travel around in the face of war.

The story of a gifted scholar and a beautiful woman seems to have broken through secular prejudice and poverty, but it can't resist the fragility of life. After giving birth to two children, Camille's originally weak body was even more difficult to support, and she was ill in bed all day. During the ten years of ups and downs, Monet painstakingly painted The Red Scarf: A Portrait of Madame Monet. On a snowy winter day, the curtains at the window rolled up slightly, and Camille happened to pass by and glanced through the window. In the quiet picture, Camille's eyes are faintly sad, and her beautiful face is slightly weak and tired against the red scarf.

1In the early autumn of 879, Camille, who suffered from illness, passed away. In order to keep the light of his wife's life, Monet endured grief and painted The Last Camille. According to Monet's memory, "I instinctively studied the expressionless young face in front of my wife's bed, looking for the color brought by death, and observing the distribution and level changes of color. So I had an idea: I want to draw the last portrait of this relative who is about to leave me. " Monet's beloved woman spent the most difficult days with him without regrets, but missed the opportunity to share the future glory with him. Camille worked hard for Monet all her life. In order to make up for his wife, when he died, Monet hung a medal just redeemed from the pawnshop around his wife's neck, so that Camille would not be lonely in another world. The last painting Monet gave Camille was full of his nostalgia for his lover.

After Camille's death, Monet abandoned the outside world and chose the French town of giverny. Here, he fell in love with flowers, bridges, ponds and other seemingly ordinary scenery, and even created a beautiful garden himself. But in the face of the most common objects, Monet can still change with them and find that they are not the same beauty.

From 1890, Monet created dozens of haystacks, which seemed monotonous, but Monet discovered the changes of light in different periods. Whether in the mist in the morning, in the hot sun at noon, or at sunset, Monet can always find the color that belongs to the haystack. This pursuit of instant effect requires the painter to have super patience and keen observation, as well as a precise and delicate grasp of brush strokes. In the middle and late period of his painting career, Monet continued to be fascinated by the creation of series of works. In his later years, Monet not only designed and arranged his beloved garden, but also reserved this unique garden for the world with a brush.

Here, Monet created a series of widely circulated water lilies, and his observation of each lotus leaf and lotus flower can be described as ecstasy. At the end of 1900, Monet exhibited his painting 13 Water Lily for the first time. The water, weeping willows and blooming water lilies seem casual and relaxed, but they show the static beauty of the picture and the tenderness of water lilies to the fullest. After 1904, Monet's pond no longer has a Japanese arch bridge, but has more concise water lilies and deep pool water, creating extraordinary pond scenery. As the critics at that time said, "the light blue and dark blue water reflects the unpredictable water in the sky and pool shore, and the light water lilies and rich water lilies are in full bloom in the reflection."

Because of painting under strong light for a long time, the elderly Monet suffered from eye diseases in the last days of his life, but he still insisted on painting Water Lily of the Four Seasons day after day and year after year. Flowing seasons are like natural gifts. The flashing strokes and jumping colors in Water Lily of the Four Seasons not only record the objective changes of water lily, but also convey Monet's subjective feelings. Monet, like a poet of the times, experienced the ups and downs of life. His innate talent, accumulated techniques and perennial emotions are intertwined in this group of paintings.

Monet, a follower of light, has been painting and pursuing light all his life. For him, this seems to have become a belief. He stubbornly raced against light and liberated painting from the meaningful world. He spent his whole life trying to record more fleeting light, and every pursuit of light and shadow became a legend in his color career.